Blue Ridge Employee Retires After 38 Years
For Immediate Release
Contact: Renee Whitener, Director of Public Relations, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, (828) 758-2383 ext. 3213; Pager:1-800-471-1323; or E-mail: Renee Whitener
Lenoir, North Carolina (June 30, 2005) – When Judy Raby started with Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, the data entry computer equipment filled an entire room. Thirty-eight years later, linemen travel with computers linked to Global Positioning Systems (GPS) data, outages are easier to locate and repair, and Raby was instrumental in making it all happen.
“I started at Blue Ridge as a key punch operator on a six-month temporary assignment,” said the recently retired Raby. “I didn’t worry much about the temporary status of the position, but I had no idea it would turn into 38 years.”
For the first 31 years, most of Raby’s jobs centered around data processing and customer records. Over the years, changes occurred in the data processing department enabling fewer people to do more in less time. As a result, Blue Ridge was able to create a centralized communications center to handle customer service and outage calls.
Outages were once reported to each district office of the member-owned electric utility serving northwest North Carolina. “If one district had a large power outage, the office could be overwhelmed with calls which would take away from the service they were able to provide to members coming into the office,” said Raby. “I was charged with overseeing a communications center which relieved the district offices of these calls and allowed for better member service.”
For the past seven years, Raby has worked in the Distribution Services group and was involved in the completion of two major projects – installing GPS data into Blue Ridge’s mapping system and a new outage system.
“Gathering the GPS data was a large and time consuming undertaking,” said Raby. “Someone had to visit every piece of equipment (meters, transformers, poles, fuses, etc.) in the Blue Ridge service area and record the GPS coordinates and other pertinent information.”
Once the information was gathered, it was entered into Blue Ridge’s central system. “All information needed to be double checked to make sure it was entered and working properly,” said Raby. Each truck is now equipped with a computer linked to this data allowing Blue Ridge Electric to offer better service to its 68,000 consumer accounts throughout Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Wilkes, Alexander and Avery counties.
Raby played a large role in the cooperative’s newly implemented outage system that allows dispatchers to more quickly identify outage locations, transformer size, number of people affected, and potential causes. “I studied seven outage systems in depth,” Raby explained. “I spent time comparing each one to make certain that Blue Ridge was getting the best system, and the best value, for its members.”
Raby also used her knowledge and skills through the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s (NRECA) international programs helping other countries, such as Bolivia, Jamaica, Costa Rica, evaluate electrical systems, answer accounting and data processing questions, and more.
In the mid-1980s, Raby had the opportunity to travel to the African country of Sudan to help conduct an evaluation of the country’s electrical system. “This experience was the most enlightening, broadening, and exhausting one of all during my entire involvement with these programs,” Raby remembered. “Witnessing such an impoverished, desolate area was eye-opening, to say the least.”
Upon returning from Sudan, Raby decided to go back to school and earned degrees in business management and computer science.
Her supervisor, Grant “Bud” Ayers, senior vice president of distribution services, says “Judy has been an exemplary employee and has led the cooperative into a new level of customer service with the technology of our new outage management system.” Ayers said Raby will be missed but leaves behind a well-trained staff that is also committed to serving the members of Blue Ridge Electric.
Raby, who lives in Lenoir, intends to spend her retirement enjoying her three granddaughters Madison Raby, Meredith Raby and Ella Harmon. She also plans to visit other family members who live close by.
Travel is also in her plans; her first trip is planned this month. She and three other Blue Ridge retirees are going to Alaska. Europe will be the next big trip with several local trips in between.
“Travel and spending time with my granddaughters and other family is definitely how I want to occupy myself during retirement,” Raby said.
