Approximately 750 Cimarron Electric Cooperative members gathered Thursday evening for its 89th annual cooperative meeting held at the Kingfi sher County Fairgrounds.

Those in attendance easily met the requirements to comprise a quorum for the purpose of conducting official business.

Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Hyatt opened the meeting by introducing special guests and thanking the many people involved in the work of Cimarron Electric, including its board of directors over nine districts – Ron Sproul, Chalentz Hedges, Rudy Patzkowsky, Amie Reed, Gene Peters, Tom Kloeppel, Robert Yeoman, Raymond Flatt and Lane Broadbent.

Hyatt then introduced guest speaker Gatlin Didier, who is a nationally-recognized advocate for rural America and part owner of Didier Ranch.

With over 8 million followers across his social media platforms, Didier has entertained millions while championing the agricultural and ranching lifestyle and sharing authentic stories of rural America through messages blended with humor, inspiration and honesty about what it means to live and work in rural communities.

Coming from a multi-generational family of Cimarron Electric members, Didier spoke about the core pillars of rural communities – God, family and country – and how those principles bind members together as the essence of rural America.

A brief business meeting followed and was conducted by Cimarron Electric’s attorney Jared Harrison.

Chief Executive Officer Aaron Roark then took to the podium to welcome guests and provide an update of the 2024 fiscal year.

Touting the cooperative’s reliability, Roark said, “I’m proud to say that in 2024, Cimarron members had power availability 99.98% of the time.

“To put that in perspective, that means almost every minute of the year Cimarron members power was available.

“That doesn’t happen by chance. That’s a lot of hard work, planning and commitment from every employee of the co-op and we appreciate you all.”

Discussing the night’s theme – the power of membership – Roark said members aren’t customers, but are owners and when the co-op is successful, members share in that success.

Closing out a successful 2024 fiscal year, Cimarron Electric had a total revenue of $75.2 million, with a net margin of $6.6 million, which will be allocated back to members and distributed when capital credits for that year are retired.

This November, $1.3 million capital credits from 2005-2007 will be retired and members from those years will receive their share of the returned patronage capital, Roark said.

Roark also discussed some of the ways Cimarron Electric is continuing to prepare for success in the future.

One such way, he said, is its launch of an advanced metering system which will translate into faster outage detection, quicker power restoration and greater effi ciency across the co-op, saving time and money.

Additionally, Roark said, despite rising prices in the utility industry from cost of power to cost of materials and cost of equipment, the cooperative is focused on making sure rates stay low, adding there will be no rate increases this year for its members.

In closing, Roark commented on three pillars central to Cimarron’s core mission of providing power for its members through reliability, affordability and accountability.

“We invest in our infrastructure so that your power is always on. We manage our finances responsibly, so your rates stay stable,” he said. “And we work to ensure that we’re all accountable to our members in the way we operate working to be ethical, transparent and committed to service.”

Cimarron Electric also continues to support and give back to the communities it serves in a variety of ways, including Energy Camp for eighth graders, sending Oklahoma Youth Tour delegates to Washington, D.C., and many other community outreach efforts.

Before the business meeting, members had the opportunity to dine on a barbecue brisket meal prepared by Iron Wheel BBQ which was served by Okarche FFA members.

Members also received registration gifts as well as the chance to win a number of larger cash and gift prizes drawn for at the close of the meeting.