1051 Eastside Hwy PO Box 190 Corvallis, MT 59828

February

2018

REC POWER LINES

Ravalli Electric Co-op, serving the Bitterroot Valley since 1936

Follow us on Facebook:facebook.com/ravallielectric www.ravallielectric.com

Phone: 406-961-3001 Fax: 406-961-3230

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Warming Tree Success

Once again we were overwhelmed by the generosity and support from our employees, members of the co-op, and many others in our effort to help keep our community warm this winter. The Warming Tree collected over 450 donations which were distributed to those in need throughout the Bitterroot Valley. From all of us at REC, we thank you for helping us make this endeavor a success.

03 NOTICE OF 2018 ANNUAL MEETING

04-5 ANNUAL MEETING

MINUTES 2017

06 WATT’S UP

LUCK OF THE DRAW SCHOLARSHIPS NOTICE

NOTICE OF REC ANNUAL MEETING 2018

It’s that time of year again; Ravall Electric Co-op is gearing up for the 2018 Annual Meeting, which will be held on Saturday, March 17th at 10:30 a.m. in the Corvallis High School Gymnasium.

The annual meeting is designed to take care of the important busi-ness of your co-op and the equally important business of building a real sense of community. All cooperatives serve both an economic and social purpose. While safe, reliable and affordable electric power is crucial to our mission, improving the quality of life for all members is at the core of what we do every day. If you have not attended the annual meeting in the past or if it has been a few years, we urge you to take the time to be with your fellow co-op members.

In this issue you can review the meeting minutes from the 2017 An-nual Meeting. We get out of life what we put into it. Ravalli Electric Co-op is connected to you by more than just powerlines. We are your neighbors, and we look forward to seeing you at your annual meeting.

RAVALLI COUNTY ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC. 2017 ANNUAL MEETING OF MEMBERS MINUTES:

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The Annual Meeting of Members of the Ravalli County Electric Cooperative, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as the “Cooperative” or the “Co-op”) was held at the high school gymnasium in Corvallis, Montana on March 18th, 2017 at 10:30 a.m.

Following the Pledge of Allegiance lead by Trustee Wayne Olson and an Invocation by Trustee Bob Popham, Board President

Larry Trexler welcomed the Members to their 82nd Annual Meeting, and expressed thanks and appreciation to the Members on behalf of the Board of Trustees for attending the meeting. He also congratu-lated the Members on their cooperation and participation in the business affairs of the Cooperative and introduced a number of guests attending the meeting. Board President Trexler (from District 6) next introduced the Board of Trustees: Dennis Schneiter (Trustee from District 1); Wayne Olson (Trustee from District 2) Robert Bai-ley (Trustee from District 3); Bob Popham (Secretary/Treasurer Trustee from District 4) Larry Trexler (President and Trustee from District 6); Brien Weber (Trustee District 5); and Rex Griffin (Vice President and Trustee from District 7).

President Trexler then called for the Auditor’s Report, which was presented by the Cooperative’s independent auditor, Brian Van Steeland of the accounting firm of Summers, McNea & Co. Mr. Steeland directed the Members to the 12/31/16 “Financial Report” contained in the Notice of Annual Meeting. He pointed out that the utility plant in service was now valued (before depreciation) at approximately $44,148,182 with an additional $158,715 in “construction work in progress”.

The “net utility plant,” after consideration of depreciation, exceeded over $22,706,640 and other “property and investments” totaled $1,458,704.

Mr. Steeland then reviewed with the Membership the status of liabilities for the Co-op at year-end 2016; the equity of the Co-op is approximately 45.7 %. He also noted that REC members received $517,560 in General Retirements and $138,530 in Special Retirements for a total of $656,090 in Capital Credit distributions in 2016.

He next reviewed the Statement of Opera-tions, total revenues were $13,756,876 with total expenses for 2016 of $13,181,363. The biggest single expense to REC is purchased power from Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) which is $6,022,206. Mr. Steeland noted that the Co-op had a good year and was financially strong.

President Trexler reported REC has had another successful year with good margins. For 2017, the co-op is planning to retire the oldest outstanding years as we have in the past but will also retire a portion of the newest year (2016) and the General Retirement member recipients were a combination of new and life-long members. Employee milestones were announced: Cin-dy Harper 25 years of service, Dan Kratofil 25 years of service, and Jeff Huls 30 years of service. REC now has a dedicated tree-trimming crew working to reduce outages and increase reliability. President Trexler urged the membership to look to REC’s use of technology while highlighting the web-site, Facebook and Smart Hub as means to keep informed. REC staff was available to assist members in accessing information.

