Howard Meldrum Resigns from South Central Board of Directors

After 37 years of devoted service, board member Howard Meldrum has resigned his position. Howard has moved outside his district and company by-laws require that board members must live within the district they represent.
“It has been a wonderful time,” Howard said reflecting upon his years of service. “I’ve enjoyed every meeting and all the people. I can’t believe how fast the time has gone by.”
Thinking back on his early years as a board member Howard said, “Things have changed so much since I first started serving on the board. Back then directors were paid $12 a day to attend a meeting and we had to buy our own meals. It cost me more than I got paid to attend the monthly meetings, but I was glad to do it.”
When asked what will be the most difficult part of seeing his service with South Central come to an end, Howard quickly responded, “I’ll miss being part of everything that goes on; things change so fast from one month to the next.” He then quickly added his praise for the people at South Central. “One of the bright spots at South Central is the current directors. They are really good people and they have the company headed in the right direction. But everyone at South Central is excellent.”
Over the years Howard has observed tremendous changes at South Central, not only in technology but in customers’ lifestyles. “I remember when we first considered building out phone service in Duck Creek. We sent questionnaires to the people who owned property in the area and they responded back telling us ‘No, we don’t want you to put phone service here. We come up here to get away from phones.’”
Howard laughed and said, “That’s not the way it is today. We’re constructing lines as fast as we can to meet the demand.”
Howard was instrumental in helping the company move to the “computer age” and was one of the first to encourage using computers. “I took a friend of mine who was very knowledgeable about computers to a board meeting so he could explain to other board members the potential that computers had for the company,” Howard said. He went on to say that while the board members didn’t understand the technology, they could see the benefit and the company began its shift to the electronic era.
During his tenure on the board Howard also served as president, although he said he was happy when his term came to an end. “It was very demanding,” he said.
Howard is philosophical about his resignation: “When it’s time to move on, it’s time to move on.” Still, his pleasant personality and years of experience will be missed around South Central.