Welcome to the 86th Annual Meeting of Miami-Cass REMC. I’m Rob Schwartz, CEO of your cooperative. Joining us tonight are your board of directors: President Jim Savage, Vice President Todd Smith, Secretary-Treasurer Cindy Scott, and Directors Don Wilson, Mark Hahn, Scott Marshand, and Tony Caldwell. Also in attendance are several staff members: Ryan Covert, IT; Shadd McLochlin, director of marketing and member services; and Kerri Gaumer, director of administrative services. I would like to extend my thanks to Todd Caldwell for leading the invocation.

Weve had a strong year since our last meeting. Once again, our outage times were below the industry average. Members experienced an average outage duration of just three hours and 40 minutes over the course of the year significantly lower than the national average of five hours. Our team works diligently on system maintenance and response efforts, taking great pride in ensuring reliability, safety, and efficiency.

On the commercial side of our business, weve seen encouraging load growth adding four megawatts of capacity, the equivalent of powering approximately 365 homes. Growth like this helps keep rates lower for all members. Ive heard some discussions about data centers being subsidized by electric utilities, so I want to clarify that Miami-Cass REMC does not have any data centers on our system. We do, however, have a Bitcoin operation contributing to our growth. This load is not subsidized by other members; rather, it helps offset costs and benefits the entire membership. Once the operation is fully deployed and running at full capacity, we anticipate being able to reduce rates.

We also had a safe and productive year across both companies. While there were a few minor incidents, we had no injuries resulting in lost work time. Safety for both our employees and members remains our highest priority.

Our broadband subsidiary, Broadway Broadband, continues to gain momentum. After a slower start than we anticipated, we are now adding an average of 100 new subscribers each month. As we complete more mainline and cabinet splicing, we expect that number to increase significantly. To date, weve constructed 1,250 miles of fiber and connected more than 2,500 subscribers.

As your cooperative, we remain committed to providing the essential services that help you thrive in todays ever-changing world. Electricity and internet access go hand-in-hand, empowering our communities to stay safe, healthy, productive, and connected. Miami-Cass REMC exists to serve you our members and we thank you for your continued trust and support.