February 2010
Cooperatives, the Neighborly Way
by Keven Groenewold
There are many ways to organize a business: sole proprietorships, stockholder corporations, and partnerships, to name a few. Cooperatives are in that list but they are different from any other type of business structure.
Cooperatives are the only businesses that exist to meet the needs of their members. They are the only type of business that provides services chosen by the members, that returns earnings to its members and that operate on the democratic principle of one member, one vote.
The most common cooperatives—credit unions, grocery stores, agricultural, telephone and electric cooperatives—have the added distinction of being owned by consumers. That means the people who run the business are the people who buy its products
and services.
Think about that. The owner and consumer is the same person. Acting as an owner, the consumer chooses trustees to oversee the cooperative’s operation, votes on changes to the cooperative’s bylaws, and shares in any surplus the cooperative
may have.
Acting as a consumer, the owner buys products and services that he or she told the cooperative to offer. As a consumer, the owner holds trustees accountable for the quality of services offered by his or her company. As a consumer, the owner also has the ability to direct the cooperative to offer new services to meet new or
changing needs.
The cooperative, in turn, responds to the wishes of its consumer-owners. As their needs and expectations change, the successful cooperative offers new services. This is particularly true for rural electric cooperatives.
Our mission is to provide reliable and affordable electric service to our members. That’s obvious. What is not so obvious is we also provide lifestyle choices. That’s because electricity is more than a product. It is the basis of our entire standard of living. We use it for lights to extend the day. We also use it for motors and appliances, and other devices that make rural life sustainable.
And today, much like your dad’s Ford or Chevy of the past, electricity comes in different colors and prices—so to speak. You can have green energy that costs a small premium if that is your choice. You can use energy that is generated at night and costs less. You can advocate a mixture of resources, delivery options, and consumer programs to the locally elected board.
Providing electricity is no longer enough to deliver the 21st century lifestyle enhancements that are part of the mission of rural electric cooperatives. We exist to provide needed services to our owners, acting as consumers to use those services, and to our consumers acting as owners to tell us what to offer.
Depending on local conditions, this means electric cooperatives may change dramatically. One community may require different services than another. Its cooperative, therefore, may look very different from a sister cooperative a few miles away.
Friends and neighbors formed our organizations because they lacked electric power and could find no one else willing to deliver it to them. Their counterparts today continue this tradition when they ask us to offer solar energy, or internet service, or any number of other products or services.
That’s the best thing about being cooperatives. We get to learn from our neighbors, listen to their needs and help them solve problems in their lives. It’s called being neighborly. It’s the cooperative way.