As those members who come to board meetings know, GVEA prepares a single binder for members to look at when the meeting starts. This has sometimes nothing but the agenda and more often more info on items that are on the agenda. Members are not given copies or allowed to take anything from the binder. They have to request it on a form and wait for it to be approved/rejected. In order to save paper and make it more efficient to provide, I request the information electronically.
At the July board meeting I requested the following and got them in the mail a couple weeks later with a courtesy watermark on them. I've never seen this done with any requests. Perhaps the GVEA President wants to know where information I get is disseminated or checking up to see that board members don't give me anything - perish the thought that my board representative would share with me! Anyway, I'm baffled by this, but I am pleased to share what should be easily accessible by members.
Nominations Process Review
The recent Nominations Process review, after the messy nomination process of District 2 last spring. Note that, of the recommendations on page 4, the board did not approve term limits (item 7). Note also other recommendations which encourage more/better member communications. I'm not holding my breath. Three board members did apparently favor term limits: Tom Delong, John Sloan and Bill Digan (making one think he might not run again, as he's already server about 16 years. The other remaining members that did not support term limits on the board have been on that board in excess of 20 years, I believe.
GVEA Policy 1.2
Cooperative Mission, Vision, Values and Strategic Goals
This seems like something that members ought to have ready access to and been solicited on input. Instead, it was not provided to members until the meeting and, considering member comments take place at the beginning of the meeting, little time to evaluate and comment.
GVEA Policy 5.4 Equity Development
This is what determines the basis for rates. It was discussed heavily during the attempted implementation of the Generation and Transmission Co-op. The higher your tier, the more you have to save and the less that comes back to the members in capital credits. There is an amount that generates better credit for borrowing, but it is a balance. I'd recommend learning about TIER (Times Income Earned Ratio) and talking to your board rep.
GVEA 2008 Annual Meeting minutes (draft)
These are the minutes the board approved to forward to the membership. Please note that the members who spoke were acknowledged by name only and general topics brought up without attribution. I'd think it would be respectful of members who did speak that they be given one sentence each saying what they spoke about and what their opinion was. If this is not revised, the membership can move to include this information. It would be a lot more helpful if the board asked this be done in advance. It really makes them look bad and really, for no good reason.
I also asked for a copy of the board retreat report. This gave a good picture of the workings of the board, valuable for anyone who might be willing to run and serve. I was told this was an internal document, thus would not be provided. I submit that, it was not considered executive restricted material and was available to members at the meeting, so it should be available to members by copy.
In this posting, I've discussed ways that GVEA makes it hard for members to get information from them. Interestingly enough, in the above strategic goals document, page 1 3. Values, it pledges 'open and transparent communications with our members'. You gotta love those little inconsistencies.
At least one can now see the agendas and minutes (1.5-2 mo. after the fact.) on line. It only took a 5 year effort to make that happen.
