Lucas McFad­den:

Wel­come to York Elec­tric Cooperative’s 83rd Annu­al Meet­ing, May the FOURTH be with you.

I’m Lucas Sky­walk­er – I mean McFad­den. Sor­ry, that hap­pens every May the Fourth. Shout out to all of our Star Wars fans out there.

Thank you so much for join­ing us. I am the anchor for CN2 as well as co-host of WHRI’s Pal­met­to Morn­ings. You can lis­ten to us week­ly, Mon­day through Fri­day, 6 to 9am on FM 100.1, stick around and watch us on CN2 or also on all of your favorite social media chan­nels. So click, like, sub­scribe so you can find out what’s going on local­ly right here in your home town.

We are hap­py to join you vir­tu­al­ly to update you on your coop­er­a­tive.

At this time, YEC mem­ber and SC House Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tom­my Pope, will offer our invo­ca­tion. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Pope.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Pope: 

Thank you, sir. Let’s go to the Lord in prayer. Heav­en­ly father, we thank you for these oppor­tu­ni­ties today. Thank you for this coun­try, the free­doms you’ve giv­en us. Father lay your hand on all the mem­bers of the co-op, all the mem­bers of the board, the staff. Keep them safe, give them peace. Give us your wis­dom, Father, as they make their deci­sions today. Keep all the work­ers safe here, Father, as they go about tak­ing care of us, our com­mu­ni­ties and our fam­i­lies. Thank you for our bless­ings, our coun­ty, our oppor­tu­ni­ties. All these things we ask of you in Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.

I also have a small, spe­cial pre­sen­ta­tion. We’ve also got a num­ber of house mem­bers, if you’d like to step up, gen­tle­men. Mr. Basha, will you join us, please? 

He doesn’t look near sur­prised enough.

Paul Basha: Oh, I’m very sur­prised. 

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Pope: 

Mr. Basha, on behalf of the Gov­er­nor of the state of SC, it’s our hon­or as mem­bers of the leg­is­la­tion to rep­re­sent the gov­er­nor and present you with The Order of Pal­met­to. Our del­e­ga­tion mem­bers got togeth­er, as did some very good friends of yours, and applied to the Governor’s office. I know it has been my hon­or over the years to hand out a num­ber of these under var­i­ous gov­er­nors. I will note that Gov­er­nor McMas­ter actu­al­ly let your name be big­ger than his name, which I think is a sign of his humil­i­ty and com­fort in the posi­tion he’s in. But Paul, you, you’ve been a great asset. You’ve been an asset and friend in this com­mu­ni­ty, to the co-op and to the state of South Car­oli­na. I don’t know who you’re going to give my num­ber to when you want some­thing done in Colum­bia, but I look for­ward to hear­ing from you and whomev­er you choose. 

Paul Basha:

Thank you, thank you, thank you very much, y’all. I am total­ly sur­prised. I don’t know if you know this, but this is like the biggest civil­ian award you can get in South Car­oli­na and I do not deserve it, but I’m just, I don’t have any­thing to say. Just thank the Lord and my fam­i­ly and these employ­ees here who make it all pos­si­ble and I’ll nev­er for­get this day. Thank you very much. 

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Pope:

I bet you could put it on your dash so you can get out of traf­fic tick­ets, but I think that would fade. So I’d prob­a­bly take it home. 

Paul Basha:

Haha. Do I get a license plate? Thank you all again. 

Lucas McFad­den:

Oh, my good­ness. Well, con­grat­u­la­tions. And that is cor­rect, Paul is right. That is the high­est hon­or a civil­ian can receive here in South Car­oli­na is the order of the con­duct of job well done, Paul.

And thank you so much again for rep­re­sen­ta­tive, the oth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tives here with us today. Well, now YEC board mem­ber, Rick Sadler will join us in the pledge of alle­giance,

Rick Sadler: 

I pledge alle­giance to the flag of the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca. And to the Repub­lic for which it stands, one nation under God, indi­vis­i­ble, with lib­er­ty and jus­tice for all.

Lucas McFad­den:

Thank you, Mr. Sadler. 

And now I would like to intro­duce YEC Board Chair­man, Tom Set­tle­myre.

Tom Set­tle­myre:

I’d like to offi­cial­ly call the 2024 Annu­al Meet­ing of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive to order.

YEC has cer­ti­fied proof 60,369 indi­vid­ual reg­is­tra­tion cards were mailed to invite its mem­ber­ship 

to the 2024 Annu­al Meet­ing.

The total num­ber of reg­is­tered mem­bers for the 2024 annu­al meet­ing has been record­ed as 5,354.

The required quo­rum to host the meet­ing is 3,022 which has been met with the num­ber of mem­bers present.

We also have an action item to approve the 2023 annu­al meet­ing min­utes. Are there any objec­tions to approv­ing the min­utes? 

