The 69th Annual Meeting of the members of Southwest Electric Cooperative was held on Saturday morning, September 19, 2009. The meeting was held in the Mabee Chapel on the campus of Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri.

This year’s attendance was recorded at 1,352 registered members.  With additional family members and guests in attendance, the crowd was well over 2000 attendees.  

CEO/General Manager, James Ashworth, presented the Manager’s Report, which included information about the cooperative’s growth and financial status. The packed out Mabee Chapel erupted in applause when Ashworth delivered the good news that Southwest Electric Cooperative would not be having a rate increase for 2010.

Ashworth received another round of applause as he announced that the Board of Directors approved for the cooperative to pay back $1 million dollars in capital patronage to cooperative members.  Ashworth also spoke of the Take Control and Save program and some of the rebates offered through it, as well as showing a video clip from the Our Energy Our Future campaign. 

During the meeting, three cooperative members, Jack Bybee of Preston, Eddie Ben Gorden of Goodson, and Michael Frieze of Brighton, were elected to serve three-year terms on the cooperative’s Board of Directors. 

Prize drawings were held for more than 50 prizes, which were given to registered members attending the meeting.  Businesses and contractors provided the majority of the prizes as a show of appreciation for the cooperative’s business. In addition to these prizes, four special drawings were held for boys and girls 12 and under for four new bicycles.

We would like to thank everyone that attended this year’s meeting.  If you missed this year, we certainly hope you can join us next year.