2025 Tipmont Annual Meeting Recap
Tipmont welcomed more than 1,400 cooperative members to its 85th Annual Member meeting on Saturday, Sept. 13 – both from our in-person location at the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds, as well as drive-thru locations at the fairgrounds and at Tipmont offices in Linden and Battle Ground.
This allowed more members to vote in this year’s elections for Tipmont’s Board of Directors and engage in the way they preferred. All members attending received a 2024 Tipmont Annual Report, as well as a gift bag.
Members attending in person visited various Tipmont displays and information centers to learn more about residential internet, engineering, operations, business solutions, energy efficiency, and vegetation management.
Tipmont attorney Brian Garrison read the notice of the 2025 Business Meeting, announced a quorum and called the meeting to order at 10:14 a.m. A motion was made, seconded and carried to approve minutes from the 2024 Annual Meeting.
Garrison then introduced candidates for election in districts 1, 3 and 6: incumbent Kirk Alter and Jeff Wilcox in District 1; incumbent Lynn Beck and Jaime Ortiz in District 3; and incumbent Wesley Stockdale for District 6. Each candidate in a contested district was given three minutes to address those gathered in person for the meeting before in-person voting began. Candidates spoke in alphabetical order of their last names.
After candidates in districts 1 and 3 addressed the crowd, a motion was made, seconded and carried to cast a unanimous ballot for District 6, as Stockdale was running unopposed. Garrison then directed members to vote for District 1 and District 3 seats, providing instructions on how to submit ballots, and Tipmont staff collected in-person ballots.
District 1 Director and Secretary-Treasurer Alter then delivered the 2024 Financial Report.
Communication Director Rob Ford then joined Harrison High School senior Meredith Anderson for a discussion about her experience on the 2025 Indiana Youth Tour. She discussed the perspectives she gained from the trip, as well as her post-high school plans.
Ford then offered an update on Tipmont’s fiber broadband builds, and joined President and CEO Ron Holcomb to discuss Tipmont’s evolution from exclusive service as an electric distribution cooperative to offering fiber-optic broadband and beyond. They updated the membership that the common goal is to maximize member value in quality of service relative to cost. They also outlined several challenges facing the co-op, including demand growth, beneficial electrification and maintaining the right balance for co-op operations across the board.
Garrison then announced final results from ballots submitted for the District 1 and District 3 director elections. Jeff Wilcox was announced as the winner for District 1, and Lynn Beck retained his seat in District 3.
With no further business, a motion was made, seconded and carried to adjourn the 2025 Business Meeting at 11:11 a.m.
Four grand prizes of $1,000 were then drawn, available in cash or as an electric bill credit. Winners were:
- Michael and Barbara Devine of Lafayette (drawn from Battle Ground Drive-Thru)
- Rebecca Milakis of Lafayette (drawn from Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds In-Person)
- Greg and Judith Sundt of Lafayette (drawn from Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds Drive-Thru)
- Julie Vandermeer of New Richmond (drawn from Linden Drive-Thru)
