Albemarle Soundsis published monthly by

Albemarle Electric Membership Corporation

P.O. Box 69Hertford, NC 27944

(252) 426-5735

Gary Ray, General ManagerChris Powell, Editor

Website and member portal:www.aemc.coop

Outages:1-800-274-2072

24-hour payments: (252) 426-4419

We are members of NC 811. Call 811 or 1-800-632-4949

two business days before you plan to dig. They will contact us to locate any underground

electric lines. It’s the law.

Two new employees were recently added to Albemarle EMC’s ranks.

Heather Ashley will be our new administrative assistant. Leah “Michele” Byrum will be our new customer service representative.

“We are delighted to add these new hires to our team,” said Gary Ray, general manager of Albemarle EMC.

“They both bring experience and capability to their positions.”Ashley lives in Edenton and has worked for the past two and a half years at the

State Employees Credit Union. She attended Western Carolina University where she earned bachelor degrees in early childhood education as well as business administration and law.

Byrum grew up in Pasquotank County and lives in Tyner. She worked for Trillium Health Resources, where she was a coordinator for children with autism. She is a graduate of Elizabeth City State University. She has a degree in English, with a concentration in speech.

New Employees Hired

Leah “‘Michele” Byrum

Heather Ashley

September 2018 Proudly serving the members of Albemarle Electric Membership Corporation

Albemarle EMC Carolina Country SEPTEMBER 2018 21

Annual Meeting Info on CoverPlease pay close attention to this month’s Carolina Country

cover wrap. It contains your personal annual report, proxy card and registration card for Albemarle EMC’s Annual Meeting. The meeting will be held Saturday, Sept. 8 at Perquimans County High School, in Hertford.

Included in the annual report is a special message from Executive Vice President and General Manager Gary Ray. The cooperative’s audited financial figures and statistics are located on the outside back cover. Director nominees profiles are located on

the inside of the back cover.Registration begins at 12:30 p.m. Please detach the registration card on the front

cover and present it at the registration table. Directors will be elected by acclamation for seats that are unopposed. Seats that are contested will be decided by a majority vote of the membership. Members may vote prior to or during the business meeting portion of the Annual Meeting. Members may also vote by proxy. If you are unable to attend, your completed proxy card must be received at Albemarle EMC’s office by Sept. 5. The mailing address is P.O. Box 69, Hertford, NC 27944.

Your board of directors, staff and employees are looking forward to speaking with you. Refreshments will be served from 12:30 to 1:15. Entertainment will begin at 1:15 in the auditorium. The business meeting will begin promptly at 2 p.m. Attendees will hear presentations regarding the state of their co-op.

September 2018Albemarle EMC Annual Report

This is Your Registration CardTear off this registration card and bring it with you to the Annual Meeting, which will be held at Perquimans County High School on Sept. 8, 2018. Registration begins at 12:30 p.m., and the meeting starts at 2 p.m. Door prizes will be drawn from registration cards only. You must be present to be eligible for prizes.

In the event that you or your spouse cannot attend the 2018 Annual Meet-ing on Sept. 8, you may authorize another member to vote as your proxy by completing the proxy form on the reverse side of this card. No member may vote more than one proxy. In order to be valid, the proxy must be received at the cooperative’s office by Sept. 27. (P.O. Box 69, Hertford, N.C. 27944)

Annual Meeting Official Notice

Annual Meeting Official NoticeYou are hereby notified that the 2018 Annual Meeting of members of Albemarle Electric Membership Corporation will be

held at the Perquimans County High School in Hertford, Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018. Registration begins at 12:30 p.m. The Annual Meeting will begin at 2 p.m. The following is an agenda of scheduled business:

1. Reports of officers and general manager.2. Election of three directors to each serve a three-year term.3. For the transaction of such other and further business as may come before said meeting or any adjournments thereof.

District 1 (Camden)Glenn Carey

District 5 (All Counties)Virgie Whitehurst

District 3 (Pasquotank)John Spence

The following individuals have been nominated as candidates for directorships on the Albemarle EMC Board of Direc-tors:

Please note that the co-op may have been made aware of additional nominees for board seats after this publication went to press. If so a special mailing will be sent to the membership prior to the Annual Meeting, listing all candidacies for board seats.

