Medina Electric Cooperative held its 83rd annual membership meeting Saturday, September 24. Members and their guests gathered at Texas A&M International University in Laredo to partake in a breakfast buffet, enjoy the fellowship of friends and neighbors, hear an update on the business of the cooperative, and for a chance to win door prizes. At various booths throughout the banquet room, they also had the chance to learn about the co-op’s distributed generation offerings—solar and generators, lightbulb energy efficiency and to test their skills and knowledge in cooperative-themed challenges. In the parking lot after the meeting, co-op linemen presented a live line demonstration about electrical safety.
Members also had the option to watch a livestream of the meeting. The employees and directors of Medina EC extend their thanks to all who attended in person and watched online. Below is a brief recap of the meeting.
Election Results
District 1: Ken Weynand, uncontested
District 2: Jim Gates, 1,007 votes (declared) Chris Surles, 994
District 3: Annette Sorrells, uncontested
Eligible Voters: 20,373
Valid Votes: 2,001
Participation Rate: 9.8%
In-Person Attendance: 120
Zoom Viewership: 14
Total Memberships Represented: 134
You can watch Medina EC’s year-in-review video to learn more about the happenings of the co-op in the past year.
Business Meeting Highlights
In his first annual meeting as Medina EC’s CEO, Trey Grebe welcomed members in the room and online and introduced the cooperative’s year-in-review video, in which co-op management and other personnel provided updates on the business of the cooperative and the opportunities and challenges it faces.
Leonard Geyer, chief operations division officer, addressed Medina EC’s system growth, particularly the rapid development of the western part of the greater San Antonio area into the co-op’s service area. Keith Calle, chief engineering division officer, also spoke about infrastructure upgrades, specifically the replacement of all 34,000 of the co-op’s meters with advanced metering technology, which will help reduce the number of outages and reduce outage duration.
Laurie Van Damme, chief financial officer, presented highlights from Medina EC’s 2021 annual report, which shows the co-op to be in a strong financial position. “Since Medina continues to maintain a strong financial equity position, your board has retired $8.4 million in capital credits payments to you, our member-owners, in the past five years, which includes more than $2 million in 2021,” Van Damme said.
To close the video, Michael Harkins, business development coordinator, explained Medina EC’s solar power system and Generac generator sales services, and Jackie Muennink, communications supervisor, described the co-op’s contributions to the communities it serves, including employee volunteerism, monetary donations and grants to community organizations.
Employees were recognized for reaching service milestones, marked in five-year increments, in 2022. “Our employees and their dedication are a huge part of what makes electric service with the cooperative different than buying power from an investor-owned utility. As a member-owner, you are the reason we are here,” Grebe said in his closing remarks. “I want to again thank you for taking the time to be here today. Cooperatives are better when members take an active role in them, and you have done that by attending or logging on this morning.”
