A Celebration of Cooperatives

SAN DIEGO—75 years old? Heck, electric cooperatives are just getting started.

The reviews are in for the 75th NRECA Annual Meeting and they show the unique mixture of optimism and purpose that has characterized the association since its founding in March 1942.

“We may be 75 years old, but we’re the center of activity like never before,” outgoing President Mel Coleman told the NRECA Board at its Feb. 26 meeting on the eve of the formal proceedings.

Some 9,000 people flocked to the San Diego Convention Center for the Feb. 27-March 1 meeting and the concurrent TechAdvantage Expo, a premier showcase for technologies that co-ops can use.

More than 5,500 of the participants were registered co-op managers, staffers and directors, some of whom arrived early to brush up their education through director training courses or brush up houses at the Touchstone Energy® Cooperatives Community Service Project.

“This is what it’s all about,” said Thomas Hart, a former lineman with an investor-owned utility and now a director for six years at Rural Electric Convenience Cooperative, Auburn, Illinois.

“It’s just not the same as the investor-owned. I’m not saying anything bad about them,” said Hart, who has four family members in the trade including a nephew who is a lineman at RECC. “But the spirit and everything; it’s a whole new ballgame with co-ops.”

One of the few downers in San Diego was the weather. Something approximating a monsoon passed through southern California on Feb. 27, keeping people indoors at the convention center or scurrying to catch buses to nearby hotels.

“Didn’t have to take a shower for two days,” quipped Robert Burk, board chairman at Indian Electric Cooperative, Cleveland, Oklahoma, who’s served on his local board for 16 years and attended about a dozen NRECA annual meetings.

Still, the quality of the programs overshadowed the nearly three inches of rain that flooded some city streets. Burk said he had a special interest in sessions focusing on technology. “It’s one of the big interests right now, especially cybersecurity.” 

Dan White, a director at Southwest Rural Electric Cooperative, Tipton, Oklahoma, was familiar with the annual meeting routine—he’s been a director for 42 years and estimated he’s been to an annual meeting almost every year.

“Probably 41. I missed the first one because I was working at the cotton gin and couldn’t get off,” he joked.

White enjoyed a presentation by Mark Faulkenberry of Anadarko, Oklahoma-based Western Farmers Electric Cooperative at a breakout session on rethinking rate strategies, a subject that he said is as relevant today as when he signed on as a director.

“When it’s hot, we sell a lot of electricity. When it’s cool, we don’t.”

Broadband technology was on the mind of Larry Swanson, a director at Maquoketa Valley REC, Anamosa, Iowa, who has attended 18 to 20 annual meetings.

“We’re starting to install fiber to the home at our co-op, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to go to that one—to see what some of the perspectives are on it,” he said.

Not all the big stuff happened at the podium or in front of the crowd. Danny Gard, Jr. said one of his highlights was going to the NRECA health screening booth and getting answers to questions he had about his health insurance through NRECA.

“I am very, very impressed with that,” said Gard, board chairman at EnerStar Electric Cooperative, Paris, Illinois.

Among many high-profile speakers, one particularly caught the attention of Ron Barnes, incoming CEO of Coast EPA, Kiln, Mississippi.

“I think my favorite part was Steve Forbes at the CFC annual meeting. He used a lot of common sense to talk about the state of our country.”

And there was unanimous agreement on one of the most moving moments in San Diego—the presentation of the Clyde T. Ellis Award, NRECA’s highest honor, to CEO Jo Ann Emerson, who retired in 2016 for health reasons.

“It was very touching to see a standing ovation—a long standing ovation—for Jo Ann Emerson as her husband received the recognition on her behalf,” said Sean Vanslyke, CEO of SEMO Electric Cooperative, Sikeston, Missouri. “It’s heartfelt.”

Michael W. Kahn and Steven Johnson are staff writers at NRECA.