In accordance with Sierra Electric Cooperative, Inc. Bylaws, Section 9.02 "Patronage Capital in connection with furnishing Electric Energy", Board of Trustees shall, at its discretion, have the power at any time upon death of any patron who was a natural person (or, if as so provided for in the provided in the preceding paragraph, upon the death of an assignee of the capital credits of a patron which assignee was a natural person), if the legal representatives of his estate shall request in writing that the capital so credited or assigned, as the case may be, be retired prior to the time such Bylaws, to retire such capital immediately upon such terms and conditions as the Board of Trustees, acting under policies of general application to situations of like kind, and such legal representatives, shall agree apon: PROVIDED, however, that the financial condition of the Cooperative will not be impaired thereby.
However, the Cooperative cannot retire the patronage capital portion allocated to Sierra Electric Cooperative by its power supplier, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association ("TSGT"), as these amounts from TSGT have yet to be retired to Sierra. So the Estate Representative may either elect to wait for this TSGT retirement portion, not expected in the foreseeable future, or you can donate this portion to the SEC Education Foundation. The foundation was established by the Board of Trustees in 1990, subsequent to the adoption by the membership of Section 9.04 "Charitable Assignment of Patronage Capital" to the bylaws. Unclaimed patronage capital checks, assignment of future patronage retirements or direct tax deductible donations may be made to the foundation. The Sierra Electric Education Foundation was formed to provide scholarships to area high school students who are members of the cooperative and are planning to attend college in New Mexico.