Mark Grotbo welcomed all to REC’s 82nd Annual Meeting and pointed out that REC’s 2016 margins are at $811, 045 and expenses were less than budgeted. Mr. Grotbo spoke of upcoming changes. There are 915 Co-ops in nation and in the next 4 years, 46 General Managers will be eli-gible for retirement. REC’s contract with Bonneville Power Association (BPA) is not changing, BPA is vastly hydro power which is on demand and carbon free. BPA is a great business partner, they are on a 2 year rate cycle. BPA will pass a Rate Increase on to the co-op in the fall of 2017. Ravalli Electric will implement a 6% rate increase which residential members will see in July. Even with the necessary rate increase we are still 17% less than the other electric utility in the valley.

Mr. Grotbo stated REC is more than a utility, REC is a community partner and discussed a few of the highlights from 2016. REC hosted several safety training events for local volunteer groups and schools, pro-vided electrical safety demonstrations, past scholarship programs and is giving $12,000 in scholarships during today’s meeting,

sponsored a trip to Washington DC, Valley Solar sold-out of 176 panels, $124,000 was given back in energy incentives to promote conservation, a Warming Tree was created during the holidays and donations were given to the local Ravalli Head Start and Safe House. REC has exceeded 10 years without a lost time accident.

Every year REC donates to small local entities and staff is involved in volunteering through-out the valley at various community events. REC was deemed Ravalli County Business of the year by the Bitterroot Chamber of Com-merce.

REC is experiencing growth and change. In 2016 REC’s Board of Directors and Senior Man-agement met for a Strategic Planning session during which there was agreement on long term goals, to protect the future of REC. Mr. Grotbo presented a slide show with pictures of the co-op ranging from 1954 through today. Challenges presented with the REC facility op-erating at maximum capacity were discussed with renovating the current facility vs. reloca-tion in mind. The decision was made by the Board of Directors to research available prop-erties and based on certain criteria, over 34 properties were evaluated. On January 31st, 2016 REC purchased property on the corner of Bell Xing and Highway 93 with the plans to move forward to relocate the general office and warehouse in the near future. Grotbo restated REC’s mission statement which states “The mission of Ravalli County Electric Co-op is to meet a changing membership’s need for reliable electric service and innovative energy solutions that are cost-based and affordable”. Overall, Mr. Grotbo emphasized that the Co-op is in excellent financial shape and necessary efforts are underway to plan for future chal-lenges. He stated it is his pleasure to serve as Ravalli Electric Co-op’s General Manager.

Mr. Grotbo opened the floor to address questions from the Membership. There were several questions regarding the purchase of the land on Bell Xing, the future home of REC and alternative energy. Mr. Grotbo stated that information transparency is essential and urged members to contact REC with questions and continue to visit REC’s website for the most current information.

President Trexler pointed out that the electri-cal industry is constantly changing and the

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Co-op is proactively meeting the chal-lenges and REC will continue to strive to provide information and keep the mem-bership as informed as possible. He then reiterated that the Co-op has a Facebook page, website and Smart Hub as means of communication for both the membership and the Co-op. He thanked everyone for coming and announced that Vice President Rex Griffin would conduct the Business Meeting.

Vice President Griffin called the business portion of the meeting to order and stated that the General Manager of the Coop-erative, arranged for the Minutes of the meeting to be kept by Leslie McAffee. The meeting Chairman announced a list had been prepared of the Members present at the meeting. That list is attached hereto as Exhibit “A” and by this reference has been made a part of these Minutes. The Members present constituted more than a quorum of the Cooperative, a quorum being 50 Members or 5% of the Membership, whichever is the lesser. The total Coopera-tive Membership was 8254 Members as of March 3rd, 2017 (the date of mailing of the Notice of Annual Meeting); 226 Members were counted as being present at the meet-ing. The Meeting Chairman reported that at a regular meeting (2/24/17) of the Board of Trustees, held prior to the giving of the Notice of the Annual Meeting of Mem-bers, all applicants for Membership in the Cooperative had fulfilled all requirements therefore were receiving service from the Cooperative, and had been accepted as Members. Thus, the quorum requirements for the meeting were met.

The Chairman then referenced a copy of the Notice of Meeting, which is attached hereto as Exhibit “B,” as well referenced a “Certificate” and “Affidavit of Mailing” (both attached hereto as Exhibit “C”), confirming mailing of the Annual Report and Notice of Meeting to each and every Member of the Cooperative as of the date of mailing. Upon motion duly made, seconded, and carried it was ordered that the Certificate, Affidavit, and Notice of Meeting be annexed to the Minutes of the Meeting. Discussion of the intended Agenda for the meeting was also presented and after a motion duly made and seconded, the Membership approved the meeting Agenda.

