CEO’s Message: Friendly Faces
April 2023By Michael S. McWaters, Executive V.P./CEO
It takes a lot of people to keep an electric cooperative running. There are engineers to map out where the system is going, warehouse staff to make sure we have the equipment to get there and line crews who raise the poles and put everything back together after a storm hits.
Then you have the board of trustees making the big decisions about what should come next for Suwannee Valley Electric, our leadership team that figures out how we get there and the financial team that makes sure we have the money to do it. Not to mention dispatchers, mechanics and so many others who do their parts to bring our consumer-members the safe, affordable and reliable electric service they count on.
But for all the work that goes on, there are many people who will see very little of it. Plenty of consumer- members won’t need to talk to an engineer or get into the details of revenue and losses with our accountants. In fact, for most people the face of the cooperative comes down to just one group — member services.
That’s a lot of responsibility for our member service representatives and cashiers to carry. But I think anyone who has ever done business with them will agree they take that challenge on with skill and grace. They take pride in representing the cooperative to the public and working each day to help our consumer-members answer whatever questions they might have so they can get on with their lives.
So this month, we’d like to take a moment to put the spotlight on everyone on the member services team. You can read more about them and their work to make doing business with SVEC easy and enjoyable. I’d like to thank all of them for being such wonderful representatives of our cooperative.
You can also learn more about the Shoe and Clothing Drive SVEC held in March and all the good those donations will do for the homeless population right here in our area. We’re also excited to announce the return of a local favorite, The Suwannee Valley Cornhole Tournament.
The competition is back for its sixth year and we cannot wait to host all of you, whether you want to come play for fun or fight it out for first place. As usual, all proceeds will go to support United Way of Suwannee Valley, so we look forward to surpassing our donation from last year.
It’s just another way we give back to the community we serve. We were built by the people who call the Suwannee Valley home, and we continue to be owned and run by the them. It is our privilege to serve this community every day, and we will never take it for granted.
