Rio Grande Electric Co-Op
3633 Mattox St, El Paso, Texas, United States

Rio Grande Electric Cooperative, Inc. was organized in 1945 to enhance the quality of living by providing electric service to our members.

RGEC has the largest service territory of any electric cooperative in the contiguous United States, serving 18 counties in Texas and 2 counties in New Mexico, which covers approximately 35,000 sq. miles. These counties include: Brewster, Crockett, Culberson, Dimmit, Edwards, El Paso, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Kinney, Maverick, Pecos, Presidio, Reeves, Terrell, Uvalde, Val Verde, Webb and Zavala in Texas, and Eddy and Otero Counties in New Mexico.

RGEC currently employs 157 people to serve 6,403 members with 13,335 meters. It maintains offices in Alpine, Brackettville, Carrizo Springs, Dell City, El Paso, and Fort Stockton, with the Brackettville office serving as corporate headquarters.  The Co-op maintains 9,891 miles of Energized Line of which 143 miles are Transmission Line, 176 miles are Underground Line, and 9,575 are Overhead Energized Line. RGEC maintains the electrical distribution systems for Ft. Bliss, El Paso, Texas, and Laughlin Air Force Base, Del Rio, Texas.

Advisory Committees 

Advisory Committees were formed in 1981 to improve the communications between members, employees, and the Board of Directors. Currently, several of our directors began by serving on an advisory committee. Even our current General Manager/CEO Dan Laws, at one time served on this important committee!

Five Advisory Committees made up of 24 representatives meet twice yearly to discuss important issues regarding the Cooperative.

The committee chairmen are elected during the March meeting, while new members are selected during September. This ensures there are always members familiar with the process seated on the committee.

Committee members are treated to a delicious dinner, and the meetings, which usually begin at 7 p.m., last a couple of hours.

Also, during the month of March, the chairmen of the committees meet with the Board to share thoughts and ideas the committees deem important.

If you are interested in serving on this or any other committee, please let us know. Each year, a member involvement survey is mailed to the membership asking for volunteers and we refer to this list throughout the year.

Nominating Committees

Nominating Committees are an important part of our election process.

Each year, the current board of directors selects the names of members wishing to serve on a nominating committee. This process begins during the July Board meeting when those directors, whose seats are up for re-election, have the responsibility of selecting the nominating committee for that district.

These members may have indicated their willingness to serve on a nominating committee by completing and returning the annual member involvement survey. Or, they may have told a friend or neighbor, who in turn, told someone else, who in turn, told a director.

In any case, the appointment process is the responsibility of the current director. If the director seat is vacant, then the entire board makes that selection.

The committees are formed for one primary reason, which is to select names of members who have indicated their desire and willingness to serve on the board. Each committee, made up of FOUR members, selects one member to serve as chairman. The chairman arranges a committee meeting, and the committee must first verify that the names of the director candidates they will present to the board, meet the criteria. Director candidates must meet all requirements, which can be found in Article IV, section 3 of the bylaws:

Must be a member in good standing. (This means they must be current on their electric bill.)
Must meet the residency requirements. (This means they must reside in the district for which they are running.)
Must not be employed by or have a financial interest in an enterprise which competes with the Cooperative.
Must not be employed by the Cooperative, any other electric cooperative, municipally-owned utility, or investor-owned utility, and can not have been employed there in the preceding two years.
Must not be a convicted felon, currently or in the preceding two years.
Must meet the nepotism rules regarding current employees and directors, based on the second degree of affinity or third degree of consanguinity, as defined in Section 8 of Article IV.
Directors must attend monthly board meetings, which are held in Brackettville on the even months, and Fort Stockton on the odd months, and they must attend two annual advisory committee meetings. Additional meetings, such as attending town hall meetings are also required.

After the nominating committees have verified these requirements, they must sign an affidavit saying that to the best of their knowledge, the director candidate's names they have selected meet all of these requirements.

Once this is done, the election process has officially begun. As you can see, even though the nominating committees are only active for a short time, they are one of the most important parts of the election process. The groundwork they must do sets the stage for our future.