Hometown Service on Display at Annual Meeting
by Rita-Lyn Sanders, Director of Marketing and Communication
GRAND JUNCTION, COLO. - (September 11, 2024) I am fortunate in that my work anniversary at Grand Valley Power is punctuated with our annual meeting of the members. And this year, it ended with an exclamation point:
“Bravo! Last night’s annual meeting was superb,” wrote GVP member Doris Janowski in her email. “Congratulations on five years of no lost-time accidents. That is spectacular. It is a wonderful indication of the morale and cohesiveness of the entire company. Workers in a good place with a good attitude can focus on being safe.”
The annual meeting is our opportunity to bring members together to vote in director elections, learn about cooperative business, and celebrate successes. Each meeting is born of a theme that highlights the year’s accomplishments and brings our cooperative’s character to life. This year, The Art of Hometown Service placed the focus squarely on what Grand Valley Power does best.
Together we celebrated:
- Five years of no lost-time accidents. The receipt of the 2023 Overall Achievement in Excellence Award for safety from the Colorado Rural Electric Association.
- One of the top reliability scores in the state, with an average of 68 minutes of outage time per consumer in 2023.
- An energy portfolio that sources more than half — 55% — of the power that we deliver to members from renewables like wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, and hydroelectricity.
- $19,000 in scholarships awarded to students living in households served by Grand Valley Power.
- More than 115,000 kilowatt-hours credited to low-income households in 2023 from Grand Valley Power’s income-based solar project.
These accomplishments are all evidence of how Grand Valley Power team members work — together — to empower members’ lives through the Art of Hometown Service.
More than 450 people — including members, directors, guests, employees, and retirees — enjoyed a meal and good company and heard about these achievements and others that have occurred over the past year.
Attendees also received a package of beautiful notecards commemorating hometown paintings by local artist and long-time Grand Valley Power member Gerald Fritzler. These are the same paintings featured in the Annual Report to our members and highlighting the annual meeting on our social media feeds.
Then there was a delicious dinner — complete with Palisade peach pie — and amazing door prizes. Those included several bill credits and gift cards; a Yeti cooler and ice bucket donated by our future wholesale energy supplier, Guzman Energy; and a quarter 4-H beef purchased at the Mesa County Junior Livestock Auction by our friends at Alpine Bank. Thanks to our partners Western United Electric Supply and Ireland Stapleton and to local business JR’s Carriage Service for their donations to the prizes.
We also thank the Fruita Monument High School FFA students who helped with parking and the staff at Colorado Mesa and Sodexo for their services.
Like last year, we ended the meeting by answering members’ questions submitted with their online RSVP. From among our 230-plus members who RSVPd, we received seven questions on topics such as cybersecurity, the power grid, green energy, electric rates, and cooperative finances. Tom Walch, GVP Chief Executive Officer, took the time to make sure we answered these questions at the meeting for all of our members.
The attention and care that the Grand Valley Power team puts into serving our members and providing an engaging annual meeting is another example of our dedication to the Art of Hometown Service. Our employees are always working for you.
If you missed the event, we invite you to watch the 2024 Business Report video highlighting GVP’s accomplishments and key points from the meeting. Visit gvp.org/art to find the video.