■ commentary Three Cheers For Positive Change I
n the short three months that I have served as interim CEO of Choctaw Electric
Cooperative (CEC), we have witnessed a tremendous amount of change. Whether this change is good or bad is always in the eyes of the beholder. In my eyes, the vast majority of changes have been positive. I’d like to explain why I think these changes are a step in the right direction.
reasonable time frames and legal parameters. I am encouraged that we are getting better at this, and believe we are making great strides in communicating with our membership.
cHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER BY JOE HARRIS
The investigation into wrongdoing at the cooperative is in the hands of the OSBI and is moving its way through the legal process. Forensic auditors continue to assist with the investigation and review our business practices.
In the very first meetings I held with CEC staff and employees, I asked them what they thought was the biggest issue at the cooperative. The overwhelming response from everyone was the lack of communication within the cooperative, and more importantly, with the members of the cooperative.
We immediately set out to improve communications with our membership by launching a Choctaw Electric Facebook page that very day. We knew that CEC members had a lot of pent up frustrations, we expected to be challenged by these members on our Facebook page, and we were.
That said, the information posted about CEC outages and operations continues to be well received, and often receives “likes.” We are also using our Facebook page to let members know about breaking news by publishing our press releases on Facebook before sending them to local media. In fact, there’s been ample news information released because of the controversy surrounding the recall petition, and subsequent resignation of trustees. While some members aren’t happy with our efforts to answer questions posted on Facebook, we are trying to be diligent about posting information and answers within
I feel confident that justice will be served, and that we will eventually put this sad chapter behind us.
This examination has brought about change in the way CEC conducts business, which is another positive for the membership. We continue to review our internal business practices and have discovered numerous areas where we have been able to improve both results and timeliness. We will continue to review our business practices in an effort to bring positive changes to the cooperative.
If you are interested in helping your cooperative make progress, I strongly encourage you to attend and perhaps offer yourself as a candidate in the three district board elections that will take place in February. You will find details on these meetings on page 4 of this issue. These meetings are a positive departure from how these vacant seats would normally be filled. I am excited about other positive moves discussed by your new trustees. You will hear more about these discussions when all nine trustees are officially in place.
Thank you all for your patience and involvement. We are on the right track.
SEND US EMAIL: Please email questions for Ask Your Co-op to: Jennifer Boling,
jboling@choctawelectric.coop. Or, mail questions to Choctaw Electric Cooperative, PO Box 758, Hwy 93 North, Hugo,Oklahoma 74743.
CO-OP ASK YOUR
■ What is the cost of CEC’s new SmartHub service? Are we billed for this service?
Choctaw Electric’s new SmartHub service costs 22 cents per member per month. Like the cost of printing and mailing your monthly electric bill, SmartHub is considered a day-to-day expense and its cost is built into CEC’s overall cost of service.
SmartHub replaces CEC’s previous eBill program, however, Smart Hub is much more powerful and offers many new benefits and capabilities.
For instance, members who use Smart Hub can access monthly and daily usage charts for their home, and compare these figures to previous usage periods. This data can be overlaid with weather conditions for the same periods of time for a more accurate usage snapshot. Those who become familiar with this area of SmartHub will learn valuable information about how their home uses energy. This information can help you pinpoint appliance use and other behaviors that cause your bill to go up.
SmartHub provides other benefits, too. Using SmartHub, CEC is able to provide outage updates and other alerts to members on a number of mobile devices, and members are able to contact the co- op with questions or service problems. We’re barely skimming the surface of what SmartHub can do. To learn more, please give us a call at 800-780-6486, or visit
www.choctawelectric.coop. Click on Pay Bill. This will carry you to the SmartHub portal where you can log on and get familiar with its services.
inside•your•co-op | 3
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152