Annual Meeting Agenda
8:00 a.m. Director election polls open, breakfast service begins
8:15 a.m. Music by As the Crowe Flies
10:00 a.m. Director election polls close, breakfast service ends, prize drawings
Q&A session with co-op managers and CEO Tony Mallory
10:30 a.m. Business session
President’s Welcome
Secretary’s Report (2024 Official Notice and 2023 minutes to be approved by members)
Treasurer’s Report (2023 report to be approved by members)
Director Election Results
Guest speaker: Joe Wilkinson, AECI
Manager’s Remarks
Meeting adjourns and final prize is drawn no later than 11:30 a.m.
The official notice of annual meeting is published in Your Co-op Connection in the September edition of Rural Missouri.
Director Candidates
Each year, consumer-members elect three fellow members to lead the cooperative. To make it easy and convenient for our members to participate, there are several options for casting a ballot. An early voting period runs Aug. 16 - Sept 16 during which members can vote online, with SmartHub or by mail. There will also be an opportunity to vote in-person at the annual meeting from 8-10 a.m. on Sept 18. Early voters who cast their ballot by Sept. 16 will be entered into a drawing for electric credit prizes. There are more than 50 chances to win a credit ranging from $10 - $500.
Members may vote for three directors, one from each of the co-op's geographic districts.
When the candidate nomination period closed on Wednesday, July 17, the following members had submitted petitions to secure a place on the ballot:
District 1: Justin "Bink" Blankenship
District 2: Scott Morton, Doug Murphy
District 3: Jim Cottrell
DISTRICT 1 CANDIDATE
Justin "Bink" Blankenship
Justin "Bink" Blankenship
455 Hawthorn Ln., Sullivan
Unopposed incumbent
Bink Blankenship was first elected in 2014 to fill a one-year term on the Crawford Electric board of directors. Members re-elected him the next year to his first three-year term. In his 10 years serving on the board, Blankenship has earned his Credentialed Cooperative Director certificate from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA).
Pointing to his 30 years of being self-employed in the construction business, he said he is “good with communication.”
Blankenship said his interest in serving on the board is keeping rates low for the members. “Crawford Electric is the sixth lowest for electric rates in Missouri out of 40 co-ops,” he said. “If re-elected, I will continue to work with other directors and Crawford Electric staff to keep those rates low.”
Important issues facing the board, according to Blankenship, are “the rising cost of inflation on materials, keeping coal plants going for reliability and cost efficiency, and also keeping good jobs in the community.”
His message to the membership is, “The directors and staff strive for safety in the workplace, low rates for the members and timely restoration of power during storms. I’m conservative, dependable, and open-minded for the co-op. I’ll always make myself available to the members…just a phone call away.”