CEO’s Message – January 2025

Looking Ahead & Finding Value in the Cooperative Difference

Can you believe we’re halfway through the 2020s? Looking back to the beginning of the decade, we’ve been through a lot. But let’s not dwell; I’d prefer to look forward. One way to do that is by planning—maybe even setting some goals.

New Year’s resolutions used to be an important part of my goal-setting and planning for the future. Recently, I dug out some of those resolutions and couldn’t help but chuckle over the things I thought were important at the time. My personal priorities have certainly changed over the years.

Here at Union Rural Electric Cooperative (URE), our priorities haven’t changed. Our mission is the same as we work hard to deliver safe, aff ordable, and reliable energy to more than 11,000 members every day. But we don’t stop there. Because we’re a cooperative, we’re always looking for ways to do much more, by providing real value to you and our local community.

So, what exactly does real value mean? Well, in some ways it’s basic, like having a local URE employee to talk to and help you right here in the community. Whether it’s to provide info on energy effi ciency and usage, answer billing questions, or just walk new members through the process of installing an electric service, our team is ready and eager to help.

Within the community, value can be defi ned as a company, owned by those we serve, contributing to the community in various impactful ways. Just look around and you’re bound to fi nd URE and our employees out there volunteering, contributing, and bettering our community.

Value is finding a copy of Ohio Cooperative Living in your mailbox every month, which keeps you informed about your cooperative’s important business updates along with fun and interesting stories from all around Ohio. In this issue, you’ll find details on how to access a list of former members we’ve lost contact with. See if you can spot someone you know and tell them,

“Hey! URE has some money for you!” Now, there’s some real value!

In addition to continuing with Cooperative Living magazine, we’re looking forward to rolling out a new digital newsletter later this year. Delivering information electronically will be timelier, which can be important at times and allow us to provide fresh local information.

We’re researching usage notifications through SmartHub that will alert you to abnormal usage during the month and provide you with a usage summary following billing. These notifications are designed to put valuable information in your hands, allowing you to plan or make changes to save money. These new SmartHub notifications will be available for signing up later this year. In the meantime, make sure you’ve updated us with your most current contact information so that both the digital newsletter and our SmartHub enhancements benefit you.

Of course, we also know that value is restoring power as quickly as possible after a storm. In fact, this past June, URE sent a crew to assist another cooperative dealing with widespread outages after major storms and Ohio line technicians from all over the state responded in October to help cooperatives in North Carolina following Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The 6th cooperative principle is “Cooperation among Cooperatives,” and ultimately that helps us all. When we need assistance, we know our cooperative family will be there to help.

Offering our members real value and working to improve the quality of life in the communities we serve is important to us. It’s 1 of the many ways we set ourselves apart from other utilities. It’s the Cooperative difference!