From the corner of the board room

As we move into 2020, we want our mem­ber­ship to be more informed than ever before on our pur­pose as a coop­er­a­tive and your role as mem­bers. Please allow me to take a minute to intro­duce myself on behalf of YEC’s Board of Trustees, who are hon­ored to con­tin­ue serv­ing you. My name is Jack Corn­well. I rep­re­sent Dis­trict 2 on your board and cur­rent­ly serve as chair­man. I am hap­py to share insight from the board room, as well as a review of your co-op’s 2019 accom­plish­ments.

As board mem­bers, we spend a great deal of time each month study­ing reports and ana­lyz­ing the best way to con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing excel­lent ser­vice. This includes sev­er­al types of train­ing ses­sions so that we may bet­ter under­stand the jobs of YEC employ­ees and how we can best sup­port them in their mis­sion to take care of our mem­bers. For 2019, this includ­ed six dif­fer­ent in-house train­ing ses­sions, giv­ing us more details about what goes on day-to-day at your co-op. We received reports from employ­ees and indus­try experts, began work on our strate­gic plan for the next five years, and reviewed 58 com­pa­ny poli­cies, hold­ing true to our pledge to look out for you.

Each month, we study safe­ty reports, approve finan­cial doc­u­ments, and pro­vide direc­tion, vision and approval for eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment projects. We plan for future growth and goals for improve­ment and review and sug­gest bylaw changes to pro­tect mem­bers’ rights. We strate­gize our debt to best serve our mem­bers. We also work togeth­er to make your co-op a gold stan­dard for gov­er­nance by review­ing our com­pli­ance with the new South Car­oli­na leg­is­la­tion. Addi­tion­al­ly, we com­plet­ed a risk assess­ment of your co-op to be bet­ter pre­pared against poten­tial threats.

Just this past year, we com­plet­ed YEC’s 2019 accomplishments—no small feat. We spent a great deal of time review­ing, dis­cussing and research­ing the sale of San­tee Coop­er to ensure that your pow­er costs stay low and that YEC mem­bers are pro­tect­ed. We worked to com­plete two audits to take a deep dive into your coop­er­a­tive’s finan­cials, help­ing to keep costs low. These audits includ­ed one by an inde­pen­dent audi­tor, who reviewed all our finan­cials, includ­ing cash flow, with your board with­out any employ­ees present. There was also a Rur­al Util­i­ty Ser­vices audit of over $72 mil­lion worth of pow­er line con­struc­tion and upgrades. We are pleased to report both audits were suc­cess­ful and that your co-op is in excel­lent finan­cial shape. Audits also help us make an informed deci­sion on how much mon­ey can be returned to you through cap­i­tal cred­its.

Chart­ing YEC growth over 15 years

York Elec­tric’s ser­vice ter­ri­to­ry con­tin­ues to be one of the fastest-grow­ing areas in the Unit­ed States. Let’s look back to see how YEC has grown over 15 years:

Data	2003	2018	Change
Miles of under­ground line	445	1,938	+336%
Miles of over­head line	1,959	1,998	+2%
Res­i­den­tial meters	32,892	60,303	+83.4%
Com­mer­cial and indus­tri­al meters	2,613	4,687	+79%
Cap­i­tal cred­its	$900,000	$1,400,000	+64.3%

This year was the first time in YEC’s his­to­ry we have com­plet­ed two retire­ments in one year, giv­ing back $3 mil­lion to our mem­bers. This could not be pos­si­ble with­out the sup­port of our ded­i­cat­ed employ­ees and the con­tin­ued sup­port from our mem­bers. Togeth­er, we have giv­en back more than $3 mil­lion dol­lars to our com­mu­ni­ty through our Oper­a­tion Round Up Trust. We worked to improve com­mu­ni­ca­tion and the trans­paren­cy of our busi­ness while improv­ing the qual­i­ty of life in our area.

Thank you for allow­ing us to serve you and make a dif­fer­ence. Please let us know if you need any­thing. We’ll be in the board room work­ing for you.

 

 

 

Jack Corn­well
Chair­man, Dis­trict 2