As some of you may already know, or have already guessed, the 2021 Annual Meeting will be a bit different than what has been done in the past. This year’s Annual Meeting will be a bit of a hybrid of what is traditionally done and what we did last year in the wake of COVID-19. We will be hosting an in-person meeting on May 27th and sending out mail-in ballots to all members.
The in-person meeting will be a scaled-back version of what we are used to hosting. There will be social-distancing protocols in place to help ensure our members’ and employees' health and safety. In addition, we will NOT be serving any food this year, have live music or kids’ entertainment (face painting, bounce houses, etc.) and we will not have any vendor information booths.
Due to the scaled-back nature of the event, we will be asking for volunteers to assist instead of requiring all employees to attend the event and help work that evening. More information about volunteering and how to sign up will come out later this month in an all-employee email as we have a bit more items verified on the event prep agenda.
In addition to the scaled-back version of the meeting, we will also mail out ballots to our members in a similar manner to how we did it last year. Instead of an Annual Meeting packet delivered to our members containing information, a ballot and a prepaid return envelope, we will be sending all of that out through Rural Missouri magazine.
For those newer employees, or for those who may have forgot, we publish eight pages of content each month in Rural Missouri magazine specific to the Co-Mo area. Those magazines are sent to all our members every month. In the May edition, we will include board candidate bios, bylaw information, meeting minutes from last year and information about the scaled-back in-person meeting. Most importantly, we will be including a ballot and a prepaid return envelope in the May edition of Rural Missouri. Members will use this to vote in the 2021 Annual Meeting to elect board members and vote on bylaws.
We are still in the process of finalizing exactly what this process will look like with the Rural Missouri publisher (AMEC), but we will keep you informed of the printing process and update you with what the ballot process will look like and what deadlines will be required for voting in the event members ask you about it.
While this isn’t the Annual Meeting that we are used to, we are excited to take this hybrid approach as we continue to return to normal safely for our members and our employees.
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