Grady Electric Membership Corporation

A MEMBER OWNED ENERGY PROVIDER

Grady EMC conducted it's 70th Annual Membership Meeting on Friday, October 17, 2008. Beautiful weather brought out what was estimated at over 1,000 in total attendance with 542 members registering. The meeting was held at Grady EMC's office complex on Highway 84 W in Cairo, Ga.

Mr. Robert E. Lee of District 6, and Mr. Lamar Carlton of District 3 were re-elected without opposition to their seats on the Board of Directors.

Their three year terms were approved by a unanimous voice vote of the membership.

The Harmony Boys of Camilla, Ga. provided the entertainment for this year's meeting. As usual, they did an excellent job of singing some great Southern gospel music. They are well liked and received a friendly and hearty ovation at the beginning and ending of their program. Prior to the business meeting starting, Donnie Prince led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Harmony Boys concluded by singing the National Anthem.

Mr. Donald Cooper, Chairman of the Board of Directors, officially called the business meeting to order. He then called upon Reverend Roger Brinkley, Pastor of Reno Baptist Church, for the invocation. Mr. Cooper then called upon J. Kevin Chason, Grady EMC's attorney, to conduct the business matters of the meeting. After Mr. Chason had completed the business portion of the meeting, he introduced Thomas A. Rosser, General Manager of Grady EMC. Mr. Rosser welcomed everyone to their meeting and introduced some special guests in attendance.

Mr. Rosser addressed two areas of concern. The first was to acknowledge the feelings he had, as well as those members in attendance, about the troubled direction in which our country is headed. He told the membership that some of our members are concerned that we have a Christian Gospel group sing at our meetings, as well as the American Flag being on stage. He explained that these members thought we should not be biased in our meeting, and not demonstrate any religious leanings. Mr. Rosser commented, "Personally, I am proud of my Christian Faith, as I am sure you are proud of your faith". He went on to say, "But since we try to abide by the wishes of our members whenever possible, we are going to put this issue to a vote. All in favor of continuing our tradition of having a Christian Gospel group for entertainment, as well as honoring our country by displaying our country's flag, please signify by saying aye". A resounding "aye" was heard all across the membership. When he asked for those opposed by like sign, a dead quiet came over the crowd. He then thanked the members.

The second area Mr. Rosser talked about was the telephone system along with what we are trying to accomplish with it. He acknowledged the fact that some "really like" the computerized answering system, and some that "really hate" it. He acknowledged that the younger the member, the more the computer is understood and appreciated. Mr. Rosser stated that, "Our reason for computer answering is simply more efficiency and the ability to handle significantly more calls. This applies especially to storm power restoration, where call volume is extremely high. This phone system is an integral part of our storm outage reporting and restoration system". As an example, he used Hurricane Jeanne that hit us in 2004 to Tropical Storm Fay that hit us in August, 2008. 2,800 phone calls were answered by Grady EMC personnel with Hurricane Jeanne as compared to Tropical Storm Fay with our computerized system answering 20,000 phone calls. This was comparing the same approximate time frame for both events. He stated, "In addition, this is without the added cost of 10 to 15 people to answer the phone, sort tickets, determine outage locations and hopefully not miss anyone".

Mr. Rosser then introduced a short video presentation outlining how the computerized outage system and telephone system work together as well as some interesting photos taken from Tropical Storm Fay. At the end of the video presentation, Mr. Rosser asked the audience to join him in a round of applause for the jobs their Board of Directors and employees do in putting together their annual meeting, and for striving constantly to provide you with the best possible service. In closing, Mr. Rosser thanked everyone for taking the time to attend and participate in their annual meeting. He then stated, "Please remember to keep our troops in your prayers, and may God Bless America".

The program was then turned over to Wayne Windham for the drawing of the gifts.