70th Annual Meeting is a change of pace
A few days after we announced that Cherryland Electric Cooperative would hold its 70th Annual Meeting at Wuerfel Park on June 11, the phone rang at my desk.
“Is it true that you’re going to have the meeting at the baseball park and serve hot dogs, chips and a soft drink for dinner?,” asked an older sounding woman.
“Yes, it’s true and we hope you can come,” I said.
“Well, I HATE baseball,” she said.
“Well, you can still come to the business meeting and eat dinner,” I replied.
“Do you expect me to get filled up on a hot dog, chips and soft drink?” she asked.
Before I could answer, she told me her Plan B for dinner.
“I’ll eat that dinner but I’m also bringing Arby’s to the park so I won’t go hungry.”
She wanted an argument, but I didn’t bite… literally.
“If you do bring Arby’s,” I said, “could you bring me one of their beef and cheddar sandwiches? I love them.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone.
“Well, I think you should change the meeting back to the way it’s always been,” she said. “I go every Saturday in June for your breakfasts. Why did you change from Saturday?”
“Actually, we haven’t held our Annual Meetings on Saturday for a couple years,” I told her. “We switched to Thursday meetings three years ago.”
“No you didn’t,” she shot back. “I was there for breakfast a year ago.”
By this time, it was apparent what was happening. If I said the sky was blue, she was going to tell me it was red.
So I tried another tact.
“You sure have a young sounding voice,” I said.
She was silent for a moment.
“Well, I’m 80-years-old and people have told me that my entire life,” she said. “You’re not telling me something I don’t already know.”
With that, my hand shot up. Check Please!
She ended the conversation by voicing her disgust for baseball and then slamming the phone down.
She probably won’t be at our Annual Meeting on June 11, but we hope you can make it. So far, the members we have talked to have been excited about going to Wuerfel Park this year.
The gates will open for Cherryland members at 3 p.m. The business meeting will start at 4 o’clock and last until 5, when the gates open to the general public for the Beach Bums game that night.
We will have 600 tickets and meal vouchers set aside for Cherryland members. Members will sit along a designated area along the third base line for the Annual Meeting, then move to the assigned seats on their tickets after the business meeting ends.
From 5 to 7 p.m., Cherryland members can present their food vouchers and get dinner, watch batting practice and walk out to the area beyond right field where Cherryland will have employees set up to answer questions about our new AMR system, Operation Roundup, our Co-op Connections card and anything else they wonder about.
John and Leslye Wuerfel, along with Beach Bums director of operations Jeremy Crum, have helped make this Annual Meeting happen. We’re looking forward to celebrating our 70th anniversary by trying something different.
We realize not everyone likes baseball, hot dogs and apple pie. But we’re convinced that a little change of pace will hike our Annual Meetings numbers, which have hovered between 250 and 300 attendees. We think we can double that number, educate our members and have a fun-filled evening at Wuerfel Park.
Hope to see you there.
|
|
Electrifying News Articles
|
|
|
|
Latest Cooperative News
|
|
|
|
