Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Welcome to the Buzz, a podcast by Boone Electric Cooperative. The buzz is a monthly message to our community celebrating what it means to be a member owner of your local electric cooperative, Boone Electric Cooperative, your co op, our community.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: Welcome back to the Buzz. I'm Zach Smith, communications specialist for Boone Electric Cooperative. And today we're back to our series on the seven cooperative principles. Joining us today is Boone Electric Cooperative board director Joel Bullard. Joel, thank you for being here with us today.
[00:00:42] Speaker C: Well, thank you, Zach. Glad to be here.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: Today we're talking about cooperative principle number two, which is democratic member control. And Joel, you as a director have had a little bit of experience with that, I take it.
[00:00:54] Speaker C: Well, luckily so I was fortunate enough to get elected to Boone Electric's board of directors in 1993, and it's been an enjoyable experience to me. And I've been very, very fortunate and grateful that membership has reelected me to serve on the board. And I've enjoyed my time here. It's really a great cooperative, and cooperatives are different from other utilities, and we'll talk about that a little bit later. Boone Electric is really special to me, and it always has been and always will be.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: And you mentioned being elected in 93. How long have you been a member of Boone Electric?
[00:01:30] Speaker C: I've been a member of Boone Electric probably since about 19, 70, 74. My wife and I, we got married in 76, but I took out a meter a little bit before that. But, so we've been a member for a long time and we've always had great service. And when you mentioned Boone Electric to the people in the community, their eyes light up and they're really happy.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: What prompted you to want to run for the board in 93?
[00:01:53] Speaker C: Well, I was approached by some men on the nominating committee that came to me and said I had just finished up my six years on the Southern Boone school board, and they said, we've got a vacancy, a lady is retiring from the board, and we would like you to run. And I thought about it. I didn't know really what all to expect or how much time it would take or anything, but they talked me into it. And I ran against two other men that summer, and I was lucky enough.
[00:02:23] Speaker B: To be elected, just like one of our previous guests, Kim Ponder, you have also served as the president of the board, right?
[00:02:30] Speaker C: That's correct.
[00:02:31] Speaker B: So you've ran for election, and then you would run for re election every three years, and the membership has elected you every time, obviously, or you wouldn't still be on the board. When and where do the members decide? We like this person to represent us?
[00:02:46] Speaker C: Well, I don't know. That's a hard question for me to answer, Zach. I don't know.
I just have always tried to do my best, as all the other board members do, too. And I think I. We try to be fair with our decisions at the board table, thinking about each and every member on each and every decision that we make. And as long as we hold true to those two principles, I think the public trusts us and are willing to reelect us to that board seat.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: You mentioned earlier that the cooperative way is a little bit different than how other businesses, other utilities are run. What are those differences that you see that attracted you to want to be part of? You know, how the members direct the business of their co op?
[00:03:30] Speaker C: Well, pin Electric is different than other utilities. We are owned by our members. You have a meter and you have a bill to pay each month. You are a member of Pun Electric, and you have a right to vote for a board of directors and elect those board members to serve you. Whereas investor owned utility, their only answer to the shareholders.
The shareholders want a profit. They want a return on their investment.
Our members of Boone Electric, they want the best available service at the lowest reasonable price for electricity. That's what Boone is. Boone is community. And we try to serve our community, and we're governed by our members. We're not governed by stockholders. And I think that's a big difference. And I think it's a big difference when it comes to accountability. Also, you're on the board of directors, and you've got to look your neighbors in the eye when you walk down the street. If you got to raise rates, you got to tell them why an investor on send you a bill and say, well, your rates are going up. And you walk down your street in the hometown and you look your neighbor in the eye and you say, well, I'm sorry, but we had to do it. And they understand as long as you're honest with them, you've got a little.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: More skin in the game because you're part of the community, not just having a seat at the table being reelected, but you pay those rates, too.
[00:04:47] Speaker C: Absolutely. Whenever we set a board table and we make a decision as to rates, it affects each and every board member. It's an important decision.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: The democratic member control principle that we're talking about and voting for the directors that represent you on the board as a member. That's pretty much what that means. We do that every year at annual meeting. By the time this episode airs, we'll have just held our annual meeting in 2024. Tell me a little bit about the annual meeting, what happens there, what it's for, why that's an important part of this process.
[00:05:19] Speaker C: Well, it is important. Prior to Covid in 2020, we had a mass gathering of members that came to a selected location, and we had the traditional chicken dinner and cokes, and everybody got to visit and talk with each other. And then when Covid came, we just couldn't do that. So we went to a different format with a drive through meeting where people can come and register. They get a bill credit, and they get to vote on their candidates. Read the board reports, read the president's report, read the secretary's report, and also look at the financial statements of our cooperative. You can look at those statements and tell that our cooperative is healthy. We're in good shape. Our equity level is good. That's important. You know, we're in business to stay in business.
