At this year's Annual Meeting, we're celebrating the diverse places our members call home with a gift box filled with thoughtful selections that reflect who we are--something members can take with them. We hope each attendee left feeling inspired, appreciated, and connected to what makes our cooperative so unique.

Exploring the balance between wildfire mitigation and cultural preservation, Tri-State highlights the collaborative efforts to protect the historic culture at Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. By carefully managing vegetation and respecting Indigenous heritage, Tri-State and partners are reducing wildfire risks while protecting the area's rich archaeological and cultural significance, ensuring a safer future for both the land and the communities it serves.

Every May, over 500 line workers, teachers and volunteers gather in Grand Junction, Colorado at the Mesa Hotline School for the two-week annual learning event. The school attracts participants from across the United States, emphasizing safety and reliability in electrical transmission and distribution. It’s an energetic and transformative learning experience with the aim of equipping people with the knowledge and skills needed to keep the lights on for the communities they serve.  

Building off last year’s award-winning theme of Co-op Campus, our most recent Communications and Energy Services Conference provided another dynamic two days of learning and connection, centered around a 70s-inspired theme of 'More Power to Ya.'  

Every farm has a story, and that story often has a distinct before-and-after moment of when the farm gained electricity. For many across the rural west, that moment was in the 1940s and 50s after the Rural Electrification Act took effect and member-owned electric cooperatives emerged to bring reliable and affordable electricity to their communities. For Mammoth Farms, that moment happened in 2018.   

EEA is a member-owned rural electric cooperative and its day-to-day work serving its member-owners is guided by the seven cooperative principles.

All of us at one time or another have experienced the inability to find an item we needed to purchase, or have had to settle for a different or novel solution to our requirements. Now imagine that solution at prices three or four times the cost of what one used to pay prior to 2020. That has been the ongoing nature of the post-pandemic, worldwide supply chain crisis.

To address the housing shortages, the town of Buena Vista and local building manufacturer Fading West recently broke ground on the Midland Apartments; a 60-unit, income-restricted building that will provide much-needed affordable housing in the area.

In Simla, Colo., a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held for three new electric buses and chargers, thanks to grants from the 2022 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program. Big Sandy School District was among the lottery winners.