Don`t Rock the Boat

Vol. 33 Issue 2 | 2011
Official Notice of...
SRT’s 2011 Annual
Membership Meeting
“Don’t Rock the Boat”
June 16, 2011 - ND State Fair Center
By action of the board of directors, the 2011 annual
membership meeting of SRT Communications, Inc. will be
on Thursday, June 16,2010 at the North Dakota State
Fair Center – 2005 Burdick Expy. East – Minot, ND. Registration will begin at 3:00 PM. A complimentary
supper will be served between 3:00 – 6:30 PM to
registered members and guests. The business meeting
will be called to order at 6:30 PM. Regular business includes the election of four directors,
one from each of our four districts, for a three-year term.
The candidates who have been nominated are listed below. District 1
Stanley Vangsness, Berthold District 2
Ronald Schepp, Westhope District 3
John Marshall, Towner District 4
Susan Schmutzler, Minot Dated this 17th day of May 2011 Thomas Wentz, Jr. Secretary-Treasurer Voter designation form for churches, schools,
corporations, cooperatives, partnerships, public golf
courses and associations is on page 5. Notice – R
egistration and Voting officially close
at 6:30 PM.
Between the snow melt and all the inches of rain lately,
this spring has caused problems for many people, to say
the least. Probably like many of you, we here at SRT wish
we could stop Mother Nature’s downpour - at least until
it’s needed again. But we continue to work, day in and day
out, to do whatever we can to ensure your services are
working. Such was the case the first week in May, when the
area around the KOA Campground on the east side of Minot
was completely covered in water from the Souris River
flooding and services in that area were affected. In order to
get to the pedestal that contained the copper cables, our
technicians had to face a couple obstacles first. SRT Foremen Tony Best and
Sonny Lehman and some
of their technicians were
called to the site. Darin Buer,
Neil Kadlec and Rick Demke
headed to KOA to restore
the copper cables that were
being affected. In order to
fix this situation, a hallow
culvert was hauled from the road over to the pedestal by
boat (pictured above). The average weight of a culvert is
100 pounds, hence the saying “don’t rock the boat”. Once it
was safely at the site, the techs placed the culvert over the
pedestal and then lined sandbags along the bottom. In a
typical situation, this would be enough to then drain out the
“Don’t Rock the Boat”
Continued from front page
water with a pump and make the needed repairs. However,
thanks to the techs following proper safety procedures, they
recognized that a high voltage power transformer belonging
to Verendrye Electric was submerged just two feet away. As
we all know, electricity and water don’t mix.
SRT Outside Plant Engineer Kelly Wetzel called Verendrye
and thanks to them, they killed the power transformer just
long enough for the splicers to get to work, without affecting
any of their own customers’ power.
Then, the splicers crawled in the culvert and did what they
needed to do in order to restore service. Thanks to a lot of
teamwork from employees in various departments, as well as
our friends at Verendrye Electric for keeping our technicians
safe, we were able to beat Mother Nature...for now.
ision Launch Party in Landa!
On Thursday, May 5th, a
group of SRT employees
headed to the Landa
Chug-A-Lug restaurant/bar
to join local residents for the
SRTVision Launch Party! This
new TV service is the latest
in SRT products and it’s just
the beginning. Residents in
the town of Landa received
a “Coming Soon” brochure
inviting them to the kickoff to
see this great TV service. For
starters, the service is a competitor with satellite providers,
but without having to hook up a satellite to your house. The
service runs on IP, or Internet Protocol. The video is carried
through the same copper cables and fiber optic cable
that Internet service works on. The
residents will be able
to have access to local
channels with a clearer
picture and non delays
in channel changing - all
from a set top box that
sits near their TV.
The purpose of SRTVision
is to bring a superior TV
service to areas that don’t
have many options. SRT wants to be the option you choose
at an affordable price. As we continue to build out the fiber
network in our rural areas, look for SRTVision to come to
your door.
Our Communities
Connecting
SRT Employees Support
March of Dimes
On Saturday, April 2, SRT Community Wellness
Walkers, led by Systems/Analyst Coordinator
Cindy Obenchain & Carrier Services Specialist
Terrie Dew, formed a team of walkers to support
the Minot area 2011 March of Dimes “March
for Babies” event. The event raised money to
support the non-profit’s mission “to improve
the health of babies”. In total, the Minot event
raised over $52,000 with
one of SRT’s own employees
recognized with the 2011 Top
Walker Award. Community
Relations Manager Randy
Burckhard raised almost
$1700.00! A big thanks to
him and all the employees
that supported this worthy cause.
SRT awarded $1500 to four impressive
young boys, entrepreneurs of Four “K”
Tack & Leather. Tayton, Jack, Parker
and Ben Kramer applied for an SRT
Economic Partnership grant to use for
start-up funds to create and sell tack
and saddles, as well as do leather
work out of the Sandhills Saddlery. In
their application, they state that they
want to create “top quality tack and
leather for reasonable prices”. They
make various products such as spur
straps, gun holsters, breast collars
and much more. They were able to
purchase a die press with the grant money which will allow them to
customize their leather products. The best part is, these Towner boys
are only 17, 13, 11, and nine years old. We’re proud of them
for investing in our community at such a young age and being the
up-and-coming businessmen they are!