[00:06:04] Speaker B: Back when you were first a member of the cooperative, did you come to the meeting every year?
[00:06:08] Speaker C: No, I did not come to the meeting every year, but my mother sure did, and she enjoyed getting the prizes and the fried chicken. And I. I guess that's probably where I got my first love of Boone electric, is through my mom and going to those meetings and seeing her drag all that stuff out of the kitchen cupboard, you know, the little measuring cups and all that stuff. It had the Boone electric logo on it, which it kind of just stuck in your mind that, hey, this is where our electricity comes from. This is cool. So.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: So you were. Kim and I were talking about this last time. You were an indirect member. I guess your parents were members before you had your own meter and everything. Okay.
[00:06:46] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:06:47] Speaker B: So you've been to the meeting before then? You knew all about it?
[00:06:50] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. I ran for the board back when I was a really, really young man. They nominated me. I guess I was probably, I don't know, 22 or 23 years old, and I ran. I got trounced by the board president at that time. He beat me, like, four to one.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: But it didn't deter you. You came back and ran again.
That sounds like the old meeting was a lot of fun. And I know you mentioned we had to change that in 2020 to accommodate a lot of the COVID concerns and everything. And as we've also talked about previously on the podcast, that drive thru format really helps us accommodate this record number of people that we've had coming in over the years, which is a good thing, right? I mean, you want more people to take an interest in how their cooperative is run.
[00:07:35] Speaker C: Well, the drive thru has been a good thing. I think all of us miss the interaction of people when we have a mass gathering at the annual meeting. For now, we do get to have a lot of members come through and vote and voice their opinion, which is what we need, what we want. Everybody has a right to vote, and also, it is cheaper than holding a big chicken dinner, believe it or not. And that's important to the board, also to hold down costs. And it's expensive to hold an annual meeting with all the food and beverages and facilities and everything it takes to put it on. But the drive thru meeting works well. With the tablets now voting, it's almost instantaneous, and I think it's here to stay.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: It has been more convenient. And we've also had people say that they miss that social aspect of the old meeting. I know you were able to come out to the night at the movies event earlier in the spring that we had. Was that an enjoyable event for you?
[00:08:31] Speaker C: Yes, I think it is. It's very enjoyable. But what I see the difference is we're touching so many different groups of people with the outreach meetings. At the traditional meetings where we had in person gatherings, it was kind of the older crowd, I guess, like myself. And since we had the outreach meetings, you see the younger families, the younger people, which is really great. We need to get them involved and know that their electricity is provided by pen Electric, and they are part of the community. So I see a big plus in those outreach meetings.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: Members can contact the board at any time with questions, concerns, comments that they have.
[00:09:10] Speaker C: Oh, absolutely. In my tenure on the board, I've had numerous, well, complaints, conversations, whatever you want to call it, with different members of the cooperative. And they've expressed their opinion and their concerns about certain things that's going on with bent electric, and that's what directors are. We're here to listen and to carry their message back to the board and to the staff and express those concerns that the members have. And that's a big job of the directors.
[00:09:38] Speaker B: You are the sounding board for what the cooperative is doing, how that's affecting the members in the community. So, I mean, that's why you're there, is to make those voices heard.
[00:09:48] Speaker C: Yeah, that's true. When I was chair, I thought it was every director's duty to speak to each and every issue that was on the board agenda. I just didn't want two or three people talking. I wanted every director that represented, every member to express an opinion of what was going on, because each director does not only represent the members in their district, my opinion is they represent all of Boone Electric. So they're just not voting to take care of their district. They're caring about all of Boone electric everywhere.
[00:10:24] Speaker B: Which is why you can vote for one person in each district to come to the annual meeting.
[00:10:30] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: I've been asked the question recently, how we decide when the meeting is, what the meeting's going to be in the drive thru format and things like that.
I tried to make the distinction that we, as in the employees of the co op, don't make that decision. That is a decision that the members make via the board. You all approve the dates, the format, the budget, pretty much that everything goes into it. And the employees at the cooperative are just there to make it happen. And I don't think that you all, as the board, I guess I'm projecting or speaking for you a little bit, but I don't think you all would keep approving the way that we're doing it if it wasn't working in the boardroom.
[00:11:07] Speaker C: That's correct. We made the change. Well, used to be on a Friday night in July, Friday evening, hot young people with families. They have stuff going on on Fridays. It's tough for them, and we want to touch as many people as possible.
