In November, Hancock-Wood Electric received the results of our special election, the members were asked to vote on a Code of Regulations change to reduce the number of districts in our service area from 10 to 9. The code change passed by an overwhelming amount, so the next step is to redistrict.

What is redistricting? Members in the eliminated district will be moved into another district. Our engineering team determined which districts will gain more members based on the location and current number of members. Per our Code of Regulations, the cooperative redistricts to ensure equitable distribution of members in each of our districts. This change will attempt to simplify districts and minimize splits within townships.

Another benefit of the membership approving the code change is it will be a cost savings to the cooperative by having one less board member. In June, the membership voted to change the nomination process and move to a petition process, this saved the cooperative approximately $19,000 each year. Reducing the number of districts will save the cooperative approximately $20,000 per year. After some of our research, we also learned many of the other co-ops in Ohio and surrounding states have 9 or less board members, we are one of the only cooperatives with 10. Having an odd number of board members will also help reduce the possibility of a tied vote