Substantial growth in portions of Rio Grande’s service territory necessitated a redistricting, or rebalancing, of director seats, in order to maintain fair and equitable representation. As a result of action taken during the regular board meeting February 15, a resolution related to redistricting was approved.
Rio Grande Electric has 13 directors, or seats, that are elected to the Board of Directors by its members to serve the Cooperative, as stipulated in Article IV of the Cooperative’s Bylaws.
Each Director represents a particular District or service area as designated on the area district map on file at the Co-op’s headquarters in Brackettville, Texas. The Board of Directors has the authority to determine the number of Districts and the make-up of the Districts, which they review each year to determine whether “significant inequities” exist between the Districts. In other words, to make sure that each district has the proper representation for the number of memberships being represented.
The Board of Directors has not adjusted the Districts in 25 years, with the last time being March 18, 1998. This year, after reviewing the Districts and their make-up, the Board of Directors determined that some adjustments needed to be made between the Districts in the interest of fair representation. To be more specific, they found that imbalances existed between Districts 1 and 2, as compared to other Districts of the Cooperative, due to growth in these Districts. And, growth in different portions of these Districts, necessitated moving the boundary line between the 2 Districts.
The Board also found that inequities exist between District 9, as compared to other Districts which only have one director representing the District. This situation necessitated dissolving the vacant director seat in District 9, and reallocating the Seat to District 2. This was done to equalize representation, as compared to other Districts which only have one Director. This decision was not taken lightly. Rio Grande’s Board has been closely monitoring the growth in these areas for over a decade. District 1 has increased by 98 members; District 2 has increased by 408 members, while District 9 has only increased by 63 members in 11 years.
The redistricting affected 117 members, which were moved from District 2 into District 1. This included 3 Member Advisory Committee members.
The new director seat for District 2 is open for nominations and election in accordance with the Cooperative’s Bylaws, beginning with the 2023 Director Election cycle, with the results announced at this year’s Annual Meeting. This information was discussed with the Member Advisory Committee, and the Nominating Committee has already begun work on recommendations for qualified candidates, to fill the additional District 2 seat. Regardless of which district you reside or own property in, be sure to participate in the election process.
In this world of increasingly automated tasks like self-checkout at the discount store, articles written by artificial intelligence, aka AI, and with the advent of such things as Chat GPT, it’s easy to get frustrated at the lack of “people power”. Don’t for a minute believe that the Co-op has replaced people with technology.
Phones. Rio Grande has automated some functions through the years, and we continue to do so to better serve you. We’ve heard from some, and seen comments on social media about not having a “real person” answer the phone when you call to report an outage. While we understand your point, the automated system operates more efficiently in times of high call volume than is humanly possible. We recently upgraded our phone system yet again, for a total of 46 lines. These lines are all tied to the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. The system can answer multiple calls simultaneously. As good as our dispatch team is, and they are very good, that is a feat that is beyond human capability. All reports are recorded and processed. Dispatch attempts to conduct “call backs” if requested, but during times of high call volume, it isn’t always possible. Remember that the storm which knocked out your power has likely just moved into another portion of the service territory, where the members there are now reporting their outages. When you enter your meter number upon calling to report an outage, it is not even necessary to leave a message. The outage report goes immediately to the Outage Management System. For your convenience, we’ve listed the all the phone menu options at the bottom of the page.
SmartHub. Maybe you would prefer to skip the phone and utilize another bit of automation and report through SmartHub. This app allows you to simply text the word “OUT” to report your outage, or “STATUS” to check the status of a previously reported outage. It doesn’t get much easier. To utilize this feature, you must have registered, but registration is a very simple process. Just go to the homepage at www.riogrande.coop, and you will see a black box which reads “Login & Pay Your Bill”. Under the gold LOGIN button, click on “Register for Online Access”.
Facebook Messenger. Outage reports are also accepted through Facebook Messenger. Please do not post your report on the Facebook Timeline, or under the comments of another post. We may not see it on a timely basis, and you could also expose your personal account information to all of social media. Please remember to provide your meter number when reporting your outage. Simply telling us “power is out on Oak Drive” won’t do it, as there could be multiple streets named Oak Drive within our 35,000 sq. mile service territory. Rio Grande is proud of being able to employ technology and automation to overcome the obstacles presented by the very nature of our service territory. Remember that there are always real people behind the technology and automation, and we are always here to serve you as efficiently and economically as possible.
RGEC Daytime Phone Menu
Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Press 0 for Operator, 1 for English, 2 for Spanish. Then select from the following options:
0. Speak to an operator
1. Report an outage*
*‘Report an Outage’ submenu:
1. Report a meter outage
2. Report a tree on the line
3. Report a fallen pole
4. Report a downed line
5. Leave a message
2. Company directory
3. Inquire about your bill
4. Update your phone number
5. Inquire about capital credits
6. Connect or disconnect electric service
7. Check the status of an existing outage
9. Repeat this menu
Might /Holiday Phone Menu
5:01 p.m. to 7:59 a.m. Monday through Friday, Weekends and Holidays. Press 0 for operator, 1 for English, 2 for Spanish. Then select from the following options:
0. Speak to an operator
1. Report an outage*
*‘Report an Outage’ submenu:
1. Report a meter outage
2. Report a tree on the line
3. Report a fallen pole
4. Report a downed line
5. Leave a message
2. Check the status of an existing outage
3. Inquire about your bill
4. Update your phone number
5. Company directory
9. Repeat this menu