2020 has certainly proven to be a challenging year, and that is no exception at your electric cooperative when it comes to hosting an Annual Meeting and holding board of director elections. The current state of Michigan mandates make it nearly impossible to hold large gatherings, and Thumb Electric’s Annual Meeting is no exception. At this point, there is a tentative plan to hold a small, scaled-down version of an Annual Meeting on Saturday, Dec. 5. If that date is not possible due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns, rest assured that we will still have an election to determine your board of directors. We will continue in 2020 to offer voting by mail that was initially introduced in 2019, and for the first time, we will offer online voting. In-person voting may or may not be an option this year, depending on circumstances. Here is a breakdown of how to vote if not in person.
Voting by mail. With the November/December issue of Country Lines magazine, you will be mailed a ballot that is unique to you. You will vote as you wish, put the ballot in a provided postage-paid envelope, and put it in the mail so it arrives at our election company by the Dec. 2, 2020, deadline. Please do not mail the ballot to TEC or drop it at the office. It must go to the address on the envelope.
Online voting. Members with a valid email address on file will receive an email notifying them that voting is open. Members will be able to click on a provided link (unique to each member within the broadcast email) and will be directly logged into their web ballots. Please consider making sure you have a valid email on file if you would like this option. A second option is once you receive your Country Lines magazine, you can go to the website listed. Once there, you will put in your provided credentials from the magazine. This will open your ballot and allow you to vote online.
Director candidates will be detailed in the November/December Country Lines magazine. With more voting options available to members, we hope to get more participation from members, which is a better representation of the democratic process.
As always, if you have any questions, please let us know.
