SECO News
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F EBRUARY 2017
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t’s that time of year, and we are gearing up for our 79th Annual Meeting of the Membership. The event takes place on Saturday, March 25, at our Sumterville Compound at 293 S. Highway 301. Gates and registration open at 8 a.m., and the business meeting begins at 10:30 a.m. 182010
this year are $1,500 in cash, a truck and a golf cart. SECO is also giving away a $1,000 cash prize, two $500 cash prizes and a $300 Facebook bill credit. Additionally, we have a host of door prizes – many of which are donated by local businesses and vendors that are also our members.
Our Annual Meeting is about you – our member. As a not-for-profit electric cooperative, SECO is operated for the benefit of and owned by the members. SECO does not share dividends with stockholders or investors. Instead, and per the requirements of our business model and bylaws, our margins are allocated to the members themselves, used as equity for the financial health of the cooperative and returned/retired to the members upon Board of Trustee approval. 267701
All registered members receive a special SECO gift and a copy of our 2016 Annual Report, with an additional gift available in the Energy Showcase. A Q&A session wraps up the business meeting, so don’t be shy about asking a question. The door prizes start after the business meeting portion, so be sure to stay for the entire meeting. Given that we host nearly 4,000 guests in a short timeframe, parking is a pretty well-oiled machine managed by SECO employees supported by local law enforcement.
However, the meeting isn’t all business – we have fun around here too. Join us for breakfast biscuits, coffee, sodas, doughnuts and cookies. Browse our Energy Showcase to learn more about energy savings and visit with SECO’s energy partners. Kick up your heels to some of the best live entertainment by Margo Rochelle and the Rodeo Drive band. And visit with the Facebook Help Squad to learn how to enter the Facebook drawing for the $300 bill credit.
Your official Annual Meeting notice will arrive in either your February or March billing statement – depending on the date of your billing cycle. You don’t need to bring the notice to the meeting with you as we’ve developed an electronic check-in process that works best with a copy of your bill. Join me, along with your fellow cooperative members, the SECO Board of Trustees and many of SECO’s employees for the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Membership. 023902
If you’ve attended before, you know that we give away prizes galore! The grand prizes up for grabs
Let’s pray for mild weather this year. I hope to see each of you there.
DUNCAN’S DIGEST
FUN!
FOOD!
PRIZES!
FLORIDA’S CATTLE EGRET The Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis), native to Africa and Asia, is believed to have traveled across the Atlantic to South America in the late 1800s. From there, it migrated north to the US in the early 1940s. Over the next fifty years, it became one of the most prolific herons in all of North America. Today it is found in almost every state and on every continent except Antarctica. It is a year round resident of Florida. 423202
A friend to cows and other large mammals
This small white heron is commonly seen in groups along roadsides and in pastures as constant companions to cattle.
The Cattle Egret generally lives in pastures and wetlands. During the breeding season, it seeks out woods near water, but generally remains far away from water. This small white heron is commonly seen in groups along roadsides and in pastures as constant companions to cattle. Often it is seen perched on the backs of cattle where it gobbles up the bugs, ticks and other parasites that plague livestock – their diet benefits cattle, ranchers, farmers and themselves. It is an opportunistic feeder and will travel great distances to follow a tractor plowing, or mowing a field to catch grasshoppers, crickets, spiders and moths that are stirred up by farm machinery.
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Both male and female are similar in appearance, standing eighteen to twenty-two inches tall with a three-foot wingspan. Coloration is generally white with a yellow bill and dark green legs. Breeding age begins at two to three years of age. During its
twenty-day courtship, the bill and legs of breeding egrets turn a vivid red and display orange-buff colored plumes on the head and back. Nonbreeding egrets remain white. Cattle Egrets form colonies and prefer to roost and nest in trees near water. Males establish and defend a territory while the female lays two to six light blue-green eggs in a shallow, platform-like nest of twigs. Both parents incubate the eggs for twentyone to twenty-four days. Down-covered young have dark legs and a black bill.The young leave the nest about three weeks after hatching and are on their own at six weeks. In captivity the Cattle Egret has been known to live more than ten years; lifespan in the wild is unknown. Column & photo by Sandi Staton – sandi.staton@gmail.com
“Hidden” Account Numbers
Don’t forget to look for the last six digits of your account number in this month’s SECO News. You can email us at customerservice@secoenergy.com or call if your number appears. Six winners will be drawn at random from all submissions.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES Ray F. Vick
Dillard B. Boyatt
Jerry D. Hatfield
Richard J. Belles
President, District 5 Vice President District 9
Robin R. Henion
District 2 District 3
Richard Dennison District 4
386003 The Board of Trustees will meet on Tuesday, February 21, at 2:30 p.m. in the Corporate Offices at 330 South US HWY 301 in Sumterville. A Trustees’ meeting will also be held on Monday, March 27, 2017.
Secretary-Treasurer District 7
Earl Muffett
2 4 / 7 Jo b Ho tl i n e: (8 5 5 ) 4 8 3 - 2 6 7 3 www.secoenergyjobs.com
Scott D. Boyatt
Bill James
Report an Outage: (800) 732-6141 www.secostormcenter.com
District 1
District 6 District 8
SECO Energy is an equal opportunity provider and employer.