This is why I work here

Octo­ber is Nation­al Co-op Month, a time to cel­e­brate the pow­er of team­work, the co-op busi­ness mod­el and, most impor­tant­ly, our mem­bers. Over the past 34 years, it has been my priv­i­lege to play a part in the pos­i­tive impact York Elec­tric has had on our com­mu­ni­ty and the lives of mem­bers.

I grew up in this area, so I would be remiss to let Co-op Month go by with­out shar­ing how much this orga­ni­za­tion, its employ­ees and our mem­bers mean to me.

As a child, I enjoyed the things boys grow­ing up in the coun­try do: hunt­ing, fish­ing, play­ing base­ball and camp­ing. I loved build­ing things and fig­ur­ing out how they worked. As I got old­er, I start­ed read­ing about elec­tric­i­ty and how vital it is to our lives. Pur­su­ing a degree in elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing was a nat­ur­al fit, and dur­ing my time at USC, I was drawn to class­es that focused on pow­er sys­tems.

After col­lege, I want­ed to come back home. My fam­i­ly lived here, and so did my girl­friend, now my wife, and her fam­i­ly. I’d heard great things about York Elec­tric, and I knew an orga­ni­za­tion that cared so much about its com­mu­ni­ty would be a place I’d like to work.

Work­ing at York Elec­tric has taught me that a career is more than just a job. One expe­ri­ence that has stayed with me is the win­ter storm of Jan­u­ary 2002. More than six inch­es of snow fell in our area along with a sig­nif­i­cant amount of ice that weighed down trees and pow­er lines. The storm downed lines, trees and broke poles. Every­one had to work for sev­er­al days to get pow­er restored.

What impressed me then, and still holds true today, is how every co-op employ­ee was will­ing to step in wher­ev­er they were need­ed to get the job done. I’ve rarely seen that type of team­work. Our employ­ees show up every day exem­pli­fy­ing a strong work eth­ic and liv­ing out our mis­sion to serve mem­bers.

Many employ­ees I’ve worked with have retired and new faces have tak­en their place, yet the same ded­i­ca­tion has remained. Along­side the employ­ees that have changed with time, tech­nol­o­gy has improved near­ly every part of our ser­vice. From com­mu­ni­cat­ing with our mem­bers and cut­ting right-of-way, to how we design, build and main­tain our elec­tri­cal sys­tem, near­ly every process has changed. Now, we know almost instant­ly when the pow­er goes out and we can mon­i­tor usage in 15-minute inter­vals from the office.

But what mat­ters most hasn’t changed. Our employ­ees con­tin­ue to have the same ded­i­ca­tion to serv­ing oth­ers and the same heart for look­ing out for our mem­bers.

York Elec­tric cel­e­brat­ed its 85th birth­day this year. No mat­ter how many years go by, I hope we main­tain that neigh­bors-help­ing-neigh­bors rela­tion­ship.  Our mem­bers need to know that their co-op is here to look out for them, improve their qual­i­ty of life, answer their ques­tions and pro­vide the best ser­vice pos­si­ble.

To me, that is what being a coop­er­a­tive is all about, and after 34 years, it’s still why I work here.