Bledsoe Telephone Cooperative Inc

“Bledsoe Telephone Cooperative is a not-for-profit membership organization whose members have identical voting rights and are assigned margins in accordance with the cooperative's bylaws.”

“Each member shall be entitled to only one vote upon each matter submitted to a vote at a meeting of the members. Members of the governing body are elected each year at the cooperative's annual meeting provided that a quorum is present.”

“The membership must approve decisions that involve substantial transfers of cooperative assets and certain statutorily defined amendments to the cooperative's bylaws, as well as other decisions requiring approval of the membership by law, the charter of incorporation, and/or the cooperative's bylaws.”

“There are no other committees that have to authority to act on behalf of the governing body.”

“Management reviewed the completed Form 990. A copy of the Form 990 was then provided to each of the members of the cooperative's governing body at a meeting prior to filing the form with the Internal Revenue Service by the tax preparer who assisted in the preparation of the form. Once the Form 990 was approved by the governing body, the President signed the E-file authorization form allowing the Form 990 to be transmitted to the Internal Revenue Service by the accounting firm who assisted in the preparation of the form.”

“The General Manager is responsible for monitoring and enforcing the conflict of interest policy.”

“Bledsoe Telephone Cooperative retains a third party expert, Mathis & Associates, to establish job descriptions, pay ranges, and to set matrices for job evaluations, which are then compared to similar industries in the nation. Mathis develops pay ranges based upon nationwide statistics. The Board of Directors determine compensation based on the data provided by Mathis & Associates. This process is reflected in the minutes of the board meetings.”

“Bledsoe Telephone Cooperative makes these documents available by distributing personally or via mail, printed copies of the bylaws to members of the cooperative. Bledsoe Telephone Cooperative provides copies of the audited financials to all members attending the annual meeting and upon request by an individual member.”

“Change in memberships 3,029. Deceased capital credits -33,400. Post-retirement benefit plan: Unrecognized gain 1,215,369. Allocation of margins to cooperative members 6,273,763.”

“Bledsoe Telephone Cooperative, Inc. did not change its processes of selection or oversight for the year.”

“The instructions to the Form 990 indicate that organizations exempt from tax under Section 501(c)(12) should report patronage dividends paid to their members in Part IX, Line 4 of the Form 990. Bledsoe Telephone Cooperative, Inc. has interpreted the words "patronage dividends paid" in the instructions to mean margins that are assigned or assignable to the members. The amount reported on Part IX, Line 4 of the Form 990 represents the portion of the current year net margins assigned to members.”