Customers may also nominate their own candidates for a seat on the board of directors
HUGHESVILLE, Md. (March 30, 2009)—Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO's) is moving ahead to fill five available Board seats up for election at SMECO's 2009 Annual Meeting in August. The board of directors has appointed 10 members to the 2009 Nominating Committee scheduled to meet on Saturday, May 9, at the Co-op's Hughesville Executive Building. This committee will select a slate of candidates for the available seats: one in Calvert County, two in Charles County, and two in St. Mary's County. No seats are up for election in Prince George's County.
SMECO is a cooperative which is owned by its members. All customers are members, and SMECO refers to them as customer-members. Co-op bylaws require SMECO to provide a mechanism for customers to nominate their own board candidates.
Any 15 or more SMECO members acting together may make other nominations by petition by Friday, June 26, 2009. Members running by petition should also complete and submit a Board of Directors Candidate Application. Nominations will be posted in each SMECO office and mailed to each member with the Annual Meeting notice.
SMECO customer-members interested in being nominated should complete a Board of Directors Candidate Application. Completed candidate applications should be submitted or mailed to SMECO, Attention: Joseph Densford, Board Attorney, 15045 Burnt Store Road, P.O. Box 1937, Hughesville, Maryland 20637 by Monday, May 4, 2009. To obtain a candidate application, contact Patty Tennyson at 301-274-4489 or Patty.Tennyson@smeco.coop.
SMECO's 2009 Annual Meeting will be held Wednesday, August 26. More than 1,300 members registered for last year's meeting. This year, absentee mail-in voting will also be available to those customer-members who are unable to attend the meeting. Details will be published in the Co-op's monthly newsletter.
The 2009 Nominating Committee members named by the current board of directors include:
-- Calvert County: Terence N. Gibson, Prince Frederick; and Alyce Schwallenberg, Huntingtown.
-- Charles County: Winston W. Burroughs, Sr., Waldorf; Joseph L. Gardiner, Jr., La Plata; and William B. Young, Jr., Waldorf.
-- Prince George's County: Manning Clagett, Accokeek; and Ernest H. Riess, Brandywine.
-- St. Mary's County: Edith M. Bell, Chaptico; George A. Brown, Loveville; and Catherine Brenda Coates, Lexington Park.
For more information regarding the committee, nominations, and qualifications of directors, refer to Article IV, Sections 4.02 and 4.03, of SMECO's bylaws. Bylaws may be obtained from any SMECO office or ordered from their website at http://www.smeco.coop/customer/brochures.html. A downloadable copy is also available at http://www.smeco.coop/pdfs/Bylaws%202008.pdf