Quality time with members highlights my first Annual Meeting as CEO

OTHER THAN A BRIEFvisit a couple of years ago, March 29 was my first experience at a Santee Electric Cooperative Annual Meeting. We were blessed with wonderful weather and a fantastic turnout -- 4,332 members were registered in attendance.

Spending quality time with members gave me a chance to hear your concerns, discuss our goals as a cooperative and, together, focus on our top priority here at SEC - how we can continually improve your service.

My fellow SEC employees - dozens of whom have handled many such meetings -- did a wonderful job with our 76th. You could say that our 'Spirit of 76' showed when employees Jerry Boozer and Everett Tomlin sang 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' I know you are supposed to look at the flag during the National Anthem, but it was hard not to focus on them. So talented!

If you weren't able to attend, you missed out on a lot of fun and fellowship, mixed with the serious business co-ops handle at every meeting, such as the Board of Trustees elections. Congratulations are in order for Raymond Fulton, Allen Nesmith and Stanley Pasley, who were re-elected for three-year terms. We also approved some bylaw changes, which we highlight in previous editions ofSouth Carolina Living.

I also took a minute to thank members for their support after fall's floods. As I noted, the people of our service territory band together and reach out to one another and lift their fellow man up and out of this terrible situation.

Let's keep that spirit alive - until we meet again, next spring.

Robert G. Ardis III
President and Chief Executive 0fficer