Annual Meeting

The 2012 Annual Meeting of Members is scheduled for May 15, 2012 at C-TEC, 150 Price Road in Newark. Registration begins at 5:00 p.m. The business portion will begin at 6:00 p.m.

INCUMBENTS RE-ELECTED AT THE ENERGY COOPERATIVE'S 2011 ANNUAL MEETING

Newark, Ohio, May 23, 2011 –Three Incumbent Directors were re-elected by mail ballot to the Board and announced May 23rd at the 75th Annual Meeting of Members of Licking Rural Electrification, Inc., doing business as The Energy Cooperative, held at C-TEC in Newark, OH. Elected to the Board of Directors were Don Hawk, Danville, OH; John Klauder, Granville, OH; and Rachel Oktavec, Newark, OH.

Nelson Smith, Chairman of the Board, opened with the Chairman’s Report. He stated management and the Board have made positive progress over the past year and Management has accomplished nearly all the goals set by the Board. He mentioned awards received by the cooperative in 2010 and announced that the cooperative will again sponsor Not Just for Kids Day, a fun and educational event for all members, on June 26th.

Guest Speaker, Michael T.W. Carey, President of the Ohio Coal Association, focused on Ohio’s coal – its history, its current status and its future. Carey explained 89 percent of electric in Ohio is produced from coal and that “some legislators are making a systematic assault on coal.” Carey explained Cap and Trade and its potential impact on the state of Ohio.

Guest Speaker, Anthony Ahern, President & Chief Executive Officer – Buckeye Power, Inc. and the Ohio Rural Electric Cooperatives, Inc. discussed the volatility of energy prices and gave two causes for rising electric rates: power plants are old and significantly depreciated and debt has doubled to $800 million to improve environmental requirements.

In his Manager’s Report, David Potter, President & CEO, opened with a review of the cooperative’s past 10 years. In 2001 the cooperative had negative equity of $61million. At the end of 2010 equity had raised that to negative $22 million. This is a reduction of $39 million.

Potter also answered the most commonly asked questions members submitted with their ballots. He explained the rising cost of electric rates due to environmental mandates to clean pollutants from plant emissions. He also explained the pass-through costs from Buckeye Power, the cooperative’s generation and transmission provider, and the losses taken by Buckeye Power in the wholesale power market, due to the tough economy in 2009. Potter also noted that in order to keep cooperative members’ rates as low as possible the cooperative reduced expenses by $500,000 and reduced the capital budget by 5 percent.

Potter explained the cooperative’s Patronage Capital situation, which according to the Code of Regulations, states that the paying out of capital must not harm the financial condition of the cooperative. Currently the cooperative has a negative equity of 9 percent, therefore it cannot retire Patronage Capital. However, the cooperative does continue to allocate capital each year to its members and pay Patronage Capital to estates monthly.

Also speaking were Board Secretary/Treasurer, John Klauder, who gave the Treasurer’s Report; Jen Odenweller, Chairman of the Operation Round Up Foundation, who reported on Operation Round Up and Executive Vice President/CFO, Todd Ware, to promote COPA (Co-op Owners for Political Action.)

Margy Klein, Executive Assistant, introduced the winners of the scholarship awards. Entertainment was provided by the Linnville Pike Band.

Re-elected Directors from left to right: Don Hawk - District 1, Rachel Oktavec - District 8, John Klauder - District 6

2010 Annual Report (PDF)