From the CEO's Desk

This might surprise you when I say this — but we aren’t in the business of selling electricity. I’m sure that statement will have you scratching your head, given that electricity is our middle name. 

To understand what I’m talking about, take yourself back to the 1930s when the first electric cooperatives were formed. Our nation was mired in the Great Depression. Jobs were gone. Millions of people lost their savings. To compound the problem, years of drought caused the Dust Bowl days and the loss of productive farmland that once fed the nation. 
Solutions were needed to return the quality of life that made the United States such a great nation. The answer — or at least one of them — was electricity. 

City people had it. Rural people did not. They needed it to make their farms more productive. 
There was a simple reason why rural people were stuck in the dark while city people could extend their day with electric lights. I can sum it up in one word: profit. 

In those days, electric companies were either city-owned or investor-owned utilities. Obviously, a municipal utility ended its service at the city limit sign. But an investor- owned utility worked differently. Its investors demanded a return on their investment. This meant they weren’t going to extend their power lines into a sparsely populated area where there was no chance of a profit. 

“So how are you going to make a profit when others can’t?” That was the question many rural people asked when electric cooperative organizers called on them. And the answer was simple: “We won’t.” 

By removing the profit motive from supplying electricity, rural electrification became a reality. Profit was replaced by service. That mindset has been in our DNA since the day the cooperative was formed. It guides everything we do. 
 Our employees are here to serve you, and the way we do that is to bring you affordable and reliable electricity. That’s why you can find our linemen working long hours to restore power in terrible weather. That’s why our customer service reps bend over backwards to find a way to keep the power flowing to a family facing hard times. And it’s why our board of directors — members themselves — are committed to affordability. 

 That is the cooperative business model in a nutshell — service with a smile. This service-first mentality goes back to our beginning. It’s been passed down from generation to generation. There’s no class that new employees take to learn it. It’s simply absorbed by seeing it put into action. 

 I’m proud of the efforts our entire staff goes through to make this cooperative as valuable to you as it was on the day the lights came on. Service to you, our members, remains our focus.