A large crowd of more than 630 Cimarron Electric Cooperative members and their households gathered Thursday evening for its 87th annual meeting held at the Kingfisher County Fairgrounds.

The number attending easily met the minimum requirements of approximately 400 members to comprise a quorum for the purpose of conducting official business.

Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Hyatt opened the meeting by introducing the nine district board members and expressing the cooperative’s appreciation for their service, as well as those who provided services for the meeting.

Board members serving the cooperative are: Ron Sproul (District 1), Chalentz Hedges (District 2), Rudy Patzkowsky (District 3), Amie Reed (District 4), Gene Peters (District 5), Tom Kloeppel (District 6), Robert Yeoman (District 7), Raymond Flatt (District 8) and Lane Broadbent (District 9).

A brief business meeting was conducted by CEC attorney Jared Harrison in which it was announced that districts 2, 7 and 9 did not have the required number to form a quorum at the district meetings.

Incumbents Yeoman, Broadbent and Hedges ran unopposed in those districts and will hold over their positions as board directors for another three-year term.

Harrison then introduced CEO and General Manager Aaron Roark, who presented an update on the cooperative for the 2022 fiscal year.

In his second year at the helm, Roark started his report by bringing attention to Cimarron Electric’s “top notch” employees.

“It’s an honor for me to work with all of these employees,” he said. “I would put this group of employees up against employees of any co-op across the state.

“And as a co-op, we are here for the sole purpose of serving our members.” Cimarron Electric was the fastest growing electric cooperative in the state of Oklahoma in 2022 and among the fastest growing electric co-ops in the nation, Roark said.

Stressing the importance of safety, Roark said Cimarron Electric has had over 1,300 days of no lost-time accidents with its employees, which he added is one of statistics of which he’s most proud.

As part of a co-op, the board of directors serve its members by setting goals for the cooperative and approving the budget and rates, Roark said.

“It’s been a pleasure for me working with the board and it’s very clear to me what they want the employees to be focused on,” he said.

Outlining those goals, Roark said the board has set a focus on affordability, reliability and accountability.

“They want to make sure our rates are affordable, our service is reliable and at the end of the day we are accountable to our members,” he said.

Roark briefly touched on each point, sharing that Cimarron Electric had a 99.98 percent power reliability record in 2022, with many different aspects factoring into that, including building line properly, providing continual maintenance, upgrading where needed and other elements.

When it comes to affordability, Roark mentioned how inflation is affecting everything, but said the board has not increased utility rates in the cooperative since 2014.

“We are really proud we have been able to keep rates low as long as we have,” Roark said.

Roark also expressed the importance of accountability, stressing that the cooperative exists to serve its members.

Giving back to the community is one way the cooperative fulfills that role, Roark said.

One example he gave is the 120,000 bottles of water the cooperative provided to schools, civic organizations and other entities in the community during 2022.

Roark also discussed the importance of raising up leaders in the community through various programs the cooperative offers, such as energy camp and youth tour to Washington D.C. and a partnership with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association to send linemen to help provide electrical services in areas, like Guatemala, which don’t have electricity.

Finally, Roark reported on the financial accountability the cooperative strives to maintain and gave a summary of the past fiscal year’s financial highlights.

He reported the cooperative finished 2022 with a total revenue of $85.9 million and a net margin of $8.2 million as well as the retirement of more capital credits.

“I’m excited to announce tonight your board of directors has approved the retirement of $1.7 million in capital credits from 2000, 2001 and 2002, which will be returned back to our members in November,” Roark said.

“That’s a very unique piece of being a member of a co-op…how those margins are returned back to our members,” he added.

With much discussion concerning energy policy in the political realm, Roark encouraged members to be informed about how it affects rural cooperatives and stay in touch with their legislators with questions or concerns.

Before the business meeting, members were served a barbecue brisket meal prepared by Iron Wheel BBQ and musical entertainment was provided by the Dean Jackson Band.

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.