Gone fishin’, among other things

Paul Basha poses with his dogFor a guy, who grew up in Mt. Pleas­ant with a love of the water, and who put him­self through school by work­ing on a char­ter boat, you’d assume I’d be most excit­ed about more time to fish in retire­ment. Real­ly, I’m most excit­ed to devote more time to help­ing oth­ers. This may include the home­less and wid­ows, but real­ly it may be any­thing my Lord has in mind and lays on my heart.

It’s hard to put a bow on a 35-year career, espe­cial­ly when I can gen­uine­ly say I’ve enjoyed com­ing to work each day. First, I want to express my heart­felt thanks to those who have helped me through­out my time here at York Electric—my Lord and Sav­ior, Jesus, my lov­ing and sup­port­ive fam­i­ly, YEC employ­ees and the great com­mu­ni­ty we all share.

I’m grate­ful to the Board for believ­ing in a 37-year-old employ­ee. I recent­ly reread an arti­cle cov­ered by The Her­ald when I was appoint­ed to be CEO in 2003, when we had only 18,500 mem­bers and $25 mil­lion in rev­enue. God and fam­i­ly were my top pri­or­i­ties, along with invest­ing in our local econ­o­my and com­mu­ni­ty. We’ve since grown to be the 5th largest coop­er­a­tive in South Car­oli­na with near­ly 70,000 mem­bers and $140 mil­lion in rev­enue. Through this growth, my pri­or­i­ties list­ed then, which align with those at your co-op, remain true. Sim­ply put, ser­vice above self. This mantra has allowed us to serve you—our members—well.

Speak­ing of changes, we might face obsta­cles in our future as a coop­er­a­tive. Pow­er costs con­tin­ue to rise and the need for more elec­tric gen­er­a­tion is a chal­lenge. Those who remem­ber when we first cut the lights on are no longer here to advo­cate for the coop­er­a­tive way. Only by work­ing togeth­er and pro­tect­ing the coop­er­a­tive busi­ness mod­el and each oth­er will we be able to con­tin­ue to serve mem­bers with excel­lence, take care of our employ­ees the way we have for 83 years and main­tain our excel­lent coop­er­a­tive rep­u­ta­tion.

Our employ­ees exem­pli­fy this team­work every day. I am pro­found­ly grate­ful for their grace, for the count­less lessons I’ve gleaned from so many and for the priv­i­lege of serv­ing along­side them through­out my career. It’s through their unwa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion and pas­sion, both for our mem­bers and for one anoth­er, that we’ve earned the rep­u­ta­tion of being the best co-op, not just in our state, but I would say in the entire coun­try.

As Craig Spencer assumes the respon­si­bil­i­ty of Pres­i­dent and CEO of YEC, I know your co-op is in good hands, where reli­able and safe ser­vice, rea­son­able rates and a mem­bers-first men­tal­i­ty will be car­ried on.

It has been an absolute hon­or. It’s not good­bye. You’ll see me around.

Paul Basha signature
PAUL BASHA
Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Office