The Annual Meeting of the Membership of Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative Inc. was Saturday, April 28, at the Suwannee County Agricultural Coliseum in Live Oak, Florida. Hugh Hunter, president of the board of trustees, called the meeting to order at 10 a.m. Prior to the beginning of the meeting, registration opened at 8:30 a.m., and members played bingo. Russell Summers gave the invocation and also led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Hunter welcomed and thanked all members present. Hunter then called on Mike McWaters, executive vice president/CEO, to introduce the guests and trustees. McWaters thanked Summers and made the introduction. McWaters called on 2017 Youth Tour participant Riley Boss to address the membership. McWaters then called on Tyler Putnal, secretary of the board of trustees, to announce the quorum. Putnal announced that a quorum was present. Putnal moved to dispense with the reading of the official notice and the minutes of the 2017 meeting, since members received them in the March 2018 newsletter. There was a second, and the motion carried. The minutes were then approved as presented.
Putnal then introduced Tim Steichen, treasurer, to present the treasurer’s report. Steichen presented a report to the members using data from the 2017 Annual Audit and Operating Report.
Steichen then called on McWaters to introduce the guest speaker. McWaters introduced Lisa Johnson, Seminole Electric Cooperative CEO. McWaters then gave the manager’s report and spoke about the reliability of SVEC’s system. McWaters then called upon Josh Crapps, attorney for the board, to conduct the business session of the meeting.
Crapps called for the election of trustees. Crapps reported that meetings were held at the district level for Districts 4, 5 and 6. Crapps placed in nomination those trustees nominated at the district meetings: District 4 — Tyler Putnal; District 5 — Sidney Lord; and District 6 — Andy Walker. There was a motion and a second to elect Putnal, Lord and Walker members of the board of trustees by unanimous ballot because there were no other nominations from their districts. The motion carried, and the attendees elected Putnal, Lord and Walker to the board.
Crapps then called for any old business to be brought before the membership. Hearing none, Crapps then called for any new business. Hearing none, Crapps concluded the business portion of the meeting.
The next order of business was the drawing for the prizes, which Tim Steichen and Hunter conducted with assistance from Suwannee Valley Electric employees.
With no further business to come before the members, Hunter adjourned the meeting at 10:45 a.m.