Cooperative Advantage

What is a Cooperative

Cherryland Electric is a cooperative, which means we are a privately owned electric utility business. Anyone who connects to Cherryland electric utility system automatically becomes a member. Collectively all Cherryland members privately own the cooperative and share in its benefits.

A cooperative business structure offers many benefits:

• Owned and controlled by the members it serves
• Governed by a board of directors democratically elected from the membership, which sets policies and procedures that are implemented by the cooperative's professional staff
• Established to provide at-cost service
• Committed to the local community it serves

For more information on electric cooperative, visit www.nreca.org.

What is Patronage Capital

As a cooperative, Cherryland Electric is not profit driven. We set our price for electricity to cover the cost of wholesale power and the additional costs required to operate the cooperative. At the end of each year, we compare our revenue and actual costs. Any excess revenue, called margins, is assigned back to the members as patronage capital. The patronage capital assigned to a member is paid back to individual members as approved by the cooperative's board of directors.

Annual Meeting

Set forth in Cherryland Electric Cooperative's by-laws is a provision to hold an Annual Meeting in June. Cherryland Electric Cooperative's Annual Meeting will be held on June 11th, 2007 at Wuerfel park in Traverse City at Chums Corner. Members attending the Annual Meeting will be treated to a game of baseball by the Traverse City Beach Bums! In addition to dinner, games, entertainment, and a product and service display, members will get down to the business of electing directors to the cooperative board and voting on any proposed cooperative by-law changes.

To download a copy of Cherryland Electric Cooperative's by-laws, click here.