Concho Valley Electric Cooperative, Inc.

CVEC was organized by this area's rural residents in May 1940 as a non-profit organization, owned by the members. The first General Manager was Carroll Land. Mr. Land hired employees and things got busy quickly. Eager for electricity, individuals signed up to be CVEC members, gladly paying their $5.00 membership fee. After engineering and staking took place, poles were set and the construction of lines began. The first meter energized was for Mr. and Mrs. Henry Mazur. The meter was energized in July 1941, and is located 2 3/4 miles south of Veribest.
CVEC's service area is divided into 6 nominating areas. Area nominating meetings are held each year in the respective districts where director's terms have expired. A member is nominated from that area, then voted upon at the annual meeting -- held in July of each year. Directors are elected for a 3 year term. The directors elect their own officers and employ a Chief Executive Officer to oversee the day-to-day operations of the cooperative. There have been only 6 CEO's since CVEC was organized: Carroll Land, Jack Webb, Alton Rollans, Weldon Gray, Sid Long, and Kelly Lankford, the present CEO. CVEC employees are responsible to the CEO, the CEO is responsible to the Board, and the Board is responsible to the total membership. As you can see, CVEC truly is: "Member Owned By Those We Serve".

CVEC has continued to grow over the years since that first meeting in 1940. We now have 49 employees, 5,479 members, over 11,800 connected meters, and a total of 3,974 miles of lines covering 4,175 square miles in 10 counties; Tom Green, Coke, Concho, Sterling, Mitchell, Nolan, Runnels, Glasscock, Irion, and Reagan. CVEC has assets of over $66 million, with over 211 million KWH sales annually.

Since CVEC is owned by the members and is non-profit, any margin of revenue remaining after expenses is allocated yearly to members as capital credits. These capital credits are paid to the members as CVEC's financial position permits. CVEC has refunded $4,608,312 to it's member-owners in capital credits.

CVEC construction, maintenance and service crews construct electric lines and operate and maintain the utility system. Automatic meters transmit readings to the cooperative. Administrative, monthly billing for electric service, corporate accounting, data processing, engineering, mapping and all other support functions are performed by cooperative personnel at the headquarters building located at 2530 Pulliam Street in San Angelo.

Today, many electric co-op consumers don't remember the first day electricity came to their homes. In fact, their electricity was probably already there when they moved in -- one of those automatic things, like the telephone lines and running water. It is our duty, as employees of the members to adapt to the changing world and its changing attitudes, to provide service that causes the member, young or old, to feel fortunate to be a part of a unique organization -- an electric cooperative -- specifically Concho Valley Electric Cooperative.