Cooperative Living January 2014 - 4

EDITORIAL by Richard G. Johnstone Jr., Executive Editor
Vol. 68, No. 2
ISSN 1529-4579
RICHARD G. JOHNSTONE JR.
Executive Editor
BILL SHERROD
Editor
LAURA J. EMERY
Field Editor
JANET ROGERS BAILEY
Production Manager
LAURIE MILLS,
Apple Eye Studio, LLC
Graphic Designer
AMANDA S. CUNNINGHAM
Graphic Designer/Ad Sales
SUSAN C. GLISSON
Advertising Assistant
To contact magazine:
9 a.m.-5 p.m. M-F
Phone: (804) 346-3344
Or at any time:
Fax: (804) 346-3448
Email: bsherrod@odec.com
Web: www.co-opliving.com
Published by the VA, MD & DE Association
of Electric Cooperatives
OLIN S. DAVIS III
Chairman
LARRY C. HOWDYSHELL
Vice Chairman
JAMES E. HUFFMAN
Secretary
HERBERT R. PATRICK
Treasurer
JACKSON E. REASOR
President
RICHARD G. JOHNSTONE JR.
Executive Vice President
Board of Directors: R. Wayne Browning, R. Dodd Obenshain,
A&N; Michael Sandridge, Michael J. Keyser,
BARC; George N. Goin, Jr., Gary E. Wood, Central Virginia;
Olin S. Davis III, Michael I. Wheatley, Choptank;
Jeannette S. Everett, Steven A. Harmon, Community;
James E. Huffman, Shawn C. Hildebrand, Craig-Botetourt;
Patricia S. Dorey, J. William Andrew, Delaware;
Fletcher B. Jones, John C. Lee, Jr., Mecklenburg;
J. Steve Thomas, Sr., Greg W. White, Northern Neck;
J. Manley Garber, Stan C. Feuerberg, Northern Virginia;
Dale McNiel, Randell W. Meyers, Powell Valley;
Herbert R. Patrick, M Dale Bradshaw, Prince George;
Richard C. Oliver, Kent D. Farmer, Rappahannock;
Larry C. Howdyshell, Myron D. Rummel, Shenandoah
Valley; Frank W. Bacon, Jeffrey S. Edwards, Southside.
To advertise in Cooperative Living, contact:
Amanda Cunningham (804) 346-3344
National Advertising Representative: NCM
611 South Congress Ave., Suite 504
Austin, Texas 78704 * 800-626-1181
Member of the NCM network of
publications, reaching more than
8 million homes and businesses.
PRESSRUN . . . . . . 501,605
COOPERATIVE LIVING (USPS 473300)
is published 10 times a year, monthly
except for combined March/April and
November/ December issues, by the Va., Md.
& Del. Association of Electric Cooperatives.
POSTMASTER, address changes should be
sent to: Cooperative Living, 4201 Dominion
Boulevard, Suite 101, Glen Allen, VA 23060,
(804) 346-3344. Periodicals Postage paid at
Glen Allen, VA, and additional mailing offices.
Subscription: $4.90 per year for members of
subscribing co-ops; $10 per year for all others.
ADVERTISING published is accepted on the
premise that the merchandise and services offered
are accurately described and willingly sold
to customers at the advertised price. Neither this
magazine nor the electric cooperatives in Virginia,
Maryland, and Delaware endorses any
products or services advertised herein. If any
readers encounter non-compliance with these
standards, they are asked to inform the Editor.
www.facebook.com/
cooperativeliving
2
A SHAGGY DOG
STORY
Like a dog romping through new-fallen snow, Cooperative Living magazine
enthusiastically explores social media, and in this world finds another
dynamic way for an established publication to speak with, and hear from,
its readers.
Cooperative Living magazine was born in
1946, the year the first Baby Boomers entered
the world. Like many Baby Boomers, we've
changed our appearance, and our name,
several times over the decades. And, like
many Boomers, these changes reflected our
own financial situation as well as the fashions
of the times, plus of course our earnest desire
to remain relevant and vital and interesting.
We began life in the warm afterglow of
World War II, when three Virginia cooperatives
joined together to publish a broadsheet
newspaper for the farm families who constituted
almost all electric cooperative members
at the time. Other Virginia cooperatives saw
the benefits of keeping in regular touch with
their members, and in just a few years almost
every electric cooperative in Virginia was
sending this newspaper, Rural Virginia, to
its members.
The desire for a publication with a longer
shelf life led Virginia's cooperatives to change
Rural Virginia's format to a magazine in the
early 1960s. More changes, and improvements,
would follow, with the magazine's
original use of spot color expanded to full
color in the late 1960s. Name changes would
follow as well, first to Rural Living in the early
1970s, and then to Cooperative Living at the
dawn of this century.
But through all the changes in name and
appearance, there's been an evergreen element:
to encourage cooperative members - our
readers - to keep in touch, to share thoughts
and ideas, criticisms and critiques, suggestions
and story ideas. We've primed this pump by
running all manner of contests, asking readers
to send favorite recipes, identify crossroads
locations, answer " whatzit?, " figure out a
" history mystery, " and share stories of
" good neighbors. "
In short, we've asked you to write us or
call us, later to fax us, then to email us, and
now to " text " us. To this list we most recently
added another request: to " like " us, on
Facebook. We've recognized for some time
that our deeply embedded commitment to
interact, and stay in touch, with our readers
could mesh well with the dynamic, real-time
exchanges that are one of the strengths of
social media.
We just needed the right launching pad to
enter this new world. Late last year, we came
up with an idea: What if we scratch the cover
story we had planned for January, and instead
feature a reader-photo contest of winter
scenes? Such an editorial shift is not possible
utilizing just the print medium; lead times to
publicize such a change are too long. But
what if we conducted the contest entirely
through our Facebook page? Sure, it would
be a gamble, but it would be a great test, too,
of how we might meld the new with the old,
the instantaneous with the enduring.
As soon as we announced the contest on
Facebook in November, there was a veritable
blizzard of online activity, at least as compared
with the usual response we receive
from readers in our print world, of several
dozen letters and emails a month. Over 350
eligible photo entries were submitted by
readers from across the state, from Duffield
in Southwest Virginia to Bloxom on the
Eastern Shore.
Well over 300 readers then voted online
to pick the cover photo from the top-three
entries, a strong trio featuring a bare tree
against a wintry sky, whitetail deer pausing on
a snowy hillside, and of course the ultimate
winner: Dusty the soft-coated wheaten terrier,
happily gamboling through fresh snow,
clutching a Frisbee whose bright-red color
forms the perfect counterpoint to his khakicolored
coat, and to the bright whiteness of
the snow.
Thanks, Dusty, for showing us that you
really CAN teach an old publication some
new tricks. ■
Cooperative Living/January 2014
http://www.co-opliving.com http://www.facebook.com/
Cooperative Living January 2014

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