The 71st Annual Meeting of the members of Orcas Power and Light Cooperative (OPALCO) is scheduled for Saturday, May 17 on the Anacortes ferry. All members and their families are invited and encouraged to attend. There are 900 electric co-ops in the nation, and OPALCO is famous for being the only co-op to have its annual meeting aboard a ferry. Co-op member participation is key: OPALCO must have a quorum of at least 100 members on the ferry to meet the requirements for its annual meeting.
General Manager Randy Cornelius will greet co-op members on the boat and hand out 300 free compact fluorescent light bulbs with OPALCO gift bags. The Galley Restaurant on Lopez will provide a local lunch for all members and their families onboard. The menu includes fresh sandwich wraps, lemon-herb glazed chicken skewers, Asian salad with Jones Family Farms grass-fed beef, Lopez Harvest organically grown green salad – as well as delicious desserts and beverages.
OPALCO’s Energy Services crew will be giving away the energy efficient dynamic duo of low-flow showerheads and compact fluorescent light bulbs. There will be plenty of handy information available on efficient hot water heaters and other energy efficient practices that will help your energy dollars go further. Clip the coupon in today’s paper to claim your dynamic duo. See page A3.
The business meeting will be called to order at approximately 11:10 a.m. On the agenda is the election of two directors from District 1 (San Juan, Brown, Henry, Pearl and Spieden Islands). The candidates are: Dave Hylton (incumbent), Bruce Gregory and George Mulligan. Members can vote in person at the annual meeting, or send in an absentee ballot, which was sent out to every member with OPALCO’s annual report last week. The opportunity to elect the board of directors is a unique feature of cooperative member-owned electric utilities.
After the business meeting, a treasure trove of door prizes will be awarded by drawing names. OPALCO’s vendors provide the door prizes, which include all kinds of tools, household and garden gadgets, gift certificates and gift baskets. Every member who attends the annual meeting will get their name in the drawing. In addition, every member who attends the meeting will receive a $5 credit on their OPALCO bill—and, if absentee ballots are mailed in (which can be done whether or not you attend the meeting) by May 16, those voters’ names will be entered into a drawing for one of six $50 OPALCO credits.
Travel Information:
Friday Harbor members will board the 100’ yacht, “Mystic Sea,” at the Spring Street Landing at 9 a.m. and will be chartered to the Orcas Landing. To get on the boat from Orcas, members should be at the Orcas Landing by 9:30 a.m. to register for the meeting and board the 10:20 a.m. sailing. Shaw members board at 10:35, and Lopez members should arrive at the Lopez landing by 10:15 a.m. to register and board the 11 a.m. sailing. For a complete travel schedule, go to www.opalco.com.
