CEO’s Message: The More You Know
Most people like to have all the important information before making a decision. We want to ensure a thorough inspection has been done before we buy a house, that we’ve done our research on the make and model before buying a new vehicle, and that we understand what goes into the food we buy for our families.
A little honesty and open communication can go a long way. It’s one of the pillars of the cooperative model that makes it work so well. We are a part of this community just like the people we serve. When there’s a decision to be made, we ask ourselves what is best for the co-op and our consumer- members. When we bring in more money than we need to keep our co-op financially strong, it is returned to you as retired capital credits. We don’t operate for profit or have a group of far-flung investors to make us happy, so our consumer members can rest assured that theirs is the loudest voice we hear.
One of the most important ways for you to make that voice heard is at our annual meeting. It’s always been an opportunity for our membership to come together as a community, learn about what Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative has been doing, and speak to cooperative leaders about your needs as a consumer member.
This year, there’s certainly a lot to share. We began construction of a fiber network that will not only transform our electric system but also provide high-speed internet service to our consumer members. We connected the first customers to fiber-to-the-home service. We felt the full force of Hurricane Idalia and still managed to restore power to the vast majority of our members in just eight days.
We also continued to provide support for local students through member-driven programs like Operation Round Up® and scholarships for graduating seniors, all while returning more than $1 million in capital credits to our consumer members.
Those are just a few of the highlights we were able to accomplish together as a cooperative family in 2023. You can read about more in this newsletter, not to mention see some photos from this year’s Tallahassee Youth Tour. Our students represented SVEC wonderfully in the state’s capital, helping to set the tone for another great year in 2024.
I hope as you look through a few of our cooperative’s many accomplishments over the last year, you’ll feel as proud as I am of everything we’ve been able to do together. 2023 certainly wasn’t without its challenges, but through them, we witnessed the strength of our co-op. I can’t wait to see all the ways we will continue to grow and achieve even more throughout the remainder of this year.
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