Submitted by Orcas Power and Light Cooperative.

The volunteer member Elections & Governance Committee has completed its nominations process and selected a slate of candidates for the 2022 OPALCO Board of Directors election. There are three open positions one in District 1 (San Juan, Brown, Henry, Pearl and Spieden islands), one in District 3 (Lopez, Decatur, Center and Charles islands) and one in District 4 (Shaw, Bell, Canoe and Crane islands). The following were nominated by a vote of the committee:

· District 1 (one open position): Steven Carleton, Jessa Madosky and Mark Madsen

· District 3 (one position open): Brian Silverstein

· District 4 (one open position): Jerry Whitfield

There is still time for members to declare their candidacy for the board election. Nominations by petition are due on February 18, 2022 at 12:00 PT (noon). Co-op members from Districts 1, 3, or 4 may submit their candidacy by 1) collecting no fewer than 20 names and signatures of bonafide OPALCO members who live in their district on a petition; and 2) completing the nominations forms at https://www.opalco.com/candidate-application/. The final slate of candidates will be posted on OPALCO’s website on March 4.

Get more information on OPALCO’s nominations process online: www.opalco.com/why-run. ALL OPALCO members vote in every election regardless of their home district. You can read more about the candidates on the OPALCO election hub: www.opalco.com/election-hub/.

A virtual Candidate forum is scheduled for March 15 via Zoom. Ballots and voting materials will be sent to members on March 11, the day the election opens, and also will be posted online at www.opalco.com. OPALCO is required to have 10% of the membership participate in the election each year and will be encouraging more participation by sending paper ballots to every member – in addition to email ballots for those who have requested them. Our third-party election vendor will make sure to count each member’s vote only once (members only vote once regardless of how many meters they have). Ballots are due online or by mail no later than 10:00 am PT on April 27th. Election results will be announced on Saturday, April 30th at OPALCO’s Annual Meeting (which will be virtual this year).

The current members of the Elections & Governance Committee are Doug Marshall, Rick Fant, Rob Thesman, Ray Glaze, Bill Appel and Bill Severson. There are open positions on the EGC. For more information on the EGC, or to apply to join the volunteer committee, email communications@opalco.com.