Category: Uncategorized

Members who attend Claiborne Electric’s 2022 Annual Membership Meeting on June 11 will vote on two proposed amendments to the Cooperative’s Bylaws.

“The two proposed changes would add language to the Bylaws giving Claiborne Electric’s Board of Directors the latitude to approve an Annual Meeting to be held in any format,” said Claiborne Electric’s General Manager & CEO Mark Brown. “We have typically had a large in-person meeting. This is our second year hosting a drive-thru meeting. There may come a time in the future where a virtual meeting makes sense. These changes simply give the Board of Directors permission in the Bylaws to hold the meeting in the format that is best for the membership at that time, and to handle each Annual Meeting’s order of business appropriately.”

The proposed changes are as follows:

Proposed change 1 – To add the sentence printed in bold to Article III, Section 1, to read as follows:
ARTICLE III
Meeting of Members
Section 1. Annual Meeting

The annual meeting of the membership shall be held at such place and time as approved by the Board of Directors and designated in the notice of meeting for the purpose of passing on reports for the previous fiscal year, conducting Director elections, if needed, and transacting such other business as may come before the meeting. This meeting shall be held in any format approved by the Board of Directors. Failure to hold the annual meeting at the designated time shall not work a forfeiture or dissolution of the Cooperative.

Proposed change 2 – To add the sentence printed in bold to Article III, Section 7, to read as follows:
Section 7. Order of Business

The order of business at the annual meeting of the members and, so far as possible, at all other meetings of the members, shall be essentially as follows:

(1) Report as to the number of members present in person in order to determine the existence of a quorum.
(2) Reading of the notice of the meeting and proof of the due publication or mailing thereof, or the waiver or waivers of notice of the meeting, as the case may be.
(3) Reading of unapproved minutes of previous meetings of the members and the taking of necessary action thereon.
(4) Presentation and consideration of reports of officers, Directors and committees, if any.
(5) Report on Director elections, if conducted
(6) Unfinished business.
(7) Such new business as shall have been published in the agenda incorporated into the official notice of the meeting.
(8) Adjournment.

The Board of Directors may deviate from the order of business outlined above should they deem it necessary to accommodate the requirements of an alternate format for the meeting.

“I would encourage members to vote yes for these proposed changes,” Brown said. “Because the proposed amendments are interconnected, we are asking members to vote collectively on the changes.”

Ballots for the vote will be given to members as they arrive at the 2022 Annual Membership Meeting, and will be collected in the registration area. Members can choose from two sites to register and vote – one at Claiborne Electric’s headquarters office (12525 Hwy. 9 in Homer), and one at D’Arbonne Woods Charter School (9560 Hwy. 33 in Farmerville). Drive-thru registration will take place on June 11 from 9 a.m. until noon.

“One of the most important things about a Co-op is the democratic nature of the business. Decisions are made by you, the members,” Brown said. “Please don’t take that responsibility lightly. Attend the meeting and participate in the democratic process of voting.”

Claiborne Electric Cooperative awards annual college scholarships to high school seniors who are Claiborne Electric members or whose parents or guardians are members of Claiborne Electric. Scholarships are awarded by drawing from among eligible submissions. Scholarship drawings occur in conjunction with Claiborne Electric’s Annual Meeting.

Terms and conditions of Claiborne Electric’s scholarship program are as follows:

• Only high school seniors who have been Claiborne Electric members for at least one year, or students whose parent(s) or legal guardian(s) are active members, will be eligible. Students must have been residing in the household with the member for at least one year at the time of the drawing to be eligible.
• The scholarships are only good for institutions of higher education in the state of Louisiana.
• Scholarship checks will be made out directly to the school and must be used within two years after being awarded for tuition, books, or room and board.
• Recipients will be eligible only once for the scholarship drawing.

To view the December  2020 Board Meeting Agenda, click here.

To view the November 2020 Board Meeting Minutes, click here.

Thank you.

Those two words don’t seem adequate. In the wake of Hurricane Laura, most parts of our service territory were left sitting in destruction we haven’t seen in decades. On August 27, when the storm left our area after four hours of sustained 70-90 MPH winds, 98% of our meters had no electric service.

Restoration efforts began immediately, and we have many to thank for their help in that tremendous task. First, we would like to thank our employees for their unending loyalty and dedication to our cooperative and its members. They worked from before sunrise to well after dark for ten days, away from their families, and we are proud they wear a uniform with our logo on the chest. We would also like to thank our members for their help, their patience, and their support and provision during the outages and clean-up left by the storm.

We have so many others to thank. Local organizations stepped up to help provide services and supplies for us to do our jobs well. Contractors and crews from our sister cooperatives came from across the state and from other states to bring extra hands and a lot of equipment in order to help restore power to our members. The following is a list of the organizations, cooperatives, and contractors we would like to thank for their help:

Association of Louisiana Electric Cooperatives
Jeff Arnold and staff at ALEC
Aaron Graham, ALEC
Oklahoma Electric Cooperatives
Choctaw Electric Cooperative
Cotton Electric Cooperative
East Central Electric Cooperative
Rural Electric Cooperative
Arkansas Electric Cooperatives
ECHO Powerline, LLC
RAMCO, LLC
VOLT Power
Sparks Energy, Inc.
Town of Farmerville – Works Department
Randy Wright – Fast Pak Catering
Claiborne Parish Schools
Claiborne Parish Police Jury
Union Parish Police Jury
Webster Parish Police Jury
Lincoln Parish Police Jury
Alpha Energy Services
Red Rock Rentals
Homer Seafood
Bernice Pharmacy
Ol’ West Barbeque
Lee Baby’s
Dwayne and Kyle Woodard

