To ensure the safety of members and employees during the pandemic, the 2022 South Slope Annual Meeting was conducted through a conference call at 9 a.m. on April 20.
As a cooperative, members of South Slope have the opportunity to run for the Board of Directors, serve on the Nominating Committee and vote for Cooperative Board Members. This year, Gary Grabe was re-elected to the At-Large Director term.
Todd Thornson, Partner of BKD, a CPA and advising firm from Des Moines, shared South Slope is in a strong financial position and showing growth in current and total assets, revenues and member equity while decreasing liabilities over the prior year. He also said while South Slope is facing the challenges of rapidly increasing construction costs, the Cooperative is outperforming industry peers in broadband growth.
South Slope CEO Chuck Deisbeck highlighted the continued expansion of the fiber network, despite the challenges of supply chain issues.
“One thing we learned through the pandemic was having a robust fiber network in place was invaluable for serving our members with the services they need,” he said. South Slope continues to pursue, and was awarded grants, to expand their fiber network to rural areas in Solon, Tiffin and Oxford.
Deisbeck also shared the Cooperative launched a new website and software system that ties customer service, billing and help desk, for improving efficiencies and customer experience.
“Our operating and support system now allows our employees in the field more access to serve our customers, better mapping tools and a platform built for the future to allow customer access to our services at all times.”
In closing, Deisbeck shared South Slope milestones.
“Over the past five years, we have over-built three communities with fiber, upgraded our core network to a 200 Gigabit ring – one of the largest in the state- and we will be launching new internet plans within the next couple of weeks.”
South Slope Cooperative Communications provides reliable broadband internet, phone and television services to homes and businesses in East Central Iowa. With unrivaled customer service and a dedication to the community, South Slope operates as a co-op so members’ investments go right back to improving Eastern Iowa infrastructure. Providing cutting-edge communications solutions since 1958, South Slope continues to lead the charge in delivering world-class technologies to its service area on an extensive fiber network. For more information, visit southslope.com.