Triangle 2016 Annual Meeting of Members Well Attended
Triangle Telephone Cooperative Association, Inc., doing business as Triangle Communications (Triangle), held its 63rd Annual Meeting of Members on Saturday, October 15, 2016. Close to 170 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 300 attendees enjoyed a delicious meal catered by MSU-Northern.
During the business portion of the meeting fellow Board members, CEO/GM, Craig Gates, and Triangle member, Senator Jon Tester, thanked retiring Board member Verlin Reichelt for his 31 years of dedicated service to the cooperative. Many important topics related to the cooperative were discussed including the changes coming from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that will reduce the funding Triangle receives from the Universal Service Fund (USF); how Triangle would offset the reduction in funding by continuing to look at ways to complete fiber upgrades in a way to reach more of our membership for less; and the increase in Triangle Mobile coverage with more towers and improved offerings.
Doug Lowry, District 1, and Don Bitz, District 2, were re-elected to represent their respective districts on the Triangle Board. Dave Schwarzbach was elected to represent District 6 (at large) to replace retiring Triangle Board member, Verlin Reichelt. Tom Bangs remains President of the Board, Rich Stuker will serve as 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 “Harvest” was taken by Jill Conover of Broadview. Christine Bakke of Reed Point received second place. Third place was Wayne Silvan of Big Sandy. Kathleen Hughes of Dodson took the fourth place photo. In fifth place was Lacie Snider of Hogeland and Stephanie Genereux of Big Sandy took sixth place. The winning photos can be viewed on Triangle’s Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TriangleCommunications and will be featured on the Keeping You Connected magazine covers in 2017.
