SWCE Annual Meeting

SWCE’s Annual Meeting will be held Tuesday, June 6, 2023 – starting at 10:30 A.M. at the cooperative’s headquarters located at 2411 West Bridge Street in Owatonna.

The doors for this year’s meeting opens at 9 a.m. Please read the June 2023 Sparks for details, and bring your registration card with you.

News Release

 June 7, 2023

Contact: Syd Briggs, Steele-Waseca general manager, 507-451-7340

Members at Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric’s 87th annual meeting approve updated bylaws, elect directors

Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric members in attendance for the co-op’s 87th annual meeting Tuesday, June 6, voted to approve updated articles of incorporation and bylaws in addition to electing three board members to three-year terms.

Of the 421 registered members in attendance, the proposed articles of incorporation and bylaws were approved 339 to 47. A question-and-answer session was conducted prior to the vote as members were mailed the new articles and bylaws, May 22, and received a copy as they registered for the meeting. It is the first change to the articles of incorporation since the co-op started in 1936. The last time Steele-Waseca members changed the bylaws was in 1995.

Board members elected to three-year terms by acclamation were incumbent District 7 Director John R. Beal, Faribault; and Scott J. Carlson, Faribault, in District 9, as each were unopposed. In District 8, incumbent Ronald D Sommers, Northfield, was re-elected by a margin of 256 to 131 for Bryan L. Finley, Northfield.

With guests, the co-op’s annual meeting had 892 in attendance. Steele-Waseca’s 2022 Youth Tour Delegate Nate Seykora of Owatonna had a PowerPoint presentation on his experience last year in Washington, D.C. The co-op also recognized their 2023 Youth Tour Delegate Fred Klokonos of Lonsdale, who will be joining Minnesota’s delegates to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s Youth Tour in Washington, D.C., June 13-18.

At the conclusion of the annual meeting, the co-op’s board of directors met for their reorganizational meeting. The following officers were elected: Gary W. Wilson, Owatonna, president; Rodney D. Krell, Blooming Prairie, vice president; Ronald Sommers, secretary/treasurer; and PJ Duchene, Faribault, assistant secretary/treasurer.

Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric has nearly 11,900 service locations in a nine-county area including: Blue Earth, Dodge, Faribault, Freeborn, Goodhue, LeSueur, Rice, Steele, and Waseca counties.

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