The Power of Membership

Now is a good time to be a member of an electric cooperative. It’s always a good time to be a co-op member, but this year—deemed International Year of Cooperatives by the United Nations—is an especially appropriate time to reflect on why.

Not only are co-ops locally owned and controlled—by you, our members—they are locally run to serve your needs.

While many Texas electricity consumers pay power bills to companies that answer to far-away stockholders who demand a healthy profit every quarter, local members call the shots at electric co-ops like ours. Co-ops aren’t under pressure to keep rates high enough to generate big profits. Instead, co-ops try to keep your bill as low as possible while providing high-quality service. Co-ops locally invest money in excess of operating costs back into the business or return the excess (known as margins) to you in the form of capital credits.

And unlike the boards of directors of investor-owned utilities who keep an eye on generating profits for people living far away, your co-op’s directors (fellow members, by the way) have a very different focus: keeping the lights on safely and reliably, and keeping costs affordable in our community. That’s why you elected them. And that’s what’s so great about co-ops. If you don’t like the direction your co-op is taking, you have the power to change the leadership through democratic means.

You may know the history of the electric cooperative movement, how seven decades ago rural residents banded together to bring the conveniences of electricity to their communities when investor-owned utilities would not extend their services. The associations they formed, on the same democratic principles as this great nation, are as strong and relevant today as they were back then.

But co-ops are not just products of a proud past. These days, Americans from all walks of life have come to recognize how the co-op approach—members working together to achieve price and service benefits—can work for other needs just as effectively as it delivered affordable power to rural Americans.

The seven principles upon which electric co-ops were founded—voluntary and open membership, democratic member control, and members’ economic participation, among others—are as meaningful today as they were when electric co-ops began in the 1930s.

Leadership at Houston County Electric Cooperative shares the same concerns as you, our members. We are accessible. You can give us a call or send us an email and know someone here is listening. And at our annual meeting in November, visit with us in person and share insights on how you want your business operated.

In these days of economic turmoil, folks who receive electricity from co-ops are lucky. As locally owned and operated businesses, electric co-ops understand the people they serve. Directors and employees at your co-op share the same values and have the same pride of place as you do because it is our community, too. We act like neighbors because we are neighbors.

That’s the cooperative difference.