By focusing on our common interests, as opposed to our differing ideas, we have been able to succeed and even to thrive through challenging times.
Cooperation Among Cooperatives, one of the foundational principles that guide cooperatives everywhere, is especially important to electric cooperatives. It’s easy to see why: When we step back and look at the amazing accomplishments that have been achieved by relatively small, locally owned electric co-ops, we realize that they have always been better when they work together than when they try to go it alone. By focusing on our common interests, as opposed to our differing ideas, we have been able to succeed and even to thrive through changing times.
As electric cooperatives formed across the country in the 1930s and 1940s, they realized that, if they could develop organizations that could serve their business needs as a group, it would be more effective and less expensive than doing those jobs by themselves. Nearly all of them banded together to form state-based trade associations. Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives, for example, came into existence in 1941 to represent the interests of electric cooperatives in the Buckeye State, and now works for all 24 Ohio-based electric co-ops with a broad range of services such as safety training, government relations, workforce development and education, and communications services — including production and distribution of this magazine.
After the trade associations came generation and transmission cooperatives to help the local co-ops develop the scale needed to be able to purchase and own large-scale electric supply facilities. Since 1959, Buckeye Power — through its Cardinal Power Plant and other generation resources — has provided a reliable and affordable supply of electricity at cost to the co-ops that do business here.
It wasn’t long before co-ops found they had business interests that were better met on a national scale, and so they formed the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) to represent them in their dealings with the federal government. The NRECA also provides at-cost employee benefit plans and governance training for local cooperative directors. Later, when co-ops needed a a reliable supplier of financing for investment in needed infrastructure, they established the Cooperative Finance Corporation; when they needed property protection and liability coverage, Federated Insurance came into being. The list goes on and now includes information technology companies, national call response centers, telecommunications services, and more.
For more than 80 years now, cooperatives have made it their core mission to provide high-quality electric service to your home or business — every day, year-in and year-out — at a competitive cost. Cooperation is a powerful tool that helps them make that happen.
