The 53rd Annual Meeting of Members for Tri-County Telephone Association, Inc. was held Tuesday, March 29th at the Herington Community Building.
Following the meal members viewed a video presentation by Council Grove High School student, Chelsea Watson, about her participation in the Foundation for Rural Service Youth Tour of Washington D.C.
After the presentation, Board Vice-President Anita Hummel presented the 2016 TCT Scholarship awards to area students. Scholarship winners were, District #1- Katlin Tanner, White City High School, daughter of Michelle Schmidt. District #3 – Abigail Svoboda, Centre High School, daughter of Anita Svoboda. District #4 – Savannah Laudemann, White City High School, daughter of Bill Laudemann. District #5 – Michelle Murphy, Council Grove High School, daughter of Amy Cott, and Member at Large – Jake Anderson, White City High School, son of Junior and Terri Anderson. District #2 winner, Keegan Honas, Council Grove High School, son of Gallan and Heather Honas was unable to attend the meeting. Scholarships are given to graduating high school seniors, who maintain a 2.5 GPA and have a parent or legal guardian with TCT local telephone access. A $1,000 scholarship is awarded for each of the five TCT voting districts in addition to one “at large” scholarship from all remaining applications.
TCT Board of Directors President, Dan Reiff opened the business meeting and Rob Bresnahan of Kieslings and Associates gave the financial report. Reiff then gave the President’s report and C.E.O. Dale Jones gave the manager’s report. In his presentation Mr. Jones updated members on the serious issue of copyright infringement and the effect they have on the company. Mr. Jones also updated the membership on TCTTV programming costs, the company’s venture with Nex-Tech Wireless, and TCT’s Smart Rural Community Award designation. Mr. Jones also showed the members how successful the new voting by mail-in ballot method was, compared to the prior method of voting only during the Annual Meeting. TCT saw an increase of 420 percent, or an additional 830 votes, with the new voting method.
Election announcements for the Board of Directors and one amendment to the Bylaws were announced by Mr. Bresnahan. The Bylaw amendment was approved. The Members re-elected Shawn Tiffany for District #1, Kenny Stroda for District #3, and Linda Wessel for District #5. Kelli Cox was elected to serve for departing Board Member Anita Hummel in District #4.
Following the announcement of election results, President Reiff called for any unfinished business and new business, but there was none.
TCT Marketing Director, Scott Bankes, announced the winners of the prize drawings. Cash prizes totaling $1,150 were awarded, along with a 40″ LED TV, donated by Alan Meyer. The TV winner was Bill Lorson. $20 cash prize winners were: Roger Diekmann, Eldon Wuthnow, Susan McConnell, Bruce Hedstrom, Bryan Alexander, Robert Makovec, Ralph Stroda, Margarett Garrett and Ron Laudemann. $50 cash prize winners were: Norman Spangler, Pam Diepenbrock, Myron Klein, Ramona Beisel, Arlan Swanson, Myrna Markley, Clyde Kasten, Richard Gustason, Ken Smith, Dan Falen and Brian Klein. $100 cash prize winners were Mary Boyce and Betty Schlesener. The $200 cash prize winner was John Gruber.
Board President Dan Reiff adjourned the meeting and thanked everyone for coming.