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Co-ops Remain Strong and Committed to its Members

This year has been a struggle like no other. COVID–19 has changed the fabric of society. It has posed many challenges to keeping the lights on.

Usually, December is a quieter time for rural electric cooperatives. Annual meetings are finished, trustee elections are over, and it is time to settle into the business of delivering electricity to our members.

Of course, that is what we do for the rest of the year, too. Like any other electric utility, we answer customer phone calls, connect new customers, fix outages, repair the electrical system, attend safety classes, and plan for our members’ future needs. With justifiable pride, we work hard to provide reliable and affordable electric power to rural consumers—both here at home and across America.

Other electric utilities claim the same commitment, although it may be to very few rural consumers. And the industry does a good job of keeping the lights on without charging too much for its product. However, that is not good enough if you’re a cooperative. We have standards that go beyond power lines and electric meters. These standards—the cooperative principles—define the values that guide our work, our relationship with our members, and our relationship with our communities.

Our values are simple enough. We are member-owned businesses. Any consumer can be a member; members control their co-ops through their vote. Members have an economic stake in us, and we operate independently on their behalf. We owe them honest and reliable information about our plans and operations. We cooperate with other co-ops to better serve our members, and we work to improve our communities. We strive to improve the quality of life of our members along the way.

While simple, these values make us different from any other type of electric company. Investor-owned utilities are accountable to their shareholders. Publicly owned utilities are accountable to government agencies. They operate to meet the policy goals of elected or appointed officials. Each of them has a filter between the business and the customer.

We are governed by trustees who are members, elected by their neighbors to guide the operations of their cooperative. The members vote at annual meetings or district meetings to choose the trustee who can best represent what they want from their co-op. Any member can run for election if he or she meets the requirements of the co-op’s bylaws. And once chosen, it is their duty to follow through on the wishes of those who elected them.

The members convene at least once a year to approve or disapprove of our actions. The rest of the year, they can call their elected trustee if they have a question about the cooperative’s operations. In fact, trustees frequently hear about outages or other concerns before the co-op’s management team.

There are 42 million people who are part of this enormous enterprise. They live in 47 states from Hawaii to Maine and from Alaska to Florida; and are members of over 900 rural electric cooperatives. They come from nearly every walk of life and background imaginable. They have one thing in common; however— they are all members and owners of their electric utility. No one else can make that claim.

As co-op owners, we are in this together—striving for the same goals. We will need unity to achieve these results. But as we know, the branches and leaves of any two trees are not identical. Yet, they all stand together to create a forest. Unity, without conformity, is what will keep our co-op forest healthy.

Stay safe, everyone. And I hope 2021 is a brighter year.