Cooperative Living October 2014 - 4

VIEWPOINT by Richard G. Johnstone Jr., Executive Editor
Vol. 68, No. 10
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
Advertising 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
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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.
A
HARVESTHOME
Bringing in the harvest has always taken the
work of many hands. Bringing electricity to the
countryside does as well.
Swing the shining sickle,
Cut the ripening grain;
Gather in the harvest,
Fall is here again.
-Traditional
Come, ye thankful people, come;
Raise the song of Harvest-home;
All is safely gathered in,
ere the winter storms begin.
- Henry Alford, 19th-century
English theologian
h, October! A month both bitter and
sweet, poignant and exhilarating. There's
the invigorating uplift to body and soul
from its balmy, blue-sky days and crisp, starry
nights. There's also the aching beauty that foreshadows
decline: trees ablaze in a final curtaincall,
summer birds taking wing to far-off lands.
There's the crunch of tart apples announcing
another growing season done. And there's also
the enveloping tang of wood smoke, warming us
while warning of winter on-the-way.
Humankind for millennia has moved in
motion with nature's rhythms and heeded nature's
call, every autumn bringing in the harvest and
firming up the foundations ahead of the relentless
approach of winter. It's not surprising that " the
harvest " has been celebrated in song and story for
centuries, in part because it involves gathering the
food that sustains us, but also because this gathering
inevitably involves the labor of many hands.
Many cooperative hands.
The example of the harvest embodies both
how, and why, cooperatives work: everyone
shares in - and benefits from - the effort. So it's
only natural that October for decades has been
celebrated as Cooperative Month.
Cooperatives are a strong but often silent presence
in our lives, meeting needs as diverse as banking
and babysitting, food and housing, commodities
and communications, and, of course, electricity.
Your electric cooperative is one of over 900
spread across 47 American states, each one locally
owned, locally controlled, and dedicated to
providing its member-consumers with the best
possible service at the lowest possible cost, every
minute of every day.
As we've discussed in these pages many times
over many years, each cooperative is unique, and
2
Richard Johnstone
yet each is united with all the others by a shared
commitment to Seven Cooperative Principles.
These seven principles outline how the
cooperative operates, with:
* voluntary and open membership;
* democratic member control;
* economic participation by the members;
* autonomy and independence;
* a commitment to member
education and information;
* cooperation among cooperatives; and
* concern for community.
Like a farmer distilling sugar water into maple
syrup, this last principle boils the six before it down to
the pure essence of a cooperative: to work hard every
day to improve the quality of life for its members.
As this worldwide celebration of cooperation
takes place this month, we as Americans have
much for which to be grateful. We of course have
freedoms unimaginable to most of the residents
of this world, as we elect our leaders, speak out
on issues, pursue livelihoods we choose, and
gather freely with family and friends.
We Americans also celebrate another blessing:
a strong, reliable electric network that powers
much of our nation's economy and, despite the
challenges of recent years, still makes our quality
of life the envy of the world. Your local electric
cooperative, along with 12 others in Virginia and
hundreds more across the nation, are all integral
parts of this network.
The cooperative network was built by many
hands in the 1930s and '40s, as farmers and ranchers,
merchants and teachers - rural people all -
joined together in small towns and country crossroads
throughout the land to provide themselves
with power, when the big electric utilities of the
time were unwilling to do so. The cooperative principle
of member ownership proved a perfect fit for
this undertaking that was grand in scale, broadbased
in involvement. And the not-for-profit business
structure made a valuable service affordable
to rural people during the dawn of electric cooperatives
in the 1930s, and still does so today.
The work of many hands - whether for harvesting
the bounty of the land or delivering power
to its people - is something worth celebrating.
As 19th-century theologian Henry Alford implored,
" Come, ye thankful people, come; raise the
song of Harvest-home " ! n
Cooperative Living/October 2014
http://www.co-opliving.com
Cooperative Living October 2014

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