Episode 24: Community In Action

Boone Electric Cooperative members know all rounding up their bill to help the community through the co-op's Community Trust. BEC's Manager of Member Services and Communications Laura Baker and long-time trustee Kim Stichnote explain how a new program — Plus One — is helping the Trust do more local good. We also discuss the role trustees and committee readers play in reviewing grant funding applications and awarding the annual Bob Alderson scholarships.

During her career as a journalist, Teresa Snow Voeller often reported on how Boone Electric Cooperative prepared for Mother Nature's curveballs. Now completing her first year as a BEC Director, she's received a crash course in the technology and training working behind the scenes to deliver electricity to nearly 29,000 co-op members every day. Teresa joins the show to discuss the balancing act between reliability and affordability, and how local accountability makes the co-op business model work.

Boone Electric Cooperative's Annual Meeting is just around the corner! BEC Board President Kim Ponder discusses the importance of annual meeting to members and changes to this year's format. We hope you'll join us on Thursday, Sept. 10 for this year's meeting!

Two longtime Boone Electric Cooperative directors, Frank Glenn and Joel Bullard, are retiring after more than 50 combined years of service to the co-op and its members. On a very special episode of The Buzz, we sat down with Frank and Joel to hear about their early days of learning the cooperative business, the challenges that arose on the board room table and their words of wisdom for the future leaders of Boone Electric.

Boone Electric Cooperative's 2026 Annual Meeting is just around the corner, scheduled for Thurs., Sept. 10, 2026. In this month's episode, we discuss the voting process at annual meeting and also hear from the candidates — incumbents and challengers — running in this year's election for the Boone Electric Cooperative Board of Directors.

In the second part of our series on Boone Electric’s most frequently asked member questions, BEC Assistant General Manager Vicki Kemna returns to the studio to wrap up our discussion about some of the co-op’s most misunderstood facts. In part two, we discuss members versus membership, how voting rights are determined for annual meeting, what a proxy is and why clearing an easement with neighbors is a sometimes difficult but very important process to providing reliable electric service.

When a business has been around for 90 years, it must be doing something right. But, not everything a cooperative does is self-explanatory. Boone Electric Cooperative Assistant General Manager Vicki Kemna joins the show for the first in a two (or more!) part series about the most frequently asked questions — and most misunderstood facts — members have when it comes to their co-op.

If you're a member of Boone Electric Cooperative, you recently received a notification about your allocation. Boone Electric's Turner Adams joins the show to tell us what allocations are, why members receive them and how they figure into the math of capital credits.

If you've ever wondered how you can make your home more energy efficient, Boone Electric Cooperative is here to help - but we're not the only resource! Central Missouri Community Action's Ben Burgett and Molly Carmichael join the show to discuss the many ways CMCA helps Boone Electric members and other central Missouri residents afford crucial weatherization and energy efficiency upgrades just in time for warmer weather.

One of Boone Electric Cooperative's most popular new events returns in 2026 — Night at the Movies! This month, BEC's Laura Baker and Stephanie Shoffner discuss our fourth outing at Lakeside Ashland where our members can join us for a free movie, popcorn and soda, as well as talk with employees and directors about their electric cooperative. Registration is open now at BooneElectric.coop, and we hope you'll join us!