Please join CHELCO for food, fun and prizes at our 75th anniversary celebration and annual meeting on Saturday, April 16.

Special activities this year include the Touchstone Energy hot air balloon, a video on the history of CHELCO, a 75th anniversary cutting board gift for each membership and special entertainment. The award-winning Niceville High jazz band will appear before the meeting. The Niceville High marching band, which includes the jazz band, will appear in the 2017 Tournament of Roses Parade. We also will have a local storyteller who recreates Franklin D. Roosevelt talk to us about the founding of electric cooperatives when rural areas had no electricity.

There will be sausage biscuits and donuts, exhibits, a high-voltage electrical safety demonstration and a drawing for door prizes. For the children, CHELCO will provide a bounce house and maze, plus a special drawing for children’s prizes and face painting.

Depending on the weather, there will be a limited number of tethered rides in the Touchstone Energy hot air balloon.

Registration opens at 9 a.m., with the Niceville jazz band playing at 9:30 a.m. The CHELCO history video will be at 10:30 a.m., followed by the business meeting at 10:45 a.m. At the business meeting, there will be reports from the board president and CEO, as well as the announcement of election results.

We can’t wait to see you there!

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CHELCO NewsVol. 21 | No. 3

March 2016

OnlinenowPaperless Billing: Sign-up for paperless billing during the month of March, and you will be entered to win one of 10 bill credits worth $50 each.

Find us @chelco1941 on YouTube for videos on electricity and your MyCHELCO cooperative.

Inside

Touchstone Energy hot air balloon

A lineman’s life: Growing up with a cooperative heart.

Savings: Co-op Connections card offers local and national discounts.

Anniversary: A roaming exhibit of CHELCO’s history.

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Join us at the 75th annual meeting

Embrace social media with CHELCOSocial media is a part of most people’s daily lives. Don’t hide from it; embrace it with CHELCO’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and more!

Becoming a part of CHELCO’s network allows you access to information on outages, events, energy tips, news and contests first. It is just another perk of being a CHELCO member. Any

member who likes or follows CHELCO on any social media outlet throughout the month of March will be entered in a drawing to win a $50 bill credit. Share any CHELCO page with your friends and followers, and you will be entered three times! #winning

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2 March 2016 CHELCO News

This newsletter is published monthly to provide information on news, events, services, energy advice and safety tips to the member/owners of CHELCO. Comments and questions should be directed to newsletter@chelco.com or (850) 892-2111.

CHELCO ballot packages will be mailed this monthThe 2016 Board of Trustees election ballots will be mailed after March 11. Please keep an eye out for yours.

Members will elect trustees for Districts 2, 4, and 6. Incumbents Terry Pilcher and Gerald Edmonson, Districts 2 and 6 respectively, do not have opponents. District 4 incumbent James Hagan will face previous board member Dewyne Douglass. Additionally, nominations by petition were still possible at deadline for CHELCO News. If there are additional candidates, they will be listed on the election materials. Candidate biographies will be included in the packet.

The ballot packet will include CHELCO annual meeting information, the ballot and a self-addressed, postage-paid envelope to make voting easy and convenient. All ballots must be received no later than April 11, and the election results will be shared at the annual meeting.

CHELCO to host charity golf eventCHELCO will host a charity golf tournament March 18 at Blackstone Golf Course in Mossyhead.

The four-person scramble will be $350 per team, which includes lunch. Hole sponsorships are $50. Registration and lunch start at 11:30 a.m. with tee times at 1 p.m. All proceeds will benefit the American Cancer Society Relay for Life and American Heart Association Heart Walk events, which are supported by volunteer employee teams from CHELCO. It will be a fun-filled day supporting two great causes!

CHELCO funds teacher grants for Okaloosa County school teachers CHELCO donated $6,000 to the Okaloosa County Education Foundation to fund teacher grants and other school-related projects. Six teachers from Baker School and Bluewater Bay Elementary will receive 2016 CHELCO teacher grants.

InBrief

A lineman’s lifeGrowing up with a cooperative heart is what makes BJ put members firstCHELCO is featuring our linemen as a beginning to an ongoing series of stories about our employees.

BJ Ealum’s family attended CHELCO annual meetings at Camp Timpoochee every year. He remembers it like yesterday: a large crowd of members enjoying electric co-op fellowship.

CHELCO history runs deep with BJ, from family to career. His own beloved grandmother, Ovela Ealum, signed up as the 141st member. The cooperative spirit is part of why BJ has so much of his heart at CHELCO.

BJ met best friend and future wife Johnnie Kay in high school, and they have been inseparable ever since. He was working at Summerlin Auto Parts in

DeFuniak Springs but wanted a career working outdoors that would provide security for the family they wanted to have. BJ landed a meter reader job with CHELCO, and just a short four months led to a lineman apprenticeship. It had been a few years since he was in school, and BJ leaned on senior linemen and others for help during his four-year apprenticeship program. CHELCO is like a family, and in a dangerous job such as line work, you have to trust and protect each other. Three grown boys and four grandkids later, he still leans on his family at CHELCO.

