South Slope Annual Meeting 2020

May 21, 2020

To ensure the safety of our members and employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, the South Slope 2020 Annual Meeting was conducted through a conference call at 9 a.m. on May 20th.

As a cooperative, members of South Slope have the opportunity to run for the Board of Directors, serve on the Nominating Committee, and vote for Cooperative Board Members. This year, Brian Butz was re-elected to the Fairfax director term and Brad Meskimen was re-elected to the Norway/Ely director term.

Todd Thornson, Partner of BKD, a CPA and advising firm from Des Moines, shared that South Slope is in sound financial position and showing growth in current and total assets, revenues, and member’s equity while also decreasing liabilities over the prior year. He also said that the telecommunications industry hasn’t endured substantial negative impact from the pandemic, and many have seen positive outcomes from the gain in broadband customers.

South Slope CEO, Chuck Deisbeck, highlighted the expansion of the fiber-optic network, which brings homes and businesses the fastest and most reliable internet, phone and television services. “Last fall we upgraded our cooperative members that live within the city limits of Tiffin and a small area in Fairfax,” Deisbeck said. With a goal of deploying the fastest technology to all South Slope communities, South Slope is bringing this vital connectivity to homes and businesses within the city limits of Solon this year and has applied for a federal grant to expand the network to rural Oxford.

“We are not stopping there,” Deisbeck added. “The team here at South Slope is working very hard exploring other grant opportunities and options to upgrade the rest of our network for all of our cooperative members. Our first priority is to continue to serve our members and build to our current members as soon as possible.”

In closing, Deisbeck praised his staff for their dedication during this pandemic. “Our employees have really risen to the challenge to continue serving our members and also connecting new members to assist with remote learning and working from home. I’d like to thank our all of our employees for their hard work during these challenging times.”