IREA Voices - Concerning Recent IREA Letter
Michael Chiodo
Voices,
I imagine you have all received "the letter" from IREA by this point, the one that starts out, "The deepening economic crisis has greatly alarmed our member-consumers about future electricity prices."
The typical response we have received from Voices members goes something along the lines of:
"Can we get a list of all of the IREA member-owners and send out a counter letter in response to the offensive propaganda that we just received?"
Here are two problems with that plan:
1. IREA will only give out membership lists for the purposes of elections, to be used only for election related actions, and then that is only lists in the districts that have elections in a given election year.
2. IREA has 137,000 member-owners (or as they like to refer to us, "member-consumers"). Best case scenario, at $.50 a piece (postage and production) that letter just cost IREA $68,500 of our money to send out. That is best case scenario! Does anyone want to cough up the money to cover our response?
Do you think that this letter has no bearing on the upcoming elections? The General Manager of IREA will adamantly claim that this letter is not a conflict of interest for IREA. (I heard him make a similar but unrelated argument at last Tuesday's monthly board meeting.) I will not even speak to the abundant misrepresentations contained within the letter, but just consider the timing of it. When we get a letter playing into our fear of higher utility rates--not to mention our capital credit refund "present" that also just arrived--a couple weeks before the ballots get mailed out, what are some conclusions that we should draw? We are all smart people; let's read between the lines--not even very far--and figure it out. Here's one implication: "As long as our current Board of Directors stays intact, we will continue having low electric bills." Or let's explore the more threatening undertone that is the flip-side of that: "If we shake up the Board, our electric bills will increase." Worst case this letter is intentionally trying to influence the upcoming elections, which IREA management has no business taking sides in; best case, distributing this letter so close to an election is yet another example of the poor lack of judgement that is reflected in many positions IREA management takes.
Is it sinking in yet what we are up against? Do you think IREA is banking on our apathy or fear to maintain the status-quo?
If you had attended that Board meeting with me last Tuesday, you would know how ineffective our Board of Directors really is, the Board that is supposedly freely elected to serve our interests, keep us informed, and prevent the very abuses that IREA engages in with impunity. If only they would exercise the power we entrust them with...if only they realized the power they actually had...if only all seven of them were actually elected....
That is why we have been pushing you to join us in canvassing for new candidates; because the only way we are ever going to get anything to change with this co-op is to ELECT a Board of Directors that will not stand for this behavior and actually look out for the interests of us MEMBER-OWNERS and not the interests of the suits in the headquarters that our money built.
The opportunity to become responsible for our co-op is at hand. You may read this email and think, "Someone else will deal with this, I don't have time..." etc. etc. The problem is, there is no one else. You are the one. We are not talking to someone else. We are talking to you. We cannot be a "we" without you. We are all members of IREA Voices because we want to see many of the current practices of our electric co-op stopped, and new policies implemented which will carry us into the future to meet our energy needs. Well, the future is now, 'someday' has arrived!
Or, we can continue with business as usual and go back to complaining about the way things are and doing nothing about it. We have all done it, but it changes nothing.
The choice is yours, and the future of your co-op is in your hands.
This coming weekend, March 14th and 15th, will be the most critical weekend in this election. We could see the ballots anytime within the next 10 days. We need YOU to get the word out and educate potential voters in the three districts with elections. There are doors that need to be knocked on, there are phones that need to be called, and there are candidates that need volunteers with them at public locations greeting people.
We are also looking for someone with graphic design skills to help immediately with print ads.
Email mchi...@gmail.com or call (303) 731-6579 to volunteer in any of the districts,
Michael Chiodo
P.S. Those of you that have already join in, we thank you. Whether you have volunteered your time or donated even the smallest amount, we appreciate the actions you have taken.