Do you know Kenny? Do you know where he is? If not, hopefully you will
soon! Kenny Levadney, an Account Executive for SRT Business Integration,
has been traveling around the SRT territory throughout the month of May
visiting many SRT business customers.
SRT recently wrapped two company cars with our Business Integration
information to remind customers all that we can do to serve your business.
And in order to get the cars out in the community, Kenny agreed to assist
us with “Where’s Kenny?”. If you see him in one of the SRT cars, ask him
to stop by your business and have him take you or your employees’ photo
in front of the car. We’ll then post it to Facebook and you’ll be entered in
a weekly drawing. If you win the drawing, SRT will provide lunch for your
business (maximum of 10 people or up to $100 in lunch and
$100 bill credit).
Facebook and free lunch – what’s better than that?
Congratulations Retirees!
Ed Brockell retired from SRT
Sheila Sanders has retired
Kim Weydahl, Executive
after 37 years with the company.
He has worked in the construction
department, as an Outside Plant
Installer, and in the Engineering
Department. Ed is looking forward
to staying busy with hobbies and
interests during his retirement.
after working in SRT’s Answerlink
department since 2004. Sheila’s
retirement plans including spending
more time with her grandchildren. Secretary, retired after 31 years with
SRT. She and her husband Gary will
be spending more time at the lake
this summer, and enjoy traveling
in the winter.
SRT Awards $4000 to Area Scholarship Winners
Haley
Heiser
Marisa
Asheim
Breanna
Benson
Katie
Odland
SRT is proud to announce its 2011 College Scholarship
Winners! A total of 77 applications were received and SRT
awarded four scholarships totaling $4000. Breanna Benson is a senior at Minot High School and her
intended major at MSU is Special and Elementary Education. Breanna is the daughter of Timothy and Julie. Each application was evaluated based on community
involvement, school activities, grade point average,
appearance of application and a written essay entitled
“Fifteen Minutes of Fame: How would you use social media
as a communication tool if you had 15 minutes of fame?” Haley Heiser, a senior at Velva High School , plans on
attending MSU and majoring in Dental Hygiene. Haley is
the daughter of Randy and Sherri. A $1000 scholarship will be awarded to each of the
following students: Marisa Asheim, daughter of Lynn and Janet, is a senior
at MLS High School. Marisa plans to pursue a career in
Pharmacy at NDSU. SRT.NEWS
Katie Odland, daughter of John and Mary, is a senior at Velva High School. Katie will be majoring in Dietetics
at NDSU. Congratulations to all graduates! We wish you the best of luck!
4
SRT 2011 Annual Meeting
Voter Designation Form
Students to Represent SRT at
Youth Tour in Washington DC
To be used only by: Churches, Schools, Corporations,
Cooperatives, Partnerships, Public Golf Courses, and
Associations. This form cannot be used as a proxy by
individuals or individually owned businesses.
Congratulations to Alex Wilfong and Trevor Hulse who
were selected to represent SRT at the 2011 National
Telecom Cooperative Association’s Foundation for Rural
Service Youth Tour in Washington, D.C., June 4-8, 2011. hereby
Organization
designates and appoints
as the person authorized to vote on behalf of the above
named entity at the June 16, 2011 Annual Meeting of
SRT Communications, Inc.
Organization Telephone Number:
Print name of authorized voter (entity)
Date:
By:
Signature of Officer
Organizations Can Designate Voters
Churches, schools, corporations, cooperatives, partnerships,
public golf courses and associations, can designate a party
to cast their vote by using the form above.
If an organization is to be represented at the Annual Meeting
of SRT Communications Inc. which will be held Thursday,
June 16, 2011, an authorized representative must present
this completed form to the credential’s registration desk at
the meeting.
Alex Wilfong
Newburg United
High School
Alex, the son of Heidi and Wayne Weems in Maxbass,
is a junior at Newburg United High School. Trevor is a
junior at Westhope Public School. Tracy Hulse, from
Westhope, is his mother.
Annual Meeting
Featured Entertainment
The Past
Due Ban d
Capital Credits Returned
to Members
In early June, SRT will distribute over $475,000 in capital
credit checks to members who had local (landline) telephone
service with the cooperative in 2010. The distribution
consists of ten percent of earned capital credits from 2010.
Capital credits are the amount allocated to each member
from the cooperative’s annual profits. Your capital credit
allocation is determined by the amount of business you do
with SRT each year and SRT’s profit for that year.
At the discretion of the Board of Directors, capital credits
are allocated to members annually. At that time, the Board
also determines if there will be a capital credit retirement.
If so, this amount then becomes available to the member or
former member as cash.
5
Trevor Hulse
Westhope Public School
Magic Place,
4 p.m. – 6:20 p.m.
Kid’s Flashback
Fun House
• Cartoon Corner
• Slinkie, YoYo, &
Hula Hoop
•
Sno Cones
• Dizzy & Cloudy
the Clown
J-M-B Ban d
North Concourse, 3 p.m
. – 5 p.m.
SRT.NEWS
PO Box 2027
Minot, ND 58702-2027
858-1200
800-737-9130
www.srt.com
“SRT.news” is a quarterly
publication of SRT, Minot, ND
Cassidy R. Kersten, Editor
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