What does it mean to be a Coastal Electric Cooperative member?

/ CEO Insights / 3 minutes of reading

A person with a light beard and blue shirt is wearing a dark suit jacket against a plain gray background, looking directly at the camera.
Chris Fettes

If you’re read­ing this mag­a­zine, you most like­ly pay your elec­tric bill to Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive. Noth­ing rev­o­lu­tion­ary about that—you use elec­tric­i­ty, you receive a bill and you pay it.

In most cas­es that would make you a cus­tomer, right? Just a con­sumer of a prod­uct or ser­vice.

But did you know that if you pay your elec­tric bill to a coop­er­a­tive, you’re a mem­ber and own­er? What does that mean?

“Mem­ber” sounds like you acci­den­tal­ly joined a club, and “own­er” may make you ner­vous that you have more respon­si­bil­i­ty than you intend­ed.

Sim­ply put, a coop­er­a­tive is a not-for-prof­it busi­ness vol­un­tar­i­ly owned and con­trolled by the peo­ple who use its ser­vices. When you sign up for ser­vice with Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, you become a mem­ber and an own­er.

Being a coop­er­a­tive mem­ber and own­er has its ben­e­fits, such as hav­ing a say in how your coop­er­a­tive oper­ates (one exam­ple is vot­ing for your board of direc­tors) and get­ting mon­ey back when finances are strong, which are known as cap­i­tal cred­its.

Coop­er­a­tives around the world oper­ate accord­ing to the same set of core prin­ci­ples and val­ues, fea­tured on this very page. These prin­ci­ples are a key rea­son why America’s elec­tric coop­er­a­tives oper­ate dif­fer­ent­ly from oth­er elec­tric util­i­ties, putting the needs of mem­bers first. We were formed to serve our mem­bers, not gen­er­ate prof­its for out­side share­hold­ers, and it’s still why we exist today.

Mem­ber­ship in a coop­er­a­tive is open to all peo­ple who can rea­son­ably use its ser­vices and stand will­ing to accept the respon­si­bil­i­ties of membership—regardless of race, reli­gion, gen­der or eco­nom­ic cir­cum­stances.

So, if you pay your elec­tric bill to Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, wel­come to the club! You are a co-op mem­ber. And because you invest in your coop­er­a­tive every time you pay your elec­tric bill, con­grat­u­la­tions are in order because you’re an own­er, too!

To learn more about your elec­tric co-op, click here.

The Seven Cooperative Principles

As a not-for-prof­it elec­tric coop­er­a­tive, we oper­ate dif­fer­ent­ly from oth­er elec­tric util­i­ties, putting mem­bers’ needs first. We keep the Sev­en Coop­er­a­tive Prin­ci­ples at the core of every­thing we do:

1. Open & Voluntary Membership

Mem­ber­ship in a coop­er­a­tive is open to all per­sons who can rea­son­ably use its ser­vices and stand will­ing to accept the respon­si­bil­i­ties of mem­ber­ship, regard­less of race, reli­gion, gen­der, or eco­nom­ic cir­cum­stances.

2. Democratic Member Control

Coop­er­a­tives are demo­c­ra­t­ic orga­ni­za­tions con­trolled by their mem­bers, who active­ly par­tic­i­pate in set­ting poli­cies and mak­ing deci­sions. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives (direc­tors) are elect­ed from among the mem­ber­ship and are account­able to the mem­ber­ship.

3. Members’ Economic Participation

Mem­bers con­tribute equi­tably to, and demo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly con­trol, the cap­i­tal of their coop­er­a­tive. At least part of that cap­i­tal remains the com­mon prop­er­ty of the coop­er­a­tive.

4. Autonomy & Independence

Coop­er­a­tives are autonomous self-help orga­ni­za­tions con­trolled by their mem­bers. If they enter into agree­ments with oth­er orga­ni­za­tions or raise cap­i­tal from exter­nal sources, they do so on terms that ensure demo­c­ra­t­ic con­trol, as well as their unique iden­ti­ty.

5. Education, Training & Information

Edu­ca­tion and train­ing for mem­bers, elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives (direc­tors), CEOs, and employ­ees help them effec­tive­ly con­tribute to the devel­op­ment of their coop­er­a­tive. Com­mu­ni­ca­tions about the nature and ben­e­fits of coop­er­a­tives, par­tic­u­lar­ly with the gen­er­al pub­lic and opin­ion lead­ers, help boost coop­er­a­tive under­stand­ing.

6. Cooperation Among Cooperatives

By work­ing togeth­er through local, nation­al, region­al, and inter­na­tion­al struc­tures, coop­er­a­tives improve ser­vices, bol­ster local economies, and deal more effec­tive­ly with social and com­mu­ni­ty needs.

7. Concern for Community

Coop­er­a­tives work for the sus­tain­able devel­op­ment of their com­mu­ni­ties through poli­cies sup­port­ed by the mem­ber­ship.

7 Coop­er­a­tive Prin­ci­ples Info­graph­ic (PDF)

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