NOVEC members elect Bodkin and George; Garber recognized for 65 years service

Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative members elected Sean Bodkin and Brent George to serve on the Cooperative’s board of directors when more than 1,000 people gathered at NOVEC’s annual meeting at Battlefield High School in Haymarket, Va., on Sept. 16.

Bodkin is an associate counsel for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which is overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Canadian power authorities. Bodkin works with FERC to investigate the reliability of electric-industry systems and operations. Bodkin lives in Aldie.

Brent “Budda” George is president and CEO of a consulting group that provides consulting services to the intelligence and defense industry. George lives in South Riding.

Prior to the election, Delegate Bob Marshall honored Board Director J. Manley Garber with a plaque from the Virginia House of Delegates commending Garber for 65 years of service on the Cooperative’s board. 

“Manley is the longest-serving co-op board director in the U.S.A.,” Marshall told the packed auditorium. “Manley has been a rudder for this consumer-owned cooperative since its earliest days.”

After a standing ovation, Garber explained that he became involved with the Cooperative because the investor-owned utility would not serve many of the farms in the Woodbridge area where he lived. Garber said, “It may be hard to believe, but if you didn’t live in town or on the main road, you didn’t have electricity.” He said NOVEC’s predecessor, Prince William Electric Cooperative, formed and starting providing power in the 1940s to everyone who joined the co-op.