Southwest Rural Electric Association will hold its 75th Annual Meeting on Thursday, August 9, 2012, at the Wilbarger Auditorium in Vernon. All SWRE customer-members are encouraged to attend.

Registration and a health fair will begin at 4:00 p.m. and continue through 6:55 p.m. The Western Trail Cowboy Church band will perform at 6:20 p.m. The SWRE business meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. Prize drawings will follow the business meeting.

SWRE is an electric cooperative that serves customers in a 6,000 square mile area in north Texas and southwest Oklahoma. Because it is a cooperative, its customers are also its members and are therefore encouraged each year to attend the annual meeting and take an active part in the democratic process of running their business enterprise.

Door prizes will be given to each member at registration.

A drawing for prizes at the event will include many great items, including energy certificates that can be applied toward SWRE utility bills. Grand prize will be a $500 SWRE energy certificate. Reserve grand prize of a $250 certificate will also be given.

A health fair at the meeting will be sponsored by Wilbarger General Hospital in Vernon. The health fair will feature stations for checking blood pressure and other health readings, in addition to information from numerous agencies and vendors. The health fair exhibits will open at 4:00 p.m.

Entertainment at the event will begin at 6:20 p.m. and will feature the Western Trail Cowboy Church Band. All members of the church band have long histories in music from rock and roll and country bands to gospel. The group plays a variety of music from Texas swing, early rock ‘n’ roll, bluegrass and Southern gospel. Most of their musical roots come from their younger years of singing in the church.

The band is made up of the following people: Jessie Appleby, lead guitar and vocals; Michael Marlow, piano; Ronny Byers, bass guitar, drums, and vocals; Milton Brownlow, fiddle; David Lacy, drums; David Fox (church pastor), harmonica; Polly Moore, vocals; Larry Drennan, rhythm guitar and vocals; and Marvin James, guitar, banjo and vocals.

SWRE members are sure to enjoy the band’s performance.

The SWRE business session will begin promptly at 7:00 p.m.

During the annual prize drawing after the business meeting, prizes will be awarded to members from each of SWRE’s nine districts.

“We hope all SWRE members will attend the annual meeting,” said Dan White, president of the organization’s board of trustees. “The event is always a high point of the year for Southwest Rural Electric Association. It is an opportunity for members to meet our cooperative’s employees, to learn first-hand about SWRE projects and activities, and to participate in directing the co-op’s business.”

“SWRE is not a typical utility company,” said Mike R. Hagy, SWRE Manager and CEO. “Our members are our owners, and they take great pride in the organization and its service. That is what makes each year’s annual meeting such a special event.”

An annual report has been mailed to each SWRE member. The report contains a registration form and complete information about the annual meeting.

Any questions about registration or other matters relating to the annual meeting can be directed to Aaron Paxton, SWRE Manager of Administrative Services. Paxton can be reached toll-free at 1-800-256-7973.

General Information about SWRE

Southwest Rural Electric Association is headquartered in Tipton, Oklahoma, and also operates branch warehouse operations in Electra, Texas, and Vernon, Texas. The cooperative was organized in 1937. It serves approximately 6,000 square miles in eleven counties throughout southwest Oklahoma and north central Texas (in Oklahoma: Jackson, Kiowa, Tillman, Comanche, and Greer Counties; in Texas: Hardeman, Wilbarger, Wichita, Foard, Baylor, and Archer Counties).