West Florida Electric Holds 87th Annual Meeting/Member Appreciation Day

West Florida Electric Cooperative (WFEC) held its Annual Meeting/Member Appreciation Day on Saturday, April 27. Attendees were greeted by a large American Flag suspended between two bucket trucks when they entered the grounds of the Graceville Civic Center. Booths ranging from health screenings to pole climbing by WFEC linemen, and touch-a-truck displays were some of the main attractions for members. The co-op also provided valuable information about electrical safety, surge protection, EVs and more. Entertainment was provided by Swiftwater a bluegrass group from Altha, Florida.

The meeting started with prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem sung by Gerald Webb of Swiftwater, and the colors were presented by Vernon High School JROTC students. This was followed by an address to the members by Shawn Walling, Executive Vice President & CEO of WFEC. Walling took time to recognize the cooperative’s membership saying “I want to thank you, the members, for understanding that sometimes to do something ‘safely’ it will take a little longer. This can stretch the length of outages. We want to get the lights on as quickly as possible, but we also have the goal of ‘everyone goes home every day.’ This translates to nobody gets hurt.”

“I am very proud to be a part of the West Florida Electric Family. It is great to know that we at WFEC work for those we serve. I take great pride in working for a foundational business in this area. I say foundational because ‘If WFEC is not doing our job well, the rest of the economy doesn’t work.’ I am proud to be a part of this organization where the membership’s needs are put first. I look forward to the next annual meeting where we will be able to say again: West Florida Electric is doing everything we can to meet our goals of providing safe, reliable, and affordable electricity to our member-owners,” he continued.

During the business meeting, the results of this year’s District 7, 8 and 9 elections were announced to the members. Those results were:

District 7:

Randy Bush - unopposed

District 8:

Joe E. Rone – 1,526 votes

Melissa “Misty” Erickson – 1,751 votes

District 9:

Myron Hudson – 1,610 votes

Jerry Eldridge – 1,039 votes

Jeremy Rolling – 615 votes

This year, members had the option to approve minutes from the 2023 annual meeting on the mail ballot. Those minutes and board actions were approved with a vote of 2,897 members approving and 146 disapproving. The two winners of the $250 bill credits for voting in this year’s election are Austin and Ashland Goff and Betty Ard.

As a member-owned, not-for-profit cooperative, WFEC is a democratic organization controlled by its members, who actively participate in setting policy and making decisions. The elected representatives are elected by the members and accountable to them. Members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote). The elections were overseen and conducted by Carr, Riggs & Ingram, CPAs and Advisors.

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