Record SIEA annual meeting registration

For immediate release:

5:00 p.m. – Monday, September 28, 2020

Southern Coloradoan’s helped break an 82-year-long record on Saturday, September 19. A record number 1,095 co-op members registered for San Isabel Electric’s first-ever online annual meeting, the highest registration in the co-op’s 82-year history.

The meeting took place on the traditional third Saturday of September. The co-op also received a record number of 63 questions and the meeting was completed in record time, in just 27 minutes.

Annual meeting registration history by district:

Year	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016
Beulah	130	15	18	18	22
Rye	187	54	44	58	58
Gardner	81	45	44	62	53
Walsenburg	163	155	140	142	142
La Veta	189	43	60	67	63
Aguilar – Trinidad	135	29	36	34	33
Pueblo West	210	21	27	19	16
Total	1095	362	359	400	387

Holding the meeting online did eliminate the opportunity to attend for some members who have historically participated in person. Hosting the meeting online gave members who cannot travel the distance, or feel it’s too far, a new opportunity to participate.

Of the 1,095 that registered, 175 people signed into the online annual meeting.

“We work to keep the lights on every day. It’s not every day that we set up production studio lights and ask members to stare at us on a screen for nearly a half hour in the middle of the afternoon on a gorgeous Saturday. But we did it, and so did you. People are interested in the electric cooperative and we gave them the opportunity to participate,” San Isabel Electric General Manager Reg Rudolph said.

“There’s usually a lot of good college football on the day of the annual meeting. My husband and I stopped coming years ago. Being able to attend online was great. We live in Forbes Park and it takes about an hour to get there and back. It only took up a half-hour instead of taking up a whole day,” said Carol McElmurray.

McElmurray and her husband Bruce were the winners of the grand prize, a Black & Decker electric lawnmower, which was donated to the annual meeting by SIEA power-supplier Tri-State Generation & Transmission.

There were also two $50 gift card door prizes. Clarence Pugsley of Pueblo West received one of them. At the time of this release, SIEA had not received permission to publish the name of the second gift card recipient.

The registration gift this year was a $20 bill credit. Everyone who pre-registered prior to the annual meeting, will receive a $20 bill credit by October 15. Payments are always reflected on the following month’s bill. The $20 bill credit will still be applied to accounts by October 15, but it will not be shown on a statement until next month.

Questions that were submitted during the registration process were answered personally by Rudolph. Due to the high number of questions submitted, questions were grouped into categories, and general answers were given during the online annual meeting.

Rudolph personally answered all of the questions submitted by email on Thursday, September 25.

The names of the prize winners, the questions asked, Rudolph’s answers, and a recording of the online annual meeting are posted at siea.com/annualmeeting.

At this time, there are no plans of permanently changing the format of the annual meeting from an in-person-only to an online-only meeting.

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As a not-for-profit cooperative utility, San Isabel Electric provides affordable, reliable electricity with exceptional service to communities throughout southern Colorado. Serving nearly 20,000 member-owners and 24,000 meters, San Isabel Electric has been keeping the lights on since 1938. We don’t just serve communities. We are part of communities.