FROM THE TOP - GENERAL MANAGER KERRY KELTON

June has arrived so that means that the Mid-South Synergy Annual Meeting is just around the corner. This year we will be celebrating our 70^th Annual Meeting by seeing where we have come from as a cooperative and how that has prepared us for where we are going. Over the years, we – the employees of Mid-South Synergy and our members – have seen our share of ups and downs, good times and bad.

For all of us, 2009 was no different.  Mid-South Synergy had a good year financially, but with the slowdown in the economy and the tightening of the credit markets, our growth was the slowest it has been in many years.   You had to make decisions about how to best provide for your family during these tough times.  Mid-South had to make tough decisions this year in order to continue to provide the highest quality service to our members.

One of the major decisions we made this year was to no longer out-source work.  To keep down costs, we challenged the employees of Mid-South to assume additional responsibilities during this time and take on work previously handled by contractors. By doing this, Mid-South continued to provide a secure workplace for our employees while meeting the needs of our members. 

I am proud of how our employees shouldered those tasks and responded to the challenge.  Our continuing focus in 2009 on line maintenance produced our best Member “ON TIME” ever recorded.  You, the members of Mid-South Synergy, rewarded those efforts by giving us our highest ever survey score in “Member Satisfaction”. 

Our employees have worked hard during the past 70 years with one goal in mind -- “to provide quality service at a reasonable price”.  Over the years, our members’ definitions of “quality” and “reasonable” have changed.  What has not changed is the desire of all of us at Mid-South Synergy to strive to exceed our members’ expectations. Since 1940, Mid-South Synergy has been more than a power provider.  Through your efforts, we were created to help bring the dream of a new way of life to this part of rural Texas.  Seventy years later, we – the employees of Mid-South Synergy and our members – are still fulfilling dreams.

I look forward to seeing you at this years’ Annual Meeting as we celebrate the past 70 years and prepare together for our future.