Manager Connection – Top 5 Reasons We Love Serving Our Member-Owners
By Syd Briggs,
General Manager
We are now one the new year and our prime concern is focused on living a fully healthy life.
We continue to learn ways to stay healthy, and February will be a great month to enhance healthy living with an attitude of love for our family, friends, and neighbors. I believe we live healthier when we live happier with love in our hearts for each other; and there are so many ways we connect with our neighbors and family that provide an abundance of reasons to love.
February may be the shortest month, but it’s packed with special observances like Valentine’s Day, Presidents’ Day, in addition to a host of unofficial “national” days you’ve probably never heard of like “National Tater Tot Day,” “National Bubble Gum Day,” and “National Drink Wine Day.” They all have something in common as they were created to draw attention to a particular issue or theme.
Valentine’s Day may seem like an observance originally created by a greeting card company, but over time, it’s become a widely celebrated day generating millions of dollars spent on flowers, candy, and of course, greeting cards professing our love. But Valentine’s Day isn’t just for the lovebirds. It’s also a perfect time to let our friends, family, co-workers, and other special people in our lives know we care about them—with or without a store-bought greeting card.
So, in that vein, we’ve created our list of top five reasons why we love serving you, the member-owners of Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric:
1. We love serving our members be-cause without you, the co-op wouldn’t exist. Our purpose is to provide you with reliable, responsible, and safe electricity. Simply put, Steele-Waseca exists to serve you. That’s why we were formed in 1936—to bring power to our local area when for-profit utilities would not.
2. You enable us to complete our mission by supporting our efforts to give back. A major part of our mission is to serve the communities in our service area and look after the greater good. With your assistance, we’re able to help the most vulnerable members of our communities through food drives and donations to local food shelves that help local families when times are tough.
3. Members of our co-op also serve on the board of directors. They provide guidance for setting co-op priorities and helping make big decisions. Because our board members live in our service area, they’re able to serve as the pulse of the larger community and identify immediate and long-term needs. The broader co-op membership provides helpful input through their vote on director elections, and by weighing in on co-op and com-munity issues.
4. You help us get it right. Steele-Waseca members are great about keeping us in the know. We do our best to avoid power outages, but Mother Nature can occasion-ally throw us a curveball; our members are quick to report any power disruptions and are patient as our line crews work to safely restore power. We know outages are frustrating, and your support as we work through storms means so much to our employees. We also appreciate your feedback on co-op programs and services like rebates, renewable energy options, the water heating program, and website conveniences. Your opinions are critical for the co-op’s success, and we thank you for that.
5. You and other Steele-Waseca members make up the community we serve—and for us, it’s all about community. Our employees live, work, and care about our service area communities the same way you do. We’re invested and work to help it thrive. That’s why Steele-Waseca do-nates to local community efforts, provides scholarships to graduating high school seniors, and are sponsoring two high school students on the 2022 Youth Tour to Washington, D.C. It’s also why we invest in economic development, and why you’ll see our employees volunteering in various community endeavors.
As a co-op, our mission is to enhance communities, and look after its long-term interests. We love serving our members and our local communities, and just like you, want to see it continue to thrive.
Service
#swceSERVICE
