Our 64th Annual Meeting Recap!
We held our 64th Annual Meeting of Members on Saturday, October 21, 2017. Over 140 voting members plus numerous guests attended the meeting held in the Student Union Building on the campus of Montana State University-Northern in Havre. The attendees enjoyed a delicious meal catered by MSU-Northern.
Many important topics related to the cooperative were discussed including the changes from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that will reduce the cost recovery mechanisms Triangle receives from the Universal Service Fund (USF). Triangle CEO, Craig Gates, talked about ways Triangle is diversifying to bring more revenue into the cooperative by offering a Managed WiFi service and bringing a fiber fed service to businesses in Havre along the Highway 2 corridor. Mr. Gates shared that over half of Triangle’s 39 exchanges will be connected to fiber by the end of 2017 and that Triangle continues to work on cost-saving ways to bring fiber to the remaining exchanges. Triangle’s mobile service, Triangle Mobile, also experienced continued growth in 2016.
Trustees for two districts were re-elected by members at the meeting. Richard Swartz was re-elected as one of two trustees representing District 1 which covers White Sulphur Springs, Martinsdale, Judith Gap, Harlowton, Melville, Big Timber, Reed Point, Rapelje, Broadview and Molt. Tom Bangs was re-elected to represent District 3 which covers Geraldine, Fort Benton, South Chester, Chester, Joplin, Rudyard, Simpson and North Havre. Richard Stuker was selected to serve as Board President, Tom Bangs will be Vice President and Rick Pokorny remains Secretary/Treasurer.
The winner of Triangle’s Annual Photo Contest was determined by balloting at the meeting. The $200 grand prize photo titled “Fox Den at Martinsdale Reservoir” was taken by Morning Sun Yellow Pony of Martinsdale. Loreen Sheline of White Sulphur Springs received second place. Third place was Jill Conover of Broadview. Laci Keller of Big Sandy took the fourth place photo. In fifth place was Leah Fox of Fort Belknap and Mindy Oltrogge of Stanford took sixth place. The winning photo will be featured on the Keeping You Connected magazine covers in 2018.