Laura came to us with a plan to kind of move the annual meeting back a couple months and target an all day drive through meeting. And it looked like we're touching a lot more people and getting a lot more younger families in to vote. And that's what we're after.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: You recently, this year, were honored. You were named to the Missouri Institute of Cooperatives hall of Fame.
[00:11:43] Speaker C: Right.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: Tell me a little bit about that. I mean, that's a pretty huge honor. That's. You're in there with some. Some big names in the cooperative world.
[00:11:50] Speaker C: Well, I feel pretty humbled about that, Zach. I don't know. There's a lot of other people that probably deserve that award a lot more than myself. I just feel very, very fortunate to have been able to serve on a national board to represent Boone Electric, to serve on Central Electric board of directors for close to 30 years and be here at Boone Electric for 32 years. And I served 21 of those years as president here at Boone. And I'm really proud of that. And I'm humbled also that my fellow directors saw enough confidence in me to elect me that position as their president. And I always just try to do my best. At the end of the day, I just want to do the best I could.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: Well, I appreciate you being here to help us explain all that to us, Joel. I mean, I think particularly, you know, these days, especially in even numbered election year, people have strong opinions about how much their vote really counts, what it really means. But that's one of those areas, I feel like, where the cooperative difference really stands up to that test. I mean, your vote is counted. It matters. You have a voice. You always have nine people here at the co op that you can come to with those questions, concerns, comments of any kind or ideas. I mean, any time of the year.
[00:13:03] Speaker C: Oh, absolutely. The directors, as we stated earlier, Zach, they are members also of the cooperative. So they have a vested interest in the operation of this co op. They have a vested interest when they get that bill in the mail every month, they look at it just like any other member does. And they have a vested interest in providing continuity and power, continuous power, to all members. Because when everybody walks in their house, they want to make sure that lights come on. And that's a big charge of the directors, to make sure that Boone Electric is in a financial condition that we can provide electricity to each and every member at the lowest possible costs. And reliability.
[00:13:48] Speaker B: I was just about to say reliability has been the big word, the big topic, not just here at Boone Electric, but around the nation as far as utilities are concerned, not just electric cooperatives. What are some of the things that the board is talking about with regards to reliability?
[00:14:05] Speaker C: I think one of the big things that's really affecting the utility industry right now is the really fast furious push to go completely green.
And not that anybody's against green renewable energy. We're all in favor of it, but it's moving so fast. We just don't have the infrastructure to make it all happen.
We don't have the big utility lines it takes. We don't have the battery storage it takes. Also, when you have green energy, you have to have a backup source of energy to support that green energy. When it's not on, the sun doesn't shine, the wind doesn't blow, it doesn't rain, you got to have something besides that to back it up. And that costs money and big money. And that's what's driving these electric rates right now, is we've got, basically, we've got. We've got two sources of energy that we have to have. If we're going to put green energy, we have to have another source behind it, and that's putting upward rates on upward pressure on rates it has, and it will continue, I think, in the next several years till everything kind of levels out.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: We talk a lot in Missouri about the three t's. I might get them out of order. Technology, time and transmission, I think you hit all that. It's just, it's a matter of, you know, developing that technology.
[00:15:29] Speaker C: It just takes time, Zach. It takes a lot of infrastructure to get that energy into the midwest, and it's just going to take a little time and a lot of money, too. People don't realize this stuff is not free. It costs a lot of money, and.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: You'Ve got to pay for it.
[00:15:44] Speaker C: Absolutely.
And people don't like their rates going up.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Right.
[00:15:49] Speaker C: And I'm one of them.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: But that's a difficult balancing act. I mean, reliability is what the whole thing is based on. We don't even think about it anymore. When we go to flip a light switch, light's going to come on, the computer's going to come on whatever you're using. But for that to happen, you've got to have everything that goes behind it there.
[00:16:09] Speaker C: Absolutely. Our family uses a lot of electricity in the farming business and vote to raise the rates in the boardroom. I just cringe, you know, I think, gee whiz, how are we going to do this? But I know it has to be done. So we got to keep Boone viable because Boone is community and we're here to stay.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: Well, I think that's a perfect place to put a pin in it. Joel, thank you for being here today and discussing that with us.
[00:16:34] Speaker C: Well, thank you, Zach. Glad to be here.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: And thank you for listening. Be sure to come back and join us next month, and until then, we'll see you somewhere down the line.
[00:16:46] Speaker A: Thank you for tuning in to the buzz, a podcast by Boone Electric cooperative. To subscribe or for more information, you can find us on Facebook, Instagram X, and LinkedIn. And of course, you can always visit us. Boone Electric Co op. Boone Electric cooperative, your co op. Our community.
