What is an Annual Meeting?
If you’re a new WH member, or maybe even if you’ve been one for years, you may not know what an Annual Meeting is!
Posted by Lauren Dublin on April 11, 2024
Title: What is an Annual Meeting?
You may have noticed a lot of social media posts, emails, and Hotline Update newsletter articles about WH’s 87th Annual Meeting. If you’re a new WH member, or maybe even if you’ve been one for years, you may not know what an Annual Meeting is!
WH hosts an Annual Meeting every April. It’s required by our bylaws that we host a meeting for all members every year, and we’ve done that since we were founded by local farmers in 1937.
The Annual Meeting provides business updates for WH as well as the WH Holding companies owned by WH. WH Holding exists as an independent business, owned by the electric portion of WH, which is a not-for-profit cooperative.
Annual Meeting planning begins in December to ensure the April event is a success. Every department is involved to make sure it runs smoothly. WH staff do everything from member check-in to assisting with the pork chop dinner to creating and running the videos and PowerPoints. A local 4H group helps keep dinner tables clean, and a local FFA chapter provides crafts and activities for kids ages 4-10. WH uses five off-site parking lots, and five shuttles to get members to the building.
Preparations in the warehouse begin up to two days before. The line trucks move outside, and the floor is cleaned to make way for chair and table set up. Staff run through two full meeting rehearsals before members even arrive; some members arrive as early as 3 p.m.!
Even with two days of set up, everything is taken down and reset before employees head home for the night following the meeting. Team work makes the dream work!
Members are invited to join WH Thursday, April 18 for the free pork chop dinner before the business meeting, as well as bingo, informational booths, and children’s activities for ages 4-10. Members who stay through the end of the business meeting will receive a free pound of butter as they exit the building, and will be eligible to win a 2012 Ford F-150 4x4 retired from WH’s fleet.
