Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the First Financial Corporation Annual Meeting. I'll now turn the conference over to the Chairman, Norman Lowery. You may begin.
Good morning. I want to thank everyone for joining us today. I'm Norm Lowery, Chairman of the Board of First Financial Corporation. I will serve as Chairman of today's meeting, and Rodger McHargue, First Financial's Chief Financial Officer, will serve as Secretary. It's my pleasure to call the 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders to order. Rodger, will you please present the Notice of the Meeting, the Affidavit of Notice of Meeting, and the number of shareholders present in person or by proxy.
An affidavit will be incorporated into the minutes of this meeting, attesting that either, one, a notice of internet availability of the notice for this meeting, the proxy statement, and the 2025 annual report to stockholders, or two, the documents themselves mailed to all shareholders on or about March 13th, 2026. The shareholder list shows that as of the record date, there were 11,891,896 shares of common stock outstanding and entitled to vote at this meeting. The number of shares present in person and by proxy are 10,654,627 shares, representing 89.59% of the total shares outstanding.
The list of shareholders in attendance in person and by proxy has been presented, and the number of shares present constitutes a quorum. Legal notice of the meeting has been given. A quorum is present. The meeting is lawfully convened, and we are ready to transact business. I would like to introduce our Board of Directors attending.
They are; Mark Blade, Curt Brighton, Michael Carty, Tom Dinkel, Greg Gibson, Susan Jensen, Randy Krieble, Norman D. Lowery, Tina Maher, Tom Martin, James McDonald, P. J. Pierson, Ron Rich, Richard Shagley, and Bill Voges. Also, Kylie Cunningham from our independent public accounting firm, Crowe, is in attendance. Serving as proxy for today's meeting is Rodger McHargue. Shareholders John Wright and Steve Moody were appointed to serve as judges, and the oath of judges has been completed. Now I would like to proceed with the matters which will be voted on today.
There are three. The first is the election of five Directors. The following persons have been nominated to serve as Directors of the Corporation for a three-year term to expire in 2029. They are; Mark J. Blade, Gregory L. Gibson, Norman D. Lowery, Paul J. Pierson, and Richard J. Shagley. The second item is a non-binding advisory vote on the compensation of our Named Executive Officers as described in the Proxy Statement for this meeting.
The third is a proposal to ratify the appointment of Crowe LLP as the Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm of the Corporation for the Fiscal Year ending December 31, 2026. I declare the polls open for voting. Any shareholder who has not yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions there.
Shareholders who have sent in proxies or voted via telephone or Internet and do not want to change their vote do not need to take any further action. We'll take a short pause to allow for any additional voting. Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I declare the polls for this 2026 Annual Meeting closed. Will the Judges now report on the preliminary results of the voting?
All matters before the meeting were approved by the shareholders. A plurality of the votes cast are for the election of the five directors nominated for a term of three years to expire in 2029. A majority of the votes cast are for approval of the compensation of our named executive officers and ratification of the appointment of Crowe LLP as the independent registered public accounting firm of the corporation for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2026.
Is there any other business to come before the meeting? If there is no other business to come before the meeting, we are adjourned. I appreciate everyone's attendance, and we hope to see you all again next year.
This concludes today's annual meeting, you may now disconnect.