FROM THE GENERAL MANAGER/CEO DENNIS SVANES

At 4 Rivers Electric Cooperative, there’s one thing that’s never changed in 87 years — this is your cooperative. That means you, not some big outside company, decide who represents you on the board of trustees. And with election season right around the corner, it’s time to dust off the campaign signs (or at least the pens for nomination petitions).

This year, each of our three districts has a board seat up for election. In District 1, ROBERT CONVERSE is the incumbent. In District 2, RANDALL BUNNEL is the incumbent. In District 3, we have an open seat because veteran trustee TOM AYERS is stepping down. We are grateful to Tom for his dedicated service to our cooperative over the years.

So, if you’ve ever thought, “I could do that,” now’s your chance. Petitions for nomination will be available Dec. 1 at our offices and on our website. Just remember, you must meet the eligibility requisites per our bylaws, including being a natural person (sorry, corporations — this isn’t your rodeo), being a member in good standing, having primary residence on 4 Rivers lines, and not having ties to businesses that compete with or sell electricity-related supplies to the cooperative or its members. The complete list of qualifications can be found at www.4riverselectric.com and will be published in next month’s Kansas Country Living centerspread. Of course, you can always call us, and we’ll walk you through the details.

Serving as a trustee isn’t just about showing up to meetings and nodding at reports. It is an important responsibility — the trustees represent you, set cooperative policies and keep a close eye on the co-op’s direction and finances. To help them succeed, our board members go through extensive training with our national organization, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA). In fact, your current board has racked up almost 2,200 hours of NRECA education. That’s a lot of classroom coffee. Every trustee has earned the Director Gold Certificate, which is no small feat. It takes dedication, focus and a healthy appreciation for PowerPoint slides.

The electric industry is constantly evolving, but our mission stays the same: serving our members, keeping the lights on and planning for the future. If you’ve ever thought about stepping up to serve, this could be your moment. And if you have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out — I’d be glad to chat. Or, if you’d rather get the scoop straight from someone who is already in the trenches, any of our current trustees would be happy to visit with you, too. Full disclosure, I didn’t run this by them before writing this, so you might want to keep that little detail between us!

And finally, I’d like to give a big shoutout to Senator Mike Argabright and Representatives Brad Barrett, Doug Blex, Fred Gardner and Mark Schreiber for joining 4 Rivers at our September board meeting. We didn’t make them climb any poles or fix a transformer, but they did get a deep dive into our Key Ratio Trend and Analysis Report. This report shows how 4 Rivers stacks up against other electric cooperatives in the Kansas Electric Power Cooperative (KEPCo) family, across Kansas, and even nationwide. Mike Lewis, regional vice president at CFC, our cooperative lending partner supporting the co-op in financing construction and infrastructure projects, walked us through the numbers. It was a great opportunity to share how we’re doing and where we’re headed, and we appreciate their time and interest in our cooperative’s future.

(Originally printed in November's KCL Centerspread)