News
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We the people, the owners
by Tom Purkey, Executive Vice President and General Manager for the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association I have really enjoyed this year’s “annual meeting tour.” Culminating in October, that’s what I call my statewide journey, which I wrote about in my August column, to attend as many of the 21 autumn cooperative annual meetings (two were held in May) as I can. It’s impossible to get to all the meetings since some are scheduled on the same day. Maybe it’s because this is my last tour (I’ll give details in a later issue of The Tennessee Magazine) that I’m spending more [...]
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The people are the co-op
by Tom Purkey, Executive Vice President and General Manager for the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association I’m no psychologist, but I know that it’s important in this world of ups and downs to find the positive things in your life and focus on them rather than allowing the negative issues to control your thoughts. In our business of providing safe, reliable and affordable electric service to rural electric cooperative members, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the many complex issues facing the energy industry: How do we reduce carbon dioxide emissions into our atmosphere? Is it feasible to collect these emissions [...]
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It’s annual meeting time across Tennessee
by Tom Purkey, Executive Vice President and General Manager for the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association I always look forward to the late summer and early fall months. Personally, as a big football fan, I get excited in August when the pads start popping, high school and college athletes begin fall practice and professional teams play their final exhibition tune-ups. The next three months are also full of rewarding moments in my work at the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association. I have the pleasure of visiting with electric cooperative members all across Tennessee as they come together to attend their respective cooperative [...]
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Nature’s choice
by Tom Purkey, Executive Vice President and General Manager for the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association If you live in West Tennessee, you probably didn’t experience it this year. And if you live in East Tennessee, you may not have experienced it either. But the folks in Middle Tennessee sure got an earful of it this spring. It was irritable but quite interesting. It made you want to stay in your car or your house, but it was one of nature’s spectacular events. If you were like me, you might have even occasionally cracked your car window just to hear the [...]
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New faces, old challenges
by Tom Purkey, Executive Vice President and General Manager for the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association In early May, I joined in Washington, D. C., more than 2,000 electric cooperative leaders from across the country to deliver messages to Congress about the issues that are important to our electric consumers. While this is an annual event, it was especially important to visit our representatives this year, considering the numerous newly elected members in Congress. Spending and debt are dominating the attention of Congress. Legislators are focusing on how to deal with mounting federal deficits and a national debt that is at [...]