Jonesboro, AR — (JonesboroRightNow.com) — July 25, 2025 — Electric company leaders from across the state will be in Jonesboro this weekend as the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas hosts its annual Directors’ Summer Conference.
During the conference, locally elected directors from the 17 electric distribution cooperatives attend the event, according to senior director of corporate communications Rob Roedel. The 2025 Directors’ Summer Conference will be from Sunday, July 27, to Monday, July 28, at the Embassy Suites.
The directors attend board training meetings on Sunday, and each conference has a full day of speakers on Monday. These speakers are national, regional or state-level experts in varying areas of business, he said, noting that the CEO of both AECC and AECI provides an update for the two cooperatives at the Monday meeting.
“The purpose of the meeting is to ensure that local electric cooperative board members are trained and aware of the latest developments in the cooperative power sector. And, to allow for the exchange of information among AECC, AECI and the 17 local cooperatives,” Roedel said. “The local cooperative board members obtain national certifications by attending the training sessions. Arkansas Electric Cooperative board members are among the highest level of credentialed directors among the 941 electric cooperatives across the nation.”
The Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas hold two Directors Conferences per year – one in the summer and one in the winter. The Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas brand includes Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation (AECC), Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. (AECI) and its subsidiaries, and the local distribution cooperatives.
While all electric cooperatives are required to hold an annual business meeting according to their by-laws, they were not always held together. Originally, the AECI, cooperatives’ statewide association founded in 1942, and the AECC, a generation and transmission cooperative founded in 1949, held separate statewide director conferences. Training and a Monday program were eventually added to take advantage of the gathering of the approximately 250 local directors.
“The conference is held at venues across the state that can accommodate our conferences, ranging from Central Arkansas to Northwest Arkansas to Northeast Arkansas,” Roedel said. “We were here in Jonesboro in summer 2022. The directors loved the Embassy Suites and were very impressed by the professionalism, politeness and work ethic of the people in Northeast Arkansas.”
The Fox Morning Show will also be broadcasting live on Monday morning as they visit with co-op leaders and the CEO of the Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Corporation, according to Trey Stafford, president and general manager of Jonesboro Media Group and co-host of the Fox Morning Show.