SMECO holds 77th annual members’ meeting

Winner of the well-traveled SMECO vehicle, Elaine Morgan of Hollywood. Photo courtesy of SMECO.

Waldorf, MD — Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) held its 77th Annual Meeting on Wednesday, September 2, 2015.  The event is held to give customer-members the opportunity to vote for SMECO members to serve on the Co-op’s Board of Directors.  SMECO held the Annual Meeting at the Blue Crabs Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf, where it has been held since 2009. 

SMECO customer-members registered to vote between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.  The Cooperative had 819 members register at the meeting, and 394 members voted by absentee mail-in ballot.  The following SMECO members were elected to serve on SMECO’s Board for three years: Samuel “Jack” Hammett in Calvert County; Fern G. Brown and Kenneth L. Dyson in Charles County; and W. Rayner Blair III and William R. Cullins III in St. Mary’s County.  Customer-members also voted to accept several bylaw amendments. 

Richard Winkler, chairman of the SMECO Board of Directors, welcomed SMECO’s customer-members to the ball park and called the meeting to order.  J. Ernest Bell II of Leonardtown served as the meeting chairman, and John Briscoe, pastor of Restoration Free Gospel Church in Lexington Park, led the invocation. 

SMECO’s president and CEO, Austin J. Slater, Jr., reviewed the Co-op’s activities of the past year in his remarks.  Slater discussed what he believes is customers’ highest priority: reliable and dependable electric service. He said that the Maryland Public Service Commission held a hearing on August 24, 2015, at which SMECO was determined to be the only electric utility in the state to have met or exceeded all of the Commission’s 2014 service quality and reliability standards. That statement drew applause from the audience. He described how SMECO’s electric grid was put to the test the past two winters, with load reaching an all-time system peak of 1,003 megawatts on February 20, 2015.

Slater also explained that the Co-op’s Southern Maryland Reliability Project was completed in November 2014. The project took seven years and cost $108 million and completes a 230-kilovolt loop, first envisioned in the early 1970s, through SMECO’s service territory. He said the criticality of the line was demonstrated in April when Pepco experienced a failure near Ryceville that shut down a significant number of SMECO customers, as well as parts of suburban Maryland and DC. New line and substation construction projects in Charles County were also highlighted. According to Slater, “with this construction comes costs, and not surprisingly, reliability does have a price tag.” Slater went on to describe SMECO’s rates for energy and the cost of delivering energy. 

SMECO was awarded its eighth J.D. Power award for superior residential customer service, and Slater credited customer surveys with revealing trends toward mobile phones, laptops, and tablets and away from desktop PCs. Slater said that over half of SMECO customers have elected electronic billing and that the Co-op works to keep pace with advancing technologies. Renewables and solar energy are becoming an increasingly important component of SMECO’s energy mix, according to Slater. And customers interested in solar can use a tool on the Co-op’s website called WattPlan to step through an analysis that uses aerial maps and sophisticated calculations to produce financial estimates. Community solar is also on SMECO’s roadmap, Slater said.

In the concourse of the stadium, SMECO hosted informational displays about its customer programs and services with an emphasis on emergency preparedness and power restoration. The Co-op now offers a text messaging service and a mobile-friendly web app, SMECO 24/7, for reporting outages and paying bills. Customers can download the free app from Google Play or Apple iTunes. For the texting service, customers text REG, for registration, to 76326, for SMECO, on their phone to be able to report outages and receive status updates. More information is available on SMECO’s website at smeco.coop/smeco247. For the first time at a SMECO annual meeting, customer-members could participate in a scavenger hunt by visiting each display table and learning about the Co-op’s programs. More than 170 participants were rewarded with a tee shirt emblazoned with “SMECO members rock 24/7” across the back.

Co-op personnel were on hand to provide information about energy-saving programs such as CoolSentry and the Quick Home Energy Check-up.  Customers could ask questions of employees who work in the Co-op’s rates department and meter operations.  Customer-members were also encouraged to enroll in SMECO’s Members Helping Members program to donate a monthly amount to help less fortunate residents keep their power on. Participation in the Action Committee for Rural Electrification was also encouraged.   

Joe Lehan, voice of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, served as the emcee for the entertainment prior to the meeting during which the Sara Gray Band performed a one-hour set and customers won prizes for bingo games.  The La Plata High School Navy Junior ROTC presented the colors, and the Southern Mix Chorus performed the national anthem at the beginning of the meeting.  Free ice cream and sodas were available before the meeting, and each customer-member who registered received an insulated tote bag. 

Registered members were eligible to win one of 50 electric bill credits of $50 each.  In addition, winners of 15 cash prizes of $100 each and a well-traveled SMECO vehicle were randomly selected from the registered members in attendance.  Elaine Morgan of Hollywood won the SMECO vehicle, a four-door 2004 Chevy Malibu, with AM/FM radio, air conditioning, and 104,000 miles. 

SMECO is a customer-owned electric cooperative providing electricity to more than 160,000 services in Charles County, St. Mary’s County, southern Prince George’s County, and all but the northeast portion of Calvert County.  Co-ops are distinctly different from investor-owned utilities because co-ops are owned by their customers, and customer-members elect the men and women who serve on the Board of Directors. 
Co-ops also issue capital credits to their customer-members.  What are capital credits?  They are the member’s share of the co-op’s margins, based on how much electricity the member purchased and the rate at which the account was billed.  SMECO’s margins—revenue less expenses—are used as working capital for new construction and system improvements.  When SMECO’s Board of Directors determines that a percentage of the capital credits can be distributed to members through a general refund, capital credits will be issued by check or credited to members’ electric bills.

Below are the results of the voting. You may use this information at your discretion:

Calvert County (one seat available)
Bill Brier  440 votes
Samuel “Jack” Hammett 674 votes

Charles County (two seats available)
Fern G. Brown 904 votes
Kenneth L. Dyson  936 votes

St. Mary’s County (two seats available)
W. Rayner Blair III 746 votes
William R. Cullins III 733 votes
William “Randy” Morris 536 votes

Bylaw Amendments
Article IV, Section 4.06 votes for 870, against 141
Article VII, Section 7.02 votes for 837, against 168
Article XIII, Section 13.01 votes for 828, against 185

Photo Gallery by Dick Myers of the Bay Net and submitted photos by SMECO