After 26 years, there probably isn’t a pole on the system he hasn’t touched. He still drinks coffee out of his 50th anniversary cup, when it’s washed. He participated

in the linemen rodeos for years, enjoying the fun, competition and practice.

He has worked in all weather, all hours of the day, all over the system and restored power to thousands of members. Sometimes, he missed a ball game or awards ceremony, and Johnnie Kay was strong for the family so he could work to keep the lights on.

When BJ reflected on what’s different since CHELCO’s 50th and this year’s 75th anniversaries, growth in membership and improved technology are among the apparent changes.

But still, little has changed in the way the co-op provides safe, reliable power to the members. And members always come first. And, that will never change.

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But you also get to learn more about the business you own

CHELCO is gearing up for its 2016 annual meeting, which is a special time for co-op members to gather, share experiences, enjoy some entertainment and hear from co-op leadership. This year, with it being the 75th annual meeting, the event will be even more special.

CHELCO employees work hard to host this fun event, and we encourage you to attend with your family and enjoy yourself as a member of an electric cooperative. We know you look forward to the food, entertainment and prizes. This year we will have a few special additions to the meeting. The Touchstone Energy hot air balloon will be there, weather permitting, and we are giving our members a special 75th anniversary cutting board as a gift. We

also created a video on our corporate history to share our story with members. Of course, we provide entertainment, prizes and activities for the kids every year.

CHELCO’s annual meeting is an opportunity to learn more about what the co-op is doing to ensure you have safe, reliable and affordable electricity. The results of the election for the Board of Trustees will be announced as well.

Your electric cooperative is not owned by far-away investors, and it is not run by an appointed board of directors. CHELCO is governed by a democratically elected board that is given the privilege to serve because of your vote. You will receive a mail ballot in March, so please review the information and send in your vote by the deadline indicated.

So, at this year’s annual meeting, not only will you have a blast (and maybe win a prize!), but also you will feel good knowing that you are part of a membership that impacts one of our most vital resources, electricity.

From all of your friends at CHELCO, we hope to see you April 16 at the annual meeting. Remember you are a member-owner, and we are all MyCHELCO!

Insights

STEVE RHODESChief Executive Officer

Sure annual meeting is fun...

CHELCO is governed by a nine-member board of trustees: Pat Carlyle, District 1; Terry Pilcher, District 2; Jim Bishop, District 3; James Hagan, Assistant Secretary/Treasurer, District 4; Ronald Jones, President, District 5; Gerald Edmondson, Vice President, District 6; Bert Prutzman, District 7; Gayle Hughes, Secretary/Treasurer, District 8; Burt Cosson, District 9.

Co-op Connections discount cards are a just another benefit of being a member of this co-op. Dozens of local businesses, plus thousands nationally, offer discounts to co-op members.

Thank you to Air Services of America LLC, with locations in Panama City and Vernon, and Sleep Inn & Suites in DeFuniak Springs for signing up and offering even more great discounts locally for our members.

CHELCO members can receive 10 percent off at Air Services of America on labor and parts with their Co-op Connections card.

Sleep Inn & Suites is offering 10 percent off its best available rate. TripAdvisor rated the DeFuniak Springs location number one in Florida out of 383 hotels, according to Manager Austin Pace.

If you don’t have your Co-op Connections card, call today, and we will mail you one. If you are a business that would like to offer CHELCO’s 47,000 members a discount, we would love to explain the free program. Call CHELCO’s marketing department at 850-892-2111. Check out chelco.com under programs and services tab, then Co-op Connections card. You

can also check out the link to find out all the local and national deals.

Co-op Connections card offers local and national discounts

The savings add up!

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POSITIVEEnergy

Energy AdvisorTina Rushing

Spring clean for energy efficiency

Water heating accounts for 14-25% of the energy your home consumes. Set the temperature to warm (120°F) to save energy.

Tip of the month

CHELCO’s 75th anniversary display will be located at the Florida Chautauqua Association’s exhibit hall located at 1290 Circle Drive, DeFuniak Springs, through mid-March. Some of the display items include a photograph viewer, meter base with original seal, Willie Wirehand and various kitchen and grooming gadgets. Take a tour and enjoy seeing some really neat things gathered by our community for this celebration of light. CHELCO thanks the many employees and trustees, community members and local organizations for providing many great items for the display.

Spring cleaning can translate to creating a home that is more energy efficient. Follow these tips from Touchstone Energy’s Together We Save program as the days get longer and warmer:

• Change filters regularly. Change furnace and air conditioner filters monthly. Dirty filters restrict air flow and reduce the overall efficiency of your heating and cooling system by making it work harder on hot summer days.

• Clean the refrigerator inside and out. Check the temperature settings on your refrigerator. Ideally, a refrigerator’s temperature should be between 37 and 40 degrees for maximum operating efficiency. Dust the vent to ensure it’s running at top notch efficiency.

• Think sun block. By pulling down the shades on your windows this spring and summer, you could save about $35 a year. Your house will stay cool and comfortable year-round.

• Enjoy spring breezes. Use a clothesline during warmer months and let sunlight and breezes dry clothes naturally. This will reduce your electric bill by not running a dryer, and add a genuine clean scent to your family’s laundry.

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