F
rom the top MAX A. MEEK, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER & GENERAL MANAGER Ever wonder
who owns your power company? If you get electricity from Oklahoma Electric Cooperative, the answer is easy—look in the mirror. You and other folks
Allocating and retiring excess revenue to members helps distinguish cooperatives. It makes our business model special.
who receive electricity from OEC are the owners. Of course, being an owner doesn’t mean you can drive to a substation and take home a transformer or borrow a spool of wire. Those assets are owned
collectively by everyone who has signed up for electric service. A portion of the electric bill you pay each month, in fact, goes into building distribution infrastructure—poles, wires, and substations—that bring you a steady supply of power. Cooperatives follow a unique consumer-focused
business model led by a set of seven principles. The Third Cooperative Principle, “Members’ Economic Participation,” requires all of us to chip in a bit on our monthly bill to keep OEC in good shape. Your cooperative conducts business locally.
community. Here’s another membership perk: you get
over after bills have been paid, infrastructure built, and an emergency fund established goes into a capital credits account for each co-op member. Then, when your board of trustees determines the co-op you. How much money you get back depends on how much electricity you used. Capital credit refunds are to you what dividends
you with electricity at a price that is as close to cost as possible. That way, more of your money stays in your pocket—up front. OEC is retiring over $3.6 million in capital
credits this year. If you received service from us between the years of 1995 and 2002, you can expect a check to arrive later this year. There is a list of names of former members beginning on page 8. Please take a look and if you see someone you know, share this information with them. We can't get them their money if we don't know where to mail it. Capital credits are inheritable. The form on
page 39 is for the purpose of transferring entitlement from a deceased member to an eligible descendant. If you have any questions about credits, pages 6 and 7 may answer them. Of course, you may call our helpful customer service representatives also. You are receiving a vital resource–electricity–
from a business owned and operated by you, your friends, and neighbors. Working together, we provide you with the highest level of service we can while striving to keep your electric bills affordable. And that’s the cooperative difference.
3
OEC News Magazine | April 2012
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