Hear­ing none, the 2023 annu­al meet­ing min­utes are approved as pre­sent­ed.

Now, YEC’s Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, Paul Basha, will pro­vide a report on your coop­er­a­tive.

On behalf of the Board of Direc­tors, we would like to thank Paul for his tire­less ser­vice for our mem­bers and con­grat­u­late him on a job well done as he wel­comes his retire­ment in June.

Paul Basha:

Thank you, Chair­man Set­tle­myre.

I would like to thank every­one who came out this year to our dri­ve-thru Annu­al Meet­ings cel­e­brat­ing 83 years of serv­ing you.

For the sec­ond time, we host­ed an addi­tion­al loca­tion in Fort Mill where we were able to reg­is­ter 1,363 mem­bers.

For years, we have kept our increas­es in elec­tric rates rea­son­able. 

Actu­al­ly, for the last thir­teen (13) years, our rates have either had no increase or a slight decrease. 

This year we con­tin­ue that trend with no price increase, but due to ris­ing costs an increase might be need­ed in future years.

Ris­ing costs con­tin­ue to affect us all. As you can see, every­thing has gone up in price sig­nif­i­cant­ly. 

House­hold goods, as well as the equip­ment it takes for your coop­er­a­tive to keep your lights on con­tin­ues to increase each year, as well as the cost of pow­er.

Speak­ing of mon­ey, you may have received a check in your mail­box recent­ly. This year’s cap­i­tal cred­it rebate is the largest ever! Our board of trustees vot­ed to return $2.7 mil­lion to mem­bers through cap­i­tal cred­its, show­ing the finan­cial health of your coop­er­a­tive.

This will be my very last annu­al meet­ing report to you as I end my 21 years of serv­ing you as CEO and 35 years at YEC.

Please allow me to thank a few folks.

First of all, I want to thank my Lord and Sav­ior Jesus who has pro­tect­ed this co-op from major storms and employ­ee injury. Thanks to my sup­port­ive and lov­ing fam­i­ly, espe­cial­ly my wife Sarah who has walked with me in this jour­ney and prayed for me faith­ful­ly.

Thank you to the Board of Direc­tors who took a chance on a 37-year-old engi­neer and has led this orga­ni­za­tion with a mem­ber focused vision.

Last­ly, and not by any means least, I say thanks to the best group of employ­ees who have made this the best elec­tric coop­er­a­tive in the coun­try.

To you mem­bers, I ask that you con­tin­ue to sup­port YEC like you have and know that I appre­ci­ate you so very much.

God bless you, YEC and Amer­i­ca.

As I leave, I am con­fi­dent your future is in good hands. I’m pleased to announce that your Board of Trustees unan­i­mous­ly select­ed Craig Spencer to become YEC’s next Pres­i­dent and CEO. 

Craig began his career with YEC 32 years ago as pur­chas­ing agent, then became Vice Pres­i­dent of Engi­neer­ing where he served our mem­bers for the fol­low­ing 21 years.

It has been a plea­sure to work with Craig through­out his impres­sive career and I’m hon­ored to intro­duce him to you all now.

Please help me wel­come Craig Spencer.

Craig Spencer:

Thank you, Paul. Con­grat­u­la­tions on your upcom­ing retire­ment. You have done a great job and it is well- deserved.

I am grate­ful for the board’s trust in me to lead this orga­ni­za­tion. I’m also grate­ful to my fam­i­ly for their ongo­ing sup­port and for the YEC employ­ees – past and present – for their guid­ance through­out my career.

As your new CEO, you can expect me to con­tin­ue the ded­i­ca­tion our board and employ­ees show each day.

We will work to main­tain reli­a­bil­i­ty– we want to keep your lights on.

To main­tain safe­ty– we want to share the impor­tance of elec­tri­cal safe­ty through edu­ca­tion in our com­mu­ni­ty and by exten­sive train­ing for our employ­ees.

And we will work to main­tain afford­abil­i­ty– we want to keep your bill low and mon­ey in your pock­et by keep­ing low rates and con­tin­u­ing con­ser­v­a­tive spend­ing.

As we go through this tran­si­tion, I also want to remind you of some­thing we are very proud to say here at York Elec­tric – we’re locals look­ing out for you.

That includes me. I grew up here and my wife and I are proud to call Smyr­na our home where we raised our three chil­dren. It is tru­ly an hon­or to lead this great orga­ni­za­tion that strives to make a pos­i­tive impact in the lives of oth­ers – our mem­bers, neigh­bors and friends. We’re hon­ored to be part of this great com­mu­ni­ty.

Now, our attor­ney, John Tienck­en, will con­tin­ue the busi­ness meet­ing and announce the elec­tion results.

John Tienck­en: 

Thank you, Craig. 