Claiborne Parish Sheriff Sam Dowies & Deputies
Lake D’Arbonne State Park
Shaun Kafka and Harris Baptist Camp
Coca-Cola Bottling Company
Rolling Hills Ministries
Louisiana Bridge, Inc.
Ridge Rentals, LLC
Mamoo’s Catering
Big Star – Terry Morris
Dear Hometown Donuts
Homer McDonalds
Piggly Wiggly
Homer Motor Supply
Marsalis Crossroads
RelaDyne
Paron Baptist Church
FBC Farmerville
Read’s Lumber
Tidy Bubbles
Crump Oil
Ronnie McKenzie
Tommy Sanders
Dennis Butcher
Tommy Sevin
Keith Cook
Mary Jane Pace
Lynn Ramsey
Jeanette Zachry

A message from the Manager, in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura

Friends,

First and foremost, I would like to thank you for the overwhelming support we have been shown in the last three days in the wake of Hurricane Laura. I am astounded by our members, and I want you to know we appreciate you.

I also understand the complaints that have come in about being without electricity. It is hot and humid. Members are uncomfortable and greatly inconvenienced by the lack of electric service. Some believe there are no clear answers to questions related to restoration, adding to the frustration. I do understand. Let me take a moment of your time, not to make excuses but, to explain our dilemma.

In our current situation, we are unable to predict with any degree of accuracy exactly when most of our members will see their service restored. There are numerous reasons why. I’d like to share two.

Despite the fact that even before the storm hit, we brought in more assistance to help us in our restoration efforts, this storm is like no other we have experienced in the history of our cooperative. At no time have we ever suffered Category 1 hurricane force winds for four hours within our cooperative’s territory. At no time in our past have we experienced a storm that so completely covered our territory that, at one point in time, we had more than 98% of our meters without power.

We did plan ahead for this event. We knew the storm was coming and staged 12 full construction line crews here at the cooperative in advance of the storm. We also brought in 4 damage assessment crews to assist. We even brought in additional right-of-way crews to help us deal with clearing fallen trees and limbs. Once the storm was upon us, we made the decision to bring in even more crews to assist. In addition to our own personnel, we now have 20 full line construction crews on the job and another 3 right-of-way crews complete with bucket trucks working in this effort.

Even with the extra help, the going is slow. The damage is widespread and varied. In places it is mostly downed trees with power lines pinned under them. In others, poles and crossarms have been broken and must be replaced. We are making significant progress in bringing lights back to our members. As I write this note to you, we have fewer than 10,000 meters without power. That’s down from more than 23,000 initially. This is an unprecedented event for us.

We are faced with another problem in our restoration efforts, one in which we have absolutely no control. That is, we currently have no transmission service into 5 of our distribution substations. These substations represent more than 8,000 of the meters still without power. Without transmission service into a substation, there is no electricity to distribute to our members.

Entergy controls much of the transmission line in Louisiana, including the transmission lines that deliver power to our substations currently without service. We recognize Entergy was stricken with the same catastrophic weather event the entire state endured. We understand that maintaining and repairing these transmission lines is a monumental task. We still feel we are entitled to ask for these lines to receive priority treatment given the number of families and businesses affected, but we have absolutely no control of how they choose to prioritize their restoration efforts with regard to these lines they own.

We are not alone in our problems in receiving transmission service. They provide this service to most of the utilities affected by Hurricane Laura. We have complained to Entergy. We have filed complaints with our power supplier CLECO Cajun. We have even spoken with state officials regarding our problems. Entergy has been slow to respond, but they are beginning to make some progress.

Under normal circumstances, we would not mention problems we are experiencing with a neighboring utility. However, our members deserve answers to questions as to why it is taking so long to restore our members’ power. The two primary drivers of the time requirement are the unprecedented, damaging nature of the event and delays in receiving transmission service to many of our substations.

The combination of the two factors has made it difficult, if not impossible, to accurately predict when an individual member might receive service. This is the reason we have been reluctant to speculate estimated restoration times when members have called or messaged.

Please know that we are doing everything in our power to restore power to our members as safely and as quickly as possible. Our crews in the field and in the office are working from before 6 a.m. until after dark. Many of them are sleeping in homes that do not have power. They are getting the job done, and we are so appreciative of the patience and understanding of our members.

Thank you,

Mark Brown

General Manager & CEO

Claiborne Electric General Manager and CEO Mark Brown has announced that the 2020 Annual Meeting has been canceled as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The meeting had previously been postponed from April to July. Brown said as the July date drew near, the decision was made to cancel the meeting and not reschedule later in the year. At the July 1 meeting of Claiborne Electric’s Board of Directors, the official decision was made to cancel the meeting.

“We hoped that everything would line up, the virus would dissipate, and we would get to hold our meeting,” Brown said. “This is the biggest day of our annual work schedule. It’s the day we get to see so many members face-to-face and take care of important business. Currently, however, it just isn’t prudent to host an event of this size.”

Brown said that in discussions with officials at Louisiana Tech University’s Thomas Assembly Center, rescheduling the meeting for later in 2020 was not possible.

“We appreciate our friends at LA Tech and how hard they work for us every year. This is the perfect venue for our meeting, and we look forward to being back there in 2021,” Brown said.

At the 2020 meeting, members would have voted on important amendments to the Co-op’s bylaws. According to Brown, those amendments would increase transparency and participation in Board elections while simultaneously streamlining the process. He said those amendments will be presented at the 2021 Annual Meeting.

Although Brown said the decision to cancel the meeting was disheartening, he believes it is simply the best thing to do in the interest of the Co-op’s employees and members.

“This is the day where we traditionally try to show our members how much we appreciate them,” Brown said. “This year, we will demonstrate that above all, we value the health and safety of our members and employees. They are our friends and neighbors, and we want them safe and well.”

To view the May 2020 Board Meeting Minutes, click here.