Membership Matters

May 2008

Attend the Most Important Meeting of the Year on June 14!

As a member-owner of Blue Ridge Electric, you are invited to attend your cooperative’s Annual Membership Meeting on June 14 at Ashe County High School. Registration, as well as exhibits and displays, is scheduled from 8 to 10 a.m., with the business meeting beginning at 10 a.m.

Full details on the annual meeting are in your annual report, which is being mailed to all members in late May. Highlights include:

Director elections
Reports on the state of the cooperative
Energy Fair with information on how you can save energy and save money!
Exhibits including Operation Round Up, NC GreenPower, Safety and Carolina Country magazine
The Hayes Family entertainment
Health Fair sponsored by Ashe Memorial Hospital
A free gift to all registered members: tote bag with energy efficient CFL bulbs
Prize drawings: LCD TVs, $50 bills, and digital photo frames!

Look for your Capital Credits Check in Your Annual Report. In addition to annual meeting details and other information, your 2007 annual report also contains capital credits information regarding the $2 million capital credits retirement approved by your board of directors.

If you’re one of some 20,000 members qualifying for a capital credits refund of $15 or more, be sure to look inside your annual report for your check! This is the way you will receive your capital credits check this year: as an insert inside your annual report. So be sure and open your annual report so that you can cash your check as soon as possible!

If you are one of some 31,000 members qualifying for a capital credits refund of less than $15, you’ll receive information in your annual report on the bill credit that has already been applied to your bill. If you are a new member who is still accumulating electricity usage to qualify for a capital credits refund, you’ll find general information about capital credits.

Be sure and look for your new format annual report - and possible capital credits check - coming to your mailbox in late May.

Energy Tip

Use the Microwave: Did you know your microwave uses one-third the energy of a large conventional oven? And, because a microwave produces less heat, your kitchen will stay cooler, saving on summer air-conditioning costs. Other small applicances (like crockpots and toaster ovens,) though more efficient than a conventional oven, still use two to three times more energy due to a microwave’s shorten cooking times.

Source: www.ACEEE.org

Members Only News
- For Members of Blue Ridge Electric

If You Can't Attend the Annual Meeting. . .

If you’re a member unable to attend the annual meeting, you may still vote for directors by giving your proxy to another member who will be attending the meeting and can submit it for you. Your proxy is included in your Annual Report/Annual Membership Meeting Notice, which is mailed to members in late May.

The cooperative’s bylaws specify a few simple requirements for voting by proxy. These include having the following on the proxy:

Printed name of the member submitting your proxy, plus their signature and address.
Signature of a witness and the date it was signed (witness cannot be the same member who is submitting your proxy.)

Other guidelines regarding voting by proxy are:

Members may vote one valid proxy in addition to their own vote.
Members representing a business, civic group, industry, church, etc., may not vote the proxy of another member.
Powers of attorney are treated as proxies.
Only a member can carry a power of attorney.
Blue Ridge Electric employees cannot vote proxies.

Copies of the cooperative’s bylaws are available in any Blue Ridge Electric office or online at www.BlueRidgeEMC.com.

The Perspective

An Editorial by Chief Executive Officer Doug Johnson

Updates to Include Energy Legislation

I look forward to seeing you at the most important meeting of the year: your Annual Membership Meeting on June 14 at Ashe County High School. The annual meeting offers you the best opportunity to visit with cooperative officials and hear updates about your cooperative. It is also the time when members are elected to the board of directors to help set policies, rates, and a strategic direction that best meets the needs of the membership as a whole.

This year, I will also address the very important issues our nation is facing regarding climate change, meeting increasing demand for electricity, and how we as a nation need to
address those two areas so that consumers are protected from large price spikes.

Pressure is mounting in Congress to do something about climate change and the outcome of proposed legislation will have a direct impact on our cooperative – and on you, the cooperative member and other electric consumers across America.

Climate change is only one aspect of a looming energy crisis created by increasing
demand and decreasing capacity to meet that demand. Experts now say some areas of the country could be short of power within one or two years.

Some people say we can meet demand through efficiency and renewable energy. The reality is we need all the efficiency and renewable energy we can get, but that will not be enough to meet expected demand for electricity, especially for high growth states like North Carolina.

To avert an energy crisis, the federal government must exercise true leadership to develop a balanced energy policy. Without that leadership – without a sound, responsible plan – government risks not only the reliability of our electric system, but literally the ability of many Americans to be able to afford to pay their electric bill. And, the plan must take into account the impact on the environment over the long term.

As electric co-op members and constituents, we all must call on elected officials to provide this leadership. That’s why I want to encourage you to contact your elected representatives.

Right now, members of Congress as well as state elected officials are hearing from lots of different interest groups who have ideas about how to address climate change. No one is talking to consumers, however. We need a plan people can afford while we deal with the long range challenges of climate change.

To make things easy, electric cooperatives have a website that will send an email for you. Go to www.ourenergy.coop and plug in your e-mail address. There you’ll be able to ask a series of questions to your representatives in Washington. We’re kicking this effort off with a couple of critical questions: What are you doing to make sure we’ll have the power we need in the future? How much is balancing reliable electricity needs with meeting environmental goals going to increase my electric bill?

Far too often, questions don’t get asked of policy makers until plans go wrong. We
believe it makes sense to know the answers before the laws are passed. You can help your elected officials and yourself by having this conversation about the cost impact of legislation currently being debated. Please join me at the Annual Membership Meeting for more discussion on this very important issue!

2008 Election

The following people were nominated by the Nominating Committee for member consideration for the board of directors election:

Martha McKnight, Alleghany District
David Boone, Ashe District
David Eggers, Caldwell District
Clayton Cooke, Watauga District

No nominees by petition were received by the March 11th deadline.

Be Safe!

May is National Electrical Safety month and there’s no better time than now to educate yourself and others on the importance of electrical safety. Visit BlueRidgeEMC.com and look under the “In the Community” tab for more safety information.

Published monthly by Blue Ridge Electric Membeship Corporation

CORPORATE OFFICE
PO Box 112 • Lenoir, NC 28645

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Doug Johnson

EDITOR
Renée R. Whitener

PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR
Susan Simmons

DISTRICT OFFICES
Caldwell (828) 754-9071
Watauga (828) 264-8894
Ashe (336) 246-7138
Alleghany (336) 372-4646
From Wilkes (336) 838-4655

PowerLine®: 1 (800) 448-2383
(PowerLine is an automated account information and outage reporting system.)

Toll Free: 1 (800) 451-5474(for members outside our service area)

To report an outage at any time, call one of the numbers listed above.

OFFICE HOURS
8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., Monday - Friday
Night deposit available

Visit us on the web:www.BlueRidgeEMC.com