A Day Out With Neighbors

Dani Marchant and Carol Karsky didn’t let the gray skies in Burleson keep them away Oct. 15 from United’s Member Appreciation Day.

The neighboring friends from Venus said they’d looked forward to enjoying the new experience and learning more about their electric co-op.

“I had been wanting to come to one of the annual events for quite a few years, and my work schedule didn’t always work out,” Marchant said. “Recently, I retired and I planned on coming. But then, we had COVID. This seemed like the first opportunity to be able to be here.”

The pair were two of about 440 members (most of whom bringing at least one other family member in tow) who attended the newly established food, friends and fun event held from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at each of United’s seven office locations.

Following that, about 190 members attended the 4 p.m. Virtual Annual Meeting either by phone or online, where it  was announced that Secretary-Treasurer Tommy Cantrell (District 3), Clifford Deal (District 4), and John Jones (District 5) were re-elected to the United Cooperative Services Board of Directors, following an independent accounting firm’s tally at the meeting  of voting results.

While different from the Annual Meeting events held in the past, the Member Appreciation Day and Virtual Annual Meeting provided a successful compromise considering the current pandemic, said United CEO Cameron Smallwood.

“Unfortunately, COVID-19 has impacted our ability to have a ‘normal’ annual meeting,” Smallwood said. “We opted instead to host a Member Appreciation Day at each of our office locations. We thank each member who came as well as those who voted and took the time to participate in our virtual annual meeting that same afternoon. This cooperative belongs to its members, and through the process as established in the organization’s bylaws, the membership participated in and elected who they want to represent their districts on the co-op’s board of directors. I am thankful for that democratic process and to work directly for the membership of the cooperative.”

During the Virtual Annual Meeting, Board President Patsy Dumas reflected on the challenges that presented themselves to the co-op during 2021. This year presented more challenges than she can remember, both at United and to all Americans in general, she said.

For example, Dumas cited how Winter Storm Uri wreaked havoc across the state in February, causing unprecedented complexities within the ERCOT market.

“For nearly five full days, ERCOT mandated electric distribution utilities—including United as you well know—to conduct controlled rotating outages to protect the grid,” she said. “While we are fully aware that this was undesirable by all our members, I have to say that, compared to other utilities across the state, we did it right. We spread the outages out as much as we could and limited the time you were out to 30 to 40 minutes at a time.

“A major criticism of many Texas utilities was inadequate communications before and during the event. However, United was singled out and commended by state senators and representatives for leveraging a multi-pronged communications plan of social media, news media, radio, website, email and texting.”

United also offered relief during that time to members in the way of suspension of disconnects, relaxing deposit requirements, suspension of late fees and offering deferred payment plans, she said.

Fallout from the storm is still resolving as United’s power supplier, Brazos Electric Cooperative, goes through the bankruptcy process. And while, for the first time in 37 years, United was unable to offer members return of member dividends because of the bankruptcy, Dumas said the board did postpone an April rate adjustment until October, saving members overall about $6 million, which is equivalent to the projected member dividends for the year.

Brazos has not billed United for the energy costs and won’t until the bankruptcy has been resolved, Smallwood said, and the actual cost impact United members may face from the winter storm energy costs may not be apparent until the conclusion of the case in the first or second quarter of 2022.

Attorneys for United and all sides are working to lessen the cost impact as much as possible through the bankruptcy process. The Texas Legislature did authorize electric cooperatives to securitize the remaining balance to spread the cost out over a period of time to minimize the impact on members’ monthly energy bills.

“We have a road ahead of us,” Smallwood said. “The Brazos bankruptcy has national attention right now, and there is quite a bit to go in that process. Know this: Your board of directors has hired some of the best professionals to represent you, the members, inside the bankruptcy process at Brazos. We’re doing everything we can to represent you in the way you would want to be represented. I’m very pleased with the professionals we have working with us.”

Turning to positive news, Dumas said United had connected by October about 8,000 members to the co-op’s high-speed internet service.

“They are loving it,” Dumas said. “We know there are thousands more waiting anxiously to get connected, and our folks are working to bring it to you as quickly as possible. In fact, we are ahead of the business plan and intend to stay that way during this 5-year buildout process.”

Smallwood also pointed out United has and will continue to run lean and mean to maximize member dollars. By hiring

high-achieving employees who constantly look for ways to achieve high expectations and save money, the cooperative does more with fewer employees than cooperatives of a like size.
The co-op’s average operations and maintenance costs are considerably lower by 10 to 12 percent when compared to other cooperatives of a like size,  he said. That helps members’ energy dollars go further than they would with many other providers.

And even after this year’s rate adjustment, United’s rates are significantly less than those of surrounding energy providers.

He also pointed out the continuously high marks United members gave their cooperative through the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which is one of the most recognized customer satisfaction indices in the United States that measures customer satisfaction in more than 46 industries and over 380 companies.

“We continue to knock it out of the park with our ACSI scores,” Smallwood said. “Our members are grading our employee group very highly. I appreciate you taking the time to do the survey because we use the survey answers that you give us. Whether it’s good or bad, we want to know it. We do appreciate our members reaching out and letting us know how we are doing. In the last four quarters we’ve scored a little bit over a 90 and. It’s good news, and we expect that  going forward.”

At the Membership Appreciation event, Karsky said one reason she came was to support the co-op for its handling of the rotating outages during the  winter storm.

“I was just so impressed with how they handled all the winter weather last year, I just wanted to come out and support and thank everyone for that,” she said. “I love co-op life. This co-op’s good, and they’ve been good to me. Now that there’s high-speed internet it makes it even better. I’ve been working from home for 18 months now because of COVID. Having the high-speed internet, the fiber-optic, has been amazing.”