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Stokes a No-Show at TVARS Meeting on Retiree Voting

On Monday November 6, a Special TVARS Board meeting was held to discuss and vote on a proposed rule amendment to improve TVARS governance and provide more accountability to TVA retirees.

Sam DeLay, Jim Hovious and I proposed an amendment which provides for election of the TVA retiree director (the 7th director) by all TVA retiree members of the system. It ensures that the 7th director seat will always be occupied by a TVA retiree. The 7th director is key to ensuring that the TVARS Board follows good governance practices and meets the needs of all TVARS constituents. Our proposed amendment also stipulates that the 7th director must be free of any financial ties or business relationships with TVA, with the exception of receiving a TVARS pension. The actual proposed amendment can be read here.

A roll-call of those in attendance was taken:
  • PRESENT:  Sam DeLay; Jim Hovious: Leonard Muzyn
  • ABSENT:  Brian Child; Allen Stokes; Wilson Taylor; Tammy Wilson
We were unable to conduct business because we lacked a quorum.

Allen Stokes is the TVA retiree member of the TVARS Board. He is paid $10,000 per year in addition to travel expenses for his work on the board. TVA retirees and employees can contact Allen Stokes or other TVARS Board Directors through TVARS. If you send an email, you may want to call for confirmation that your email was received and that it was delivered to the appropriate TVARS Director. Emails from outside TVA can become trapped in spam filters:

Mr. Pat Brackett, TVARS Executive Secretary
865-632-8578

If Allen Stokes realizes how important this is to TVA retirees, the four of us can call for another special meeting to discuss and vote on the proposed amendment. At a time when many companies are off-loading pension liabilities by paying insurance companies to take over the responsibility of making pension payments to retirees, good TVARS governance and stable retiree representation on the TVARS Board may prove crucial.

TVA retirees may want to initiate discussions of this proposed amendment within their various retiree groups and organizations, the links to two of which are provided below:






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