At SouthEastern, we have always valued the communication we have with our members and we attempt to keep everyone up to date on issues affecting the electric industry and our member’s power bills.

In 1995, we told our members that cost cutting efforts being undertaken in the electric industry could eliminate all but two of Illinois investor-owned utilities by the year 2000. How many exist today?Two, all others have been acquired by out-of-state interest.

In 1998, we told our members that deregulation was all about money; consumers were expecting to save it, but power marketers and some big investor-owned companies were expecting to make a lot of it.We told our members someone was going to be disappointed, and we were right.

In 2001, we warned our members that some power marketers and investor-owned power companies were manipulating the system to maximize profits.Has everyone listened to the Enron recordings, being played on the news channels, where Enron employees are bragging about how much money they made by ripping off consumers?

Enron and their associates worked hard at keeping both consumers and legislators in the dark about their rip off tactics.Conversely, keeping our members informed and responding to their input is all a part of the process which helps us serve you better and contributes to the overall value of your cooperative, especially in this period of time when we seem to have a credibility problem at the highest levels of corporate America.

At your Cooperative’s August Annual Meeting we talked about the problem of special interest groups and the negative impact they have on our country and compared that situation to that of a few cooperatives where special interest groups are trying to take control away from the membership in order to promote their own agendas.

At SouthEastern, we believe that keeping our members informed is the key to keeping them in control of the Cooperative they own.That’s why it is so important that members attend Annual Meetings.

Members who attend Annual Meetings are much more than an audience, they are a vital part of the cooperative process and they have knowledge about the business they own.Have you ever heard about a situation where something extremely valuable was acquired from an owner who was unaware of the object’s worth?Surveys taken across the country indicate there’s a growing number of individuals who have never attended their cooperative’s annual meeting, never read any publication from their cooperative and consequently have no knowledge of the value of the business they own.

So protect your investment.Attend next year’s Annual Meeting and if possible bring a member friend with you.