Membership Matters
February 2003
Calling for Scholarship Applications and Youth Entries
As part of our commitment to local communities and our emphasis on education, Blue Ridge Electric is now accepting applications for three separate scholarship and leadership opportunities available to high school juniors and seniors and adults seeking a higher education.
Each year, Blue Ridge Electric awards $15,600 in scholarships to qualified candidates in the cooperative’s service territory. Twelve scholarships are available:
4-Year Degrees
For high school seniors seeking a bachelor’s degree, $10,000 is available in the form of five $2,000 Goodman-Hurt Scholarships. Students from Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, and Wilkes counties are eligible to apply.
2-Year Degrees
Seven scholarships worth $5,600 are available to those seeking a two-year degree. Five $800 Goodman-Hurt technical/vocational scholarships are available to students in Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, and Wilkes counties.
An additional $800 Charles Suddreth Scholarship is available to Caldwell County applicants only. An $800 Tom Cockerham Scholarship is available for Ashe County residents.
Applications are available from high school guidance counselors, your local community college or at www.BlueRidgeEMC.com.
The deadline for all scholarship applications is March 31, 2003.
2003 Washington Youth Tour
Each June, Blue Ridge Electric awards up to four rising seniors from our service area with an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., with other North Carolina youth and students from all across the United States. The week long trip begins June 14 and combines visiting historic sights, learning about rural electrification, meeting North Carolina elected officials, and witnessing our government in action. In addition to providing students with an excellent leadership learning opportunity, Youth Tour winners are eligible to apply for several college scholarships.
Individual short essays and interviews determine the Youth Tour winners. Applications are available through guidance counselors or on-line at www.BlueRidgeEMC.com. All applications must be submitted by March 14, 2003.
Broyhill Leadership Conference
Blue Ridge Electric will sponsor up to seven students from its service area to attend the highly acclaimed Broyhill Leadership Conference at Belmont Abby College. The five-day conference is available to any student in grades 10 through 12 nominated by their guidance counselor. Young people from across the nation will participate in the Broyhill Leadership Conference, which is designed to lead students to an understanding and usage of goal setting, motivational techniques, group dynamics, communication, and cooperation. Applications are available through high school guidance counselors who will make the selection of the 2003 Broyhill Leadership Conference winners.
Your 911 Address is Critical!
Make Sure We Have Your 911 Address for Better Customer Service
When you have an outage or other electrical need, every second counts! Response time can be delayed when we have only a post office box or mailing address for your account. Make sure you get the fastest service possible from Blue Ridge Electric by ensuring we have your 911 address in our records.
While we can list a separate mailing address for you, it is critical we also have your 911 address—the address reflecting the physical location of your account.
How do you let us know your address? Check the address on your bill. If it’s not your 911 address, please list it at the designated place on your bill stub that you normally return with your payment. Remember: for the fastest response time to your home or business, we need your 911 address!
Members Only News
-For Members of Blue Ridge Electric
Board to Appoint Nominating Committee
At their February board meeting, the board of directors will appoint a Nominating Committee consisting of 12 members who will select candidates to fill four available board seats this year.
Nominating Committee members may not be employees, agents, officers, directors, close relatives, or known candidates to become directors. The committee should have adequate representation reflecting the number of directors from each district, except one member representing the membership-at-large who must be of the minority membership and may be a resident of any district.
The committee will meet March 27 to develop the slate of board candidates for available seats. A list of the candidates will be posted in each Blue Ridge Electric office the week after the March 27 meeting of the board of directors.
Additionally, nominations by petition must be made at least 60 days prior to the June 14 Annual Membership Meeting. Petitions must be signed by 15 or more members, with each signing his or her name as it appears on their electric service bill. Deadline for petitions is Monday, April 14. Petitions will be posted in each Blue Ridge Electric office beside the list of nominees from the Nominating Committee.
Information about board nominees will be mailed during late May to every Blue Ridge Electric member.
The following are qualifications to serve as a director of Blue Ridge Electric:
- Must be receiving electric service from Blue Ridge Electric at their primary residence
- Must not be a close relative of an incumbent director or of an employee of the cooperative
- Their membership must not have been suspended at any time during the 12 months preceding the annual meeting
- Must be at least 18 years old
- Must not be employed in or in a position to financially gain from a competing enterprise of the cooperative or its subsidiary, or a business selling electric energy or supplies to the cooperative
- The Director-at-Large seat is reserved to represent the minority membership of the cooperative. Only African American, Native American, Asian, or Hispanic members are eligible for this seat.
In addition, no former employee is eligible to serve on the board until six years following the date of their last employment with the cooperative.
The Perspective
An Editorial by Chief Executive Officer Doug Johnson
Right-of-Way Planning
As an electric utility, Blue Ridge Electric is dedicated to delivering reliable power as well as providing efficient and safe power restoration when outages occur. As a cooperative business, we are also committed to our member-owners and the local communities in which we live.
Our right-of-way maintenance program reflects these goals and is designed to reduce outages and provide a safe working environment for our linemen while at the same time maintaining the beauty of our area. With nearly 7,000 miles of line, our right-of-way maintenance program is very expensive, which means we must weigh the program’s cost with the level of reliability it provides to members.
To better serve you, we combine member communications with effective right-of-way activities that reflect stewardship for our land and wildlife.
Before beginning any work, we mail informational letters to members along right-of-ways where we’ll be working. We also invite members to our open houses prior to starting herbicide treatments so that you have an opportunity to meet with us personally. While we make every effort to contact all property owners before beginning right-of-way maintenance, it’s difficult to contact those who don’t have an account with us since we don’t typically have addresses or telephone numbers for non-members. Because we value everyone in the communities we serve, we are making extra efforts this year to get contact information for these individuals.
Large trees and brush are most threatening to the electric system and we remove these by bush hogging or hand trimming. We follow up the next year with an approved herbicide gentle enough to let low-growing grasses and vegetation grow back. While the results may look extreme at first, a maintained right-of-way is attractive for years to come and allows members to enjoy more reliable power.
New this year is a pilot program to replace certain trees in residential areas. Occasionally a tree in a members’ yard becomes a threat to the lines. For these problematic situations, Blue Ridge Electric is experimenting with a program that gives members a voucher to replace the tree we must cut with a lower-growing species of tree.
As a not-for-profit utility, we are focused on providing you with reliable electricity and superior customer service at an affordable price. Our commitment to our member-owners is also to preserve the natural beauty of our area.
Bylaws Updated
The Board of Directors has approved an update to the bylaws of Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation. The updates consisted primarily of minor changes and clarifications; however, one change potential members will want to note is that membership applications may now be filed electronically.
Article 1, Section 1.01 (f) states: An application for membership may be filed with the Cooperative by electronic means consistent with the North Carolina Uniform Electronic Transactions Act.
For a complete listing of the bylaws, please contact your local cooperative office or visit www.BlueRidgeEMC.com.
How to Report
An Outage
PowerLine® is your automated outage and account information connection. Call 1-800-448-2383 to use PowerLine any time, day or night for the quickest way to report an outage or get information about your account.
Or you can call your local Blue Ridge Electric district office
Published monthly by Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation for its 52,013 members.