The Financial Report for the year-ending December 31st, 2016, contained in the Annual Report and Notice of Meeting was pointed out to the Members. A motion was made, seconded, and carried that the Finan-cial Report be approved and ordered to be filed in the records of the Cooperative.

The Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Members of the Cooperative held on March 19th, 2016 were made available to all Members attending the meeting. In ad-dition, they appeared in the February 2017 Rural Montana Magazine which was sent to all Members. A motion was then made, seconded, and carried that the Minutes of the 2016 Annual Meeting be approved and entered in the records of the Cooperative.

The Meeting Chairman announced that the next order of business was the election of Trustees from Districts 2, 4 and 6, with each to serve for a term of 3 years. The Members’ attention was directed by the Meeting Chairman to the maps and definitions of the districts provided to the Members. By-law provisions relating to the qualifications for a Member of the Board of Trustees and the procedures for their nomination and election were then generally referenced, and the same were also shown on the screen at the meeting.

Thereafter, nominations were opened for District 2 Trustee, and nominations were then made for District 2 Trustee, Wayne Olson and Brad Smith were nominated. No further nominations were forthcoming, and a motion was made, seconded, and unani-mously carried that the Trustee nomina-tions for District 2 be closed. Nominations for District 4 were opened for District 4 Trustee, and nominations were then made for District 4 Trustee, Bob Popham was nominated. No further nominations were forthcoming, and a motion was made, seconded, and unanimously carried that the Trustee nominations for District 4 be closed.

Nominations for District 6 were opened for District 6 Trustee, and nominations were then made for District 6 Trustee, Larry Trexler was nominated. No further nomina-tions were forthcoming, and a motion was made, seconded, and unanimously carried that the Trustee nominations for District 6 be closed.

The Business Meeting was passed to Alex Beal, REC’s Corporate Attorney. Board candidates each confirmed that they met the Bylaw requirements to serve as a Board Member.

Each candidate was given an opportunity to briefly present his other qualifications. The election of the Trustee from District 2 (Wayne Olson and Brad Smith) was called for, Mr. Smith was not present, nomination for Brad Smith was withdrawn, District 4 (Bob Popham) and District 6 (Larry Trexler). District 2, 4 & 6 acclamation motioned and seconded all in favor of acclamation, a mo-tion was made, seconded, and unanimously carried.

Trustee Dennis Schneiter announced the Youth Tour Winner for 2017 – Morgan Keller of Hamilton High School. He also introduced last year’s Winner, Savanah Bickish of Hamilton (homeschooled). Miss Bickish spoke to the Membership about her experiences as the Youth Tour Winner and expressed gratitude for the experience.

Thereafter, qualified high school senior candidates for 12 Co-op scholarships were presented to the Membership, those ran-domly selected one each from 5 valley high schools and seven at large were presented with a scholarship of $1,000 each, by em-ployees Jim Maunder and Marsha Draper, and Trustee Bob Bailey. Trustees Bob Pop-ham, Wayne Olson and Brien Weber then supervised the awarding of door prizes to those members attending the meeting. One Grand Prize winner was awarded a $500 bill credit certificate from the Co-op.

There were no additional ballot issues. There was no old or new business for con-sideration; the Membership offered none; and upon motion the meeting was then adjourned.

[Note: Exhibits mentioned in the Unap-proved 2017 Annual Minutes are available at the Cooperative office upon request.]

Dated: 3/18/2017

Larry Trexler, Presdient

APPROVED:

Bob Popham Secretary

Find the Hidden NumberWe will hide three account numbers this month in our REC pages. If you find your account number call the office at 961-3001 by the 20th of the magazine month and you get a $30 credit on your electric bill.

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LARRY TREXLER PresidentREX GRIFFIN Vice PresidentBOB POPHAM Secretary/TreasurerBOB BAILEY Trustee

BRIEN WEBER TrusteeWAYNE OLSONTrusteeDENNIS SCHNEITER Trustee

Board Directors

WATTS UP?

FEB

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MARCH

ATTENTION H.S. SENIORS Ravalli Electric is giving away twelve $1,000 scholarships at the REC Annual Meeting. All you need to do is fill out an application and the rest is pure luck of the draw! We will ran-domly draw 12 names from the applicant pool to receive the scholarships. Students must be present to win.

Scholarship Deadline:Ravalli Electric’s “Luck of the Draw” Scholarship: March 2, 2018

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