Defining the mission and how to achieve it

It’s tough to reach a destination if you set out not knowing exactly where you are going. At Washington Electric Cooperative, we operate under a mission statement that is rooted in our core values. This mission defines our direction.

Once the destination is determined, it’s important to figure out how you’re going to get there. We have that covered, too! At your cooperative, we engage our board of trustees, management, and senior staff every three years or so to develop a strategic plan that outlines our major goals and initiatives to move us forward with achieving our mission.

Earlier this year, we reviewed our mission statement and strategic plan. I am excited to share what we came up with.

Washington Electric Cooperative’s mission is to improve the quality of life for our members and community by safely and responsibly delivering reliable electric service, innovative energy solutions, and superior member service.

Upon reviewing our mission statement, we decided that it still embodies the cooperative’s objectives, so it was not changed. The first objective stated in our mission is “improving the quality of life for our members and community” because we exist not just to provide safe, reasonably priced, and reliable electric service, but for finding ways to, well, improve the quality of life for our members and community!

We do this through our core value of Commitment to Community when we do things like work with local schools and first responders to provide safety training, donate to local charities and non-profit organizations, help our members more efficiently use electricity, promote economic development, and so on.

The meat and potatoes of what we do here at Washington Electric Cooperative is “safely and responsibly delivering reliable electric service,” so it is important to include this in our mission statement. We work diligently to make sure our employees have all the tools, equipment, and training needed to allow them to do their jobs in the safest manner possible, and to always keep safety at the forefront of everything we do, each and every day. The safety of our employees, members, and the general public will never be compromised. We will continue to work very hard to improve the reliability of our electric service to our members while responsibly managing the cooperative’s finances.

We also felt our mission statement should speak to “innovative energy solutions.” Solar energy is a growing trend and we are happy to work with our members to find ways for them to offset their electric usage through solar and other renewable energy systems. Electric vehicles have not yet become popular in our area, but it is likely that these will start popping up at some point and we are looking forward to helping our members with strategies to efficiently charge their vehicles at the lowest possible cost.

Jeff Triplett GENERAL MANAGER

Other items that might fall into this category are technologies such as smart thermostats and appliances that can be programmed to operate at the most cost-efficient times. To sum it up, “innovative energy solutions” comes down to providing members with choices and working to engage you in more ways than just providing traditional electric service.

Finally, it is important to us that we strive to provide “superior member service.” The term “superior” can be subjective, but in short, we want our members to know we truly care when they engage with us in any way. If we do not meet your definition of superior member service, please contact me directly and let me know how we can improve.

With our mission statement reconfirmed, our board of trustees, management, and senior staff worked with an outside facilitator to update our three-year strategic plan. Below is a summary of the major goals and initiatives we identified:

1. Build and maintain financial strength

2. Provide superior member service

3. Provide reliable and cost-effective service

4. Attract and retain qualified employees

5. Efficiently use technology

6. Ensure proper governance

7. Maintain a culture of safety

We are enthusiastically working to develop plans to meet our strategic goals as we work to fulfill our mission. We sincerely hope your experience with Washington Electric will be better for these efforts!