A new president has been elected to lead the board of the Colorado Rural Electric Association, the statewide service organization that represents Colorado’s electric cooperatives.

Bill Midcap, who represents Morgan County Rural Electric Association in Fort Morgan and previously served as vice president, was electric president at the CREA board of director’s January meeting and will preside over his first meeting Feb. 27-28.

Other officers elected include Donald Kaufman of Sangre de Cristo Electric Association in Buena Vista, who was elected vice president; Jack Schneider of Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association in Fort Collins, who was elected secretary; and Jim Lueck of Highline Electric Association in Holyoke, who was elected treasurer.

Outgoing board president, Robert Blesoe of Tri-State Generation and Transmission and K.C. Electric Association in Hugo, will also remain as a member of the CREA Executive Committee.

Midcap, of Fort Morgan, is the director of external affairs for Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, where he provides information to rural families on legislative issues, local food issues, water and the environment. A fourth generation farmer and rancher, he retired from active farming in 2000 after 28 years.

Kaufman, a retired major general in the U.S. Air Force, spent 33 years as a fighter pilot, commander and staff officer in the Air Force. Since 1993, he has lived near Westcliffe, where he was a beef cattle rancher until 1997. Schneider, a retired major in the National Guard, is also a fourth generation farmer. He grew up and raised his own family on the family farm east of Severance. He has been active in 4H, the Colorado Cattle Feeders Association, the Colorado Livestock Association, the T-Bone Club of Greeley and the Weld County Commission’s Ad Hoc Committee to Preserve Agriculture in Weld County. He has served on the PVREA board for 12 years and on the CREA board since 2008.

Lueck, of Iliff, will be retiring as case manager for the Department of Corrections Feb. 28. He has served on the boards for the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy, the Farm Service Agency and Northeast Colorado Cattleman’s Association. He has also been on the board for Highline Electric Association for about 20 years and on the CREA board for five years.

These officers will serve through January 2015, with the option of being elected to a second term.