The Nominating Committee met and made nominations for the Director positions to be elected at the Annual Meeting to be held on March 29, 2012.  Please click on the following link to view the minutes from that meeting.  Nominating Committee Meeting Minutes

Swisher Electric Cooperative (SEC) will award two $500 scholarships.  Winners will be recognized at the SEC Annual Meeting to be held March 29, 2012.  The scholarships are available to active SEC members and their immediate families.

Applicants may be high school graduates, currently enrolled college students, or persons wishing to continue their education after an extended absence.  Recipients will be chosed based upon character, communitiy involvement and service work, recommendations, an essay, SAT/ACT scores and academic honors.  Applications may be obtained from area high school counselors, on this website, or at SEC office.  Completed applications must be received by Friday, March 9, 2012.

Congratulations to the winners of an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. :  Ashley Smith and Sarah Branham, both of Silverton High School.

Swisher Electric Cooperative held the annual Government-in-Action Youth Tour speech contest on October 24, 2011.  Nine students participated, vying for the two slots for a free and exciting trip to the country’s capital in June of 2012.

All the participants did an outstanding job of selecting the topic, researching their materials, and presenting their speeches.

Swisher Electric Cooperative will be holding a public meeting on Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 7 p.m. at Tulia Senior Citizens Center, 619 SE 2nd Street, Tulia, Texas.  The purpose of this meeting is to review and discuss rate changes that were adopted, by resolution, by the Swisher Electric Cooperative, Inc. Board of Directors on October 27, 2011.

The 2012 Youth Tour speech contest will be held Monday, October 24^th at 7:00 p.m.  Entries are due by Friday, October 21, 2011 by 5 p.m. 

There are four ways to get your entry turned in:

 1.  by fax to:       806-995-2249

 2.   By email to:   mmatsler@swisherelectric.org       

 3.   By mail to:   Swisher Electric Cooperative, P.O. Box 67, Tulia, TX 79088

 4.  In person at:  401 SW 2^nd St., Tulia, Texas.

 The contest will be at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 24th in the Willie Room at Swisher Electric located at 401 SW 2^nd St., Tulia, Texas.  

 If you have any questions, please feel free to call Andy or Mary at 806-995-3567.

 We look forward to seeing you on October 24 and good luck!  Remember that two students from this area will win an all-expense paid trip to Washington D.C.—the trip of a lifetime.  It could be YOU!

Swisher Electric now offers on-line bill payment using a credit card!  A $3.50 convenience fee will be charged for each $500.00 increment paid.

Effecting Change Takes Time—We Are Working To Make It Happen. Tulia Senior Citizen’s Center was the new venue for the Swisher Electric Cooperative (SEC) 72nd Annual Meeting. Nearly 400 SEC members and their families gathered to enjoy a tasty barbeque meal prepared by ClassicCaterers. Tulia High School FFA and Band students did an outstanding job of assisting members and cleaning up.

Eddie Bryan, President SEC Board of Directors brought the meeting to order and Mace Middleton, Vice President gave the invocation. 2010 Government–In-Action Youth Tour participants, Alejandra Muñoz and Alisha Rogers led the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem. The two girls also spoke briefly on their experiences on the trip. Alisha summed it up well saying, “It brought my history books to life”. Jenabeth Gunter of Olton High School and Brewster Garcia of Silverton High School were judged the winners of the Speech Contest held in October and will represent SEC in the 2011 Government-In-Action Youth Tour. The 2011 scholarship winners were also announced. Recipients are Heath Keller of Wayland Baptist University, son of Murlyn and Janie Keller; and Chelsea Schulte of Nazareth High School, daughter of Doyle & LaDawn Schulte.

Gene Latham, Board Secretary/Treasurer read the legal notice of the annual meeting. He announced that there were 171 registered members in attendance as well as two proxies, which constituted a quorum. Latham proceeded to present the financial report.

Steve Gee, SEC General Manager/Executive Vice-President reported on 2010’s major activities:

• Completed wage & salary structure review
• Completed system wide engineering study
• Implemented system wide maintenance of all over-current and voltage regulation devices
• Changing over 300 defective poles throughout the system since May of 2010, using larger poles to add strength and integrity back into the lines
• Adding lightning arrestors to preclude outages and equipment damages
• Changed the type and speed of fuses used for transformer protection with the goal of reducing the occurrences of blown fuses
• Changed the way in which transformers are sized to load
• Implemented Mil-soft Engineering software package for system studies and analysis
• Changed substation meters to smarter devices that supply load and operational data back to the office via radio on a real-time basis. Used in new SCADA system for operational control
• Currently changing the after-hours call center so that calls will be answered by a Swisher employee

Gee also presented two inter-related areas of concern: Construction schedules and System Outages/Blinks.

1. Construction schedules—Presently SEC crews are unable to dedicate the required amount of manpower for the construction of new facilities. As we reduce the amount of time and effort required to change and repair defective equipment, more of our crew time becomes available for new construction projects.

