CEO’s Message – July 2023

Remarks to Our Membership

It happened again. Similar to a year ago, I frantically rewrote my remarks to the Arizona G&T Cooperatives’ Annual Meeting after hearing other speakers and feeling the vibe in the room. Last year, I scrawled on the miniature notepads provided by the Comfort Inn in Benson. This year, I composed my thoughts on the back of an orange meeting evaluation form.

Maybe it’s the old newspaper reporter in me, but I’m comfortable writing under a strict deadline. People seemed to like what I wrote when I delivered my speech, so, similar to last year, I thought I would share my paraphrased and shortened words from that day:

I must say it’s intimidating to address you when there is so much talent in this room and when reflecting on the extraordinary accomplishments you’ve achieved. Listening to all the presentations this morning, I followed my recent tendency to scrap what I was going to say and come up with something else, as you see by the notes I just wrote on your evaluation sheet.

As I was sitting here this morning, 6 notions or ideas came into my head that I want to share with you as I reflect on AzGT and our Arizona co-op world.

First: Family. We at Grand Canyon are a tight-knit group—Jorge Canaca, Casey Ratlief, Hannah Capozzi, Nancy Garcia and me. We feel like our board members are part of our family, too (I name- checked the board members attending). Around Arizona, all the co-ops are their own families and collectively we’re a big family. Families can be dysfunctional and/or extremely close—and fortunately I think the latter is the case here. Each of you is an equally important member of the Arizona co-op family.

Second: Partnerships. This is a bit of a riff on what AzGT CEO Patrick Ledger said (I listed 10 of our partners who were in the room.) Without you as our partners, we would not be nearly as effective.

Third: Foundation. What co-ops stand for and our positive interactions with our partners have built a strong foundation from which we work.

Fourth: Credibility. Our foundational principles and actions lend us credibility.

Fifth: Courage. We have had the courage to act when others have not. Our courage is based on doing the right things for the right reasons, knowing we have a strong foundation and the credibility that flows from it.

Sixth: Success. We have had much success collectively, working together as co-ops through Grand Canyon. I detailed the Your Voice, Your Vote Campaign, which informed voters about the Arizona Corporation Commission election and the bill we were able to pass in the Legislature and have signed by the governor this year, which eases the process to develop new generation and transmission projects.

It truly is an honor and pleasure to share these ideas and notions with you. I look forward to continuing to build on our foundation of credibility, courage and success as we represent you at Grand Canyon.