Membership Matters
July 2004
Supporting Our Communities and Education
Awarding scholarships to deserving students in the cooperative’s service territory is one of the ways Blue Ridge Electric strives to enhance education and support our local communities. The following students were recently selected for scholarships sponsored by Blue Ridge Electric:
Goodman-Hurt $2,000 scholarship winners:
Stephanie Barnes, daughter of Terry and Virginia-Ruth Barnes of Lenoir, will attend the University of North Carolina-Asheville; Stevie Icard, daughter of Jacquelyn Vines of Boone, will attend Mars Hill University; Doug Cox, son of Ander and Martha Cox of West Jefferson, will attend Appalachian State University (ASU); and Justin Arnold, son of Phillip and Evelyn Arnold of Piney Creek, will attend ASU.
Winners sharing a $2,000 Goodman-Hurt Scholarship:
Autumn Greene, daughter of Steven and Karen Greene of Deep Gap, will attend ASU; and I, daughter of Wayne and Carmen Church of Purlear, will attend Campbell University.
Winners of the $800 Goodman-Hurt Scholarships:
Jiles Stanbury, son of Edgar and Kimberly Stanbury of Lenoir, will attend Catawba Valley Community College; Grace Coffey, daughter of Charles and Meleah Coffey of Boone, will attend Guilford Technical Community College; Crystal Jackson, daughter of Anita Jackson of Boone, will attend Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute (CCC&TI); Jennifer Mahala, daughter of Everett and Ann Mahala of Creston, will attend CCC&TI; Natasha Vaughn, daughter of Nelson and Teresa Vaughn of Ennice, will attend Forsyth Technical Community College; and Miranda Lyalls, daughter of Jeana Lyalls and Terry Lyalls of Jefferson, will attend CCC&TI.
Winner of the Charles Suddreth $800 Memorial Scholarship
Lorray Bentley, daughter of Melinda Bentley of Patterson, will attend (CCC&TI).
Winner of the Tom Cockerham $800 Memorial Scholarship
Brandi Vannoy, daughter of Susan Lewis, will attend Wilkes Community College.
The Tom Cockerham and Charles Suddreth scholarships were formed in honor of former cooperative board members. The Tom Cockerham scholarship is awarded to one Ashe County resident seeking a two-year degree from a vocational or technical college. The Charles Suddreth scholarship is awarded to a Caldwell County resident seeking a two-year degree from a vocational or technical college.
Members Only News
-For Members of Blue Ridge Electric
Capital Credits Allocated
Your capital credits allocation of the cooperative’s total margins is listed on your July bill. This allocation is different from your capital credits retirement amount you will receive in December. You are not receiving any funds at this time; the allocation is simply one of the first steps in the retirement process. In December, the cooperative retires a portion of your capital credits account balance and either sends you a check or gives you a credit on your bill.
The allocation on your bill this month is a figure that is based on the amount of electricity you purchased from January 1 to December 31, 2003. This allocation is added to your total, ongoing capital credits account balance each member has with the cooperative.
As a not-for-profit member-owned cooperative, capital credit account balances provide the funds Blue Ridge Electric must use to operate the cooperative and provide reliable electric service to some 67,000 members. The capital credits process is one of the benefits of being served by a cooperative as the member-owners receive any funds left over at the end of the year after all operating expenses have been covered.
The Perspective
An Editorial by Chief Executive Officer Doug Johnson
Listening to You
One of our top priorities at Blue Ridge Electric is making sure that we’re good listeners to our member-owners. As a cooperative organization, we understand our responsibility is to be responsive to your needs. This helps us to be accountable to our member-owners and to deliver the top customer service that we desire to give you.
Listening to member input is a planned, deliberate effort at Blue Ridge Electric. For example, our Member Advisory Committees (MACs) have been in existence for over 25 years. A group of approximately 25 members in each of the cooperative’s four districts comprise the MACs, which serve as a pulse point for the membership at large, giving us insight to your views and opinions.
Our Community Leaders Council (CLC) is also made up of individual district committees. These key leaders provide critical input regarding beneficial ways we can partner with the communities we serve.
To ensure we provide responsive customer service on a daily basis, we conduct customer satisfaction surveys to invite members with which we’ve had recent contact to rate our service. To thoroughly evaluate customer satisfaction, we contract for periodic member opinion surveys that provide statistically valid information regarding how our members view our performance and ability to meet their needs.
And because customer service is a daily, minute-by-minute activity, we continuously keep track of daily member input, which is provided to senior managers in the form of a weekly briefing from our customer call center as well as our district operations and customer service areas.
We work to keep the doors of communication open by providing a variety of ways members can contact us: by telephone, letter, fax, or e-mail. Our standard is to respond to all member inquiries within 24 business hours.
In maintaining over 7,000 miles of distribution and transmission lines and serving some 67,000 consumers, we occasionally receive a member complaint. However, you can be assured that our desire and intent is to serve members to their satisfaction and to provide opportunities for two-way communication.
For Blue Ridge Electric, being responsive involves more than making sure your electric service is reliable. We understand that paying attention to our members is important. That’s why we work hard to provide you with avenues of communication and that’s why we’ll continue to keep in close touch – and keep listening – to you, our member-owners.
Annual Meeting Follow-Up
Reelected to serve three-year terms on the board were John Woodruff of Alleghany district; Jeff Joines of Caldwell district; and J.B. Lawrence of Watauga district. Elected for his first three-year term was Bradley McNeill of Ashe District, who ran for the seat of retiring Ashe district director Charles Edwards, who had served on the board for 39 years.
Published monthly by Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation for its 52,280 member-owners.