2. System Outages/Blinks—Frequency of outages is high. Too many fuses and other pieces of equipment are having to be replaced. As outage time goes down, effective work time that can be allocated to new projects goes up.

In summary, Gee emphasized to the members that the goal of Swisher Electric is to provide safe, dependable, reliable, and affordable electric power. Effecting change takes time—we are working to make it happen.

Phyllis Bryan, wife of retiring Board President, Eddie Bryan, surprised him with a touching presentation of a plaque honoring him for thirty-six years of loyal and dedicated service as a Board member. Eddie served as president from 1975 until 2011. Eddie’s daughter and two of his grandchildren also surprised him with their presence.

Bryan then concluded the business meeting by announcing the election results. After tabulating the votes, both Dwain Strange and Mace Middleton were re-elected and Zeke Frost was elected to fill the vacancy left by retiring Board Member Eddie Bryan.

Fifty-three door prizes including cash and power bill credits were given away. Lucky member Wilma Dunn was the grand prize winner of a Toshiba 32” HD LCD Television.

Mark your calendars for the 2012 Annual Meeting which will be held March 20, 2012 at the Tulia Senior Citizen’s Center!

Swisher Electric Cooperative (SEC) will award two $500 scholarships. Winners will be recognized at the SEC Annual Meeting to be held March 31, 2011. The scholarships are available active SEC members and their immediate families.

Applicants may be high school graduates, currently enrolled college students, or persons wishing to continue their education after an extended absence. Recipients will be chosen based upon character, community involvement and service work, recommendations, an essay, SAT/ACT scores and academic honors.

Applications may be obtained from area high school counselors, www.swisherelectric.coop, or by calling Swisher Electric Cooperative at (806)995-3567. Completed applications must be received by Friday, February 25, 2011.

In accordance with cooperative bylaws, a committee of members will meet at 11 a.m., Thursday, January 27, in the cooperative’s office to nominate candidates for each of the director positions to be filled on the cooperative’s board.

Directors whose terms expire at the 2011 annual meeting are Eddie Bryan, Mace Middleton, and Dwain Strange.

Members are encouraged to participate in the nominating process by making their desires and opinions known to committee members prior to the meeting. The nominating committee is:

Dennis Bryan

Barry Evans

Gaylord Cogburn

Dennis Wilks

Louis Walker

Elton Cantwell

Clinton Henderson

The committee’s nominations will be posted at the cooperative office no later than March 11 (20 days prior to the annual meeting).

The nominations will also be published in the annual report sent to members in March. Questions concerning operation of the committee or bylaw requirements can be answered at the cooperative’s office, by directors, or by the nominating committee members.

We’re Different—We’re Looking Out for You

Most of you know electric cooperatives are different from other businesses you deal with. To tell you the truth, I like being different. And the fact that you’re reading this article shows you like that difference, too.

We’re different because Swisher Electric Cooperative is looking out for you. Now, more than ever, that’s important because we need to work together to keep your electric bills affordable.

Congress did not pass a comprehensive climate bill last year. In January, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began regulating greenhouse gases—an action made possible by a 2007 Supreme Court decision, followed by rulings allowing the EPA to use the Clean Air Act to curb carbon emissions. Policies dealing with coal ash and even more stringent controls on other power plant emissions could also lead to higher costs. It’s hard to predict the future, but one thing seems certain: Government regulations are likely to increase the cost of doing business.

New regulations won’t be the only culprit. Prices for fuel, materials and equipment will continue to rise. Although the recent economic slump and corresponding drop in electricity demand provided some much-needed breathing room, we still need to build new power plants, requiring a significant, long-term investment of time and money.

We’re committed to taking every possible step to minimize the effect of all this on our consumers. We’re controlling costs through innovation, taking advantage of new technologies throughout our system.

Above all, we’re member focused. No matter what comes our way, we’ll continue to put you, our members, first. Swisher EC is member controlled and locally operated. As a member, you have a voice in how your co-op operates. At our annual meeting each year, you have the opportunity to elect fellow members to our board of directors to represent your best interests. Don’t miss our next meeting on March 31, 2011.

Member control means we are accountable to those we serve and are dedicated to assisting our communities—your money stays at work close to home. When it comes to your electric bill, our rates are set simply to cover the cost of doing business, not to generate profits for stockholders.

In fact, as a not-for-profit organization, any revenue we earn beyond expenses is allocated back to the members as capital credits. And, when financial conditions allow, the funds are returned to the members.

The bottom line? We exist only to serve you and meet your needs for safe, reliable and affordable power.

As you can see, we’re different. We’re working together to keep your electric bills affordable. We’re controlling costs through innovation. And we’re continuing to put you, our members, first. No matter what the future brings, one thing is certain. Swisher EC is looking out for you.