First, is there any old busi­ness to come before the meet­ing this after­noon? 

Any new busi­ness to come before the meet­ing this after­noon? 

Hear­ing none, we’ll move on to report­ing on the elec­tion results.

For the 2024 elec­tion, there were two uncon­test­ed trustee seats. 

Car­olyn Boyd ran unop­posed for Dis­trict 1.

Tom­mie Brat­ton ran unop­posed for Dis­trict 2. 

Mrs. Boyd and Mr. Brat­ton have both been elect­ed to serve 3‑year terms. Con­grat­u­la­tions to both of you.

The vacant seat in Dis­trict two was vot­ed on by the mem­ber­ship of York Elec­tric today. 

Ter­ri Lovelace was nom­i­nat­ed by peti­tion and received 2,249 votes. 

Kevin Tol­son was nom­i­nat­ed by peti­tion and received 2,576 votes.

Con­grat­u­la­tions to _Mr. Kevin Tol­son who will fill the vacant seat in Dis­trict 2. Con­grat­u­la­tions.

As a reminder, this seat will be up for reg­u­lar elec­tion again in 2025.

Incum­bent Richard Roach’s seat for Dis­trict 3 was con­test­ed by Mr. Ronald Wylie, who was nom­i­nat­ed by peti­tion. 

The votes for this board seat are as fol­lows: 

Richard Roach received 2,556 votes and Ronald Wylie received 2,282 votes. 

Con­grat­u­la­tions to Mr. Roach, who will serve an addi­tion­al 3‑year term for Dis­trict 3. Thank you for your ser­vice.

That con­cludes the busi­ness meet­ing for the 2024 Annu­al Meet­ing of Mem­bers for York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive.

With­out any fur­ther objec­tion, is there a motion on the floor to adjourn this meet­ing and con­tin­ue with the prize draw­ings?

Hear­ing a motion and a sec­ond, we will adjourn.

Lucas McFad­den will now lead our prize draw­ings.

Lucas McFad­den:

Thank you, Mr. Tienck­en, Mr. Spencer and Mr. Basha. Paul, we cer­tain­ly wish you all the best in your retire­ment and thank you for your 35 years of ded­i­ca­tion to YEC. 

At this time, we will begin our prize draw­ings.  

YEC’s stak­ing engi­neers Thomas Wilk­er­son and Michael Dick­son will spin the tick­ets in the hop­per from our Tega Cay Cataw­ba Park reg­is­tra­tion for our first draw­ing.

To help us select each win­ner out of the hop­per, we have Miss Annabelle Cham­bers, daugh­ter of YEC mem­bers Katie and Cory Cham­bers and grand­daugh­ter of YEC employ­ee Car­ol New­man. 

How old are you, Annabelle? Are you excit­ed to help? We appre­ci­ate you being here! 

We also have Collins McFad­den, my daugh­ter, who couldn’t miss out on the action! It’s part of the job when you have me as a dad!

Collins, tell folks a lit­tle about your­self. 

Hi I’m Collins McFad­den, I am 12 years old and I’m in the 6th grade. I speak Span­ish because my school is a Lan­guage Immer­sion school. 

Alright, thank you, Col­li­na and Annabelle. Let’s get this start­ed!

Mem­bers who reg­is­tered and vot­ed at our Tega Cay loca­tion have all been entered in a spe­cial draw­ing for (1) $500 pow­er bill cred­it. 

And the win­ner is: Susan and James Mor­risey

All of these mem­bers will remain in the hop­per for the addi­tion­al prize draw­ings. 

Now, Thomas and Michael will dump the remain­ing reg­is­tra­tion cards from our York loca­tion into the hop­per. 

Annabelle and Collins will place the win­ning tick­et from Fort Mill back in the hop­per as well.

Thanks to the gen­eros­i­ty of busi­ness part­ners, we have valu­able prizes for our mem­bers. 

If your name is called as a win­ner, we will record your infor­ma­tion and you will be con­tact­ed by your co-op on Mon­day to coor­di­nate claim­ing your prize. Let’s get start­ed!

**Door Prize List sep­a­rate and avail­able on Mon­day, May 6th**

All of these tick­ets have been record­ed and now Annabelle and Collins will help us place all of them back in the hop­per for the grand prize draw­ings!

And now for the grand prizes! 

The first $500 pow­er bill cred­it goes to… James R. Tur­ney, Jr.

The sec­ond $500 pow­er bill cred­it goes to… Thomas Wohlfeil

And the 2014 Ford F‑150 truck goes to… Thomas and Ruth Buech­lein

As a reminder, if you won a prize today, some­one will con­tact you by phone on Mon­day to remind you of what you won and coor­di­nate you claim­ing your prize.

Thank you for join­ing us and for allow­ing York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive the oppor­tu­ni­ty to look out for you.