MTE showcases strong community ties at 2025 Annual Meeting

Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE) leadership updated cooperative members about the status of the organization and answered questions during its livestreamed Annual Meeting Aug.16. 

President/CEO Chris Jones and MTE team members shared details about the cooperative’s commitment to outstanding member service, involvement in community events, co-op programs benefiting residential and business members and more.  

“MTE carries a quiet but profound responsibility – to power modern life. To bring safe, reliable, affordable electricity to every doorstep. Everything today leans on that current. We work with care and purpose so our neighbors can count on us,” Jones said. 

Items of note from the meeting program include:  

• The co-op continues to focus on grid resilience to maintain its reliability rating of 99.98% while prioritizing affordability for members.   

• MTE President/CEO Chris Jones testified before the Congressional Committee on Homeland Security earlier this year about how crucial cybersecurity is to the grid and co-op members.  

• Updates to MTE’s online outage map deliver more detailed, real-time updates about outages.  

• United Communications has built 5,000 miles of fiber infrastructure over the last two years. The next 2,500 miles will bring service to 150,000 members. 

• MTE’s continued involvement in community improvement efforts across its service territory, including charitable contributions, educational opportunities and community events like Earth Day and holiday sponsorships, and more. 

• A testimonial from Rick Sain, owner of Murfreesboro’s Reeves-Sain Drug Store, about how MTE’s free Home Energy Checkup program helped him reduce energy consumption at both his home and business.  

Following this update, members’ questions were answered live during a Q&A session. Members inquired about Home Energy Checkups and energy efficiency, solar programs, nuclear energy, United Communications and more. 

Per the cooperative’s bylaws, the election results for four seats on the Board of Directors were announced during the Annual Meeting. Two new members were elected, and one incumbent was re-elected: Luis Parodi – Williamson County (District 1C); Lance Lee – Rutherford County (District 2A); and Charlie Bowman – Cannon County (District 3). In the contested election for Wilson County’s District 4A, Vanessa Hickman was re-elected by members.  

MTE board members serve staggered three-year terms, and the Nominating Committee is responsible for nominating next year’s Board of Directors candidates. The 2025-2026 Nominating Committee election resulted in the appointment of Jessica Davey, Karen Paris and Juanita Patton from District 1 - Williamson County; Thomas “Teb” Batey, Tracey Binkley, Jamey Faulkner and Danny Sapp from District 2 - Rutherford County; Jeanne Melton from District 3 - Cannon County; and Greg Butler, Zachary Butler, and Sonya Smith Wright from District 4 - Wilson County. 

To watch the Annual Meeting video, visit mte.com/AnnualMeeting.