The Albemarle Community Trust recently awarded three grants that will greatly benefit the area.

The Heritage Association received a $500 grant for the Heritage Farm Festival,

held each year in Edenton. The grant will be used to pay for renting the John A. Holmes High School’s school grounds, advertisement and demonstrators.

The Albemarle Development Corporation received a $500 grant to help fund a Real World Simulation event. The event is used to educate area students about the cost of living and how their

education, career choices and lifestyles decisions have a bearing on their financial stability.

The Albemarle Pregnancy Resource Center and Clinic received a $1,000 grant. The funds will be used to purchase

bookshelves, test kits for sexually transmitted diseases, two file cabinets, workbooks for individual parenting sessions and advertising.

The Albemarle Community Trust is funded by Albemarle EMC members who contribute voluntarily through their power bills. Members can opt out at any time.

From left are: Janet Mackenzie and Joseph Goodwin.

From left are Nextgen employees: Lora Aples and Cassandra Peele.

From left are APRCC employees Terry Sweeney, Deb Burroughs and Dee Spruce.

Albemarle EMC Carolina Country SEPTEMBER 2018 22

Bylaws Relevant to the Election of Directors

Section 3.08 Election of DirectorsAt each annual meeting of the Members, the Members shall elect each Director

by secret ballot when there is more than one (1) candidate for a given Directorate District, and the Director for that Directorate District shall be elected by a plurality vote of the Members present, in person and by proxy. Notwithstanding the above, during registration, and prior to a meeting at which Directors are to be elected, a locked ballot box may be placed inside or outside of the room, auditorium, hall, or other space in which the balloting will take place. In such event, Members and their proxies may cast Director votes prior to the time the annual meeting officially starts by placing their ballot in the box. Votes cast in such a manner shall be treated in the same manner as if the Member or proxy were present during the voting process during the annual meeting, and, as such, are irrevocable. In the event there is only one (1) candidate for a particular Directorate District, balloting for that District may be dispensed with, and voting may be conducted by those attending the Member meeting in person. Drawing by lot shall resolve, where necessary, any tie votes. There shall be no cumulative voting.

Section 3.09 ProxiesExcept as otherwise provided by these Bylaws, at any meeting of the Members

or any adjournment thereof, any Member, including Members that are Entities, may appoint an adult Close Relative, who shall be 18 years or older and reside principally in the same household as the Member, or another Member to vote on the Member’s behalf (“Member Proxy”). The Cooperative shall accept votes, as provided in these Bylaws, properly taken by a Member Proxy on a Member’s behalf as the Member’s vote. The proxy appointed by the Member must comport with the following:

(a.) It must be registered with the Secretary or the Secretary’s duly designated registrar before or at the time of the meeting or any adjournment thereof. However, if such proxy is to be voted upon any matter the carrying of which requires the affirmative votes of at least a majority of all the Cooperative’s members, the proxy must be registered with the Cooperative at its principal office during office hours on or before the third (3rd) business day preceding the date of the meeting or any adjournment thereof, as the case may be;

(b.) It must be executed by the Member in writing and designate the holder or alternate holder(s) thereof; and

(c.) It must specify the particular meeting and/or any adjournment thereof at which it is to be voted and must be dated not more than ninety (90) days prior to the date of such meeting or any adjournment thereof; provided, that, any mailed proxies not otherwise dated shall be deemed dated as postmarked if the postmark is satisfactorily evidenced; and provided further, that any proxy valid at any meeting shall be valid at any adjournment thereof unless the proxy itself designates otherwise or is subsequently revoked by another proxy or by the presence in person of the member at such adjournment.

A proxy may be unlimited as to the matters on which it may be voted or it may be restricted; a proxy containing no restriction shall be deemed unlimited.

In the event a Member executes two or more proxies for the same meeting or for any adjournment thereof, the most recently dated proxy shall revoke all others; if such proxies carry the same date and are held by different persons, none of them will be valid or recognized. The presence in person of a Member at any meeting or any adjournment thereof shall revoke any proxy theretofore executed by him for such meeting or for such adjournment thereof, as the case may be, and he shall be entitled to vote in the same manner and with the same effect as if he had not executed a proxy, unless said proxy had already been irrevocably cast. A person may vote as proxy for only one (1) Member on any matter.

Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this Section, whenever a member is absent from a meeting of the Members but whose spouse attends such meeting, such spouse shall be deemed to hold, and may exercise and vote, the proxy of such Member to the same extent that such Member could vote if present in person, unless some other qualified person holds such proxy in writing.

ACT Grants Support Area

Closed for Labor Day

Albemarle EMC will be closed Monday, Sept. 3rd,

in observance of Labor Day.

How Albemarle EMC works to provide its members with the highest-quality service possible.

Albemarle EMC is at Your Service

Albemarle EMC Carolina Country SEPTEMBER 2018 23

This year will mark the 73rd year that Albemarle EMC has been in business. Each year your co-op hosts an Annual Meeting for members. The meeting is an opportunity for members to elect directors to serve on the board. Members also receive a report from the general manager on the co-op’s business activities and financial health. This year’s Annual Meeting will be held Sept. 8 at Perquimans High School, in Hertford.

For those members who are new and maybe unfamiliar with a cooperative, a co-op is a not-for-profit business that offers significant advantages to its members. One of the main advantages of belonging to an electric co-op is that you are both a member and an owner. And as such, you have control over the cooperative’s activities. This control is exercised directly through voting at annual meetings and indirectly through those members you elect to the board of directors. Members have one vote, regardless of the amount of electricity purchased. You have a responsibility to attend the Annual Meeting in order to stay abreast of the co-op’s business and, if there is a contested election, to vote on the director you believe will best oversee the electric cooperative.

This manner of participation stretches all the way back to the 1940s when this cooperative was first created. Because for-profit electric companies would not provide service to much of rural eastern North Carolina, a group of rural residents organized to establish an electric co-op. The cooperative was initially funded by low-interest loans available from the federal government through the Rural Electric Administration, which was part of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal

program “to electrify rural America.” From those early beginnings, Albemarle EMC has grown and remained a viable means of providing low-cost electricity to members.

In many ways, cooperatives resemble other businesses. They have similar physical facilities, perform similar functions and must follow sound business practices. They are usually incorporated under state law by filing articles of incorporation granting them the right to do business. The organizers draw up bylaws and other necessary legal papers. Members elect a board of directors. The board sets policy and hires a manager to run the day-to-day operations. But in

other ways, cooperative’s are distinctly different from other businesses. These differences are found in the cooperative’s purpose, its ownership and control and how benefits are distributed. They are reflected in cooperative principles that explain the unique aspects of doing business on a cooperative basis.

Another significant difference is the manner in which margins, or profits, are distributed. It’s not totally accurate to say that cooperative’s operate at cost. Most cooperative’s do generate earnings (referred to as “margins”). However,

co-ops differ from for-profit firms in how they allocate and distribute those margins. A for-profit business retains its earnings for its own account, or perhaps pays part of them out to shareholders as dividends, based on the amount of stock each investor owns. In a cooperative, margins are usually allocated among the members based on the amount of business each member did with the cooperative. Margins are returned to members in the form of capital credits applied to bills.

Cooperatives also enable individuals to work collectively to increase buying power and lower costs. By banding together and purchasing business supplies and services as a group, electric co-ops can command lower costs.

The same can be said for marketing efforts. Albemarle Electric Membership Corporation is a Touchstone Energy company, which provides for a unified approach towards local as well as national marketing.

Moreover, by working collectively, electric co-ops have been able to generate considerable political clout. Through Political Action Committees, funds are generated to support political candidates who are beneficial to co-ops. This political muscle often directly translates into lower rates and more reliable electricity for the cooperative member.

Albemarle EMC remains a strong and viable cooperative mainly because of its members. By attending this year’s Annual Meeting on Sept. 8, you will be playing an important role in keeping your cooperative strong and well-positioned for the future.

Annual Meeting Attendance is Important

Albemarle EMC President John Spence addresses the members during the 2017 Annual Meeting.