The last two weeks, members of Wolverine’s senior team and communications team attended HomeWorks Tri-County’s (HWTC’s) District Meetings.  These annual meetings proudly display what it means to be part of a cooperative.  Each May, HomeWorks holds a local District meeting in each of its seven voting districts.  It takes the HWTC senior team a lot of time, effort, and coordination to pull off seven evening meetings within two weeks.

Imagine a church gym, or local school gym, packed with several hundred customers (members) of an electric company!  Add a picnic supper, introductions, business meeting, and a presentation, and there you have it – A District Meeting.  So aside from a nice social event, what’s the big deal?

Cooperatives are founded on seven very important principles, almost all of which you can see in one way or another during the District meetings.  You see Voluntary and Open Membership, without discrimination based upon gender, race, social status, or religion.  You see Democratic Owner Control, as the members vote on (among other things) who their Board representative will be.  You see Autonomy and Independence of members that come together to form a corporation to provide to themselves the essential service of electricity.  You see a focus on Education, Training, and Information.  I’ve watched on a few occasions over the past few years, Mark Kappler, HWTC CEO, deliver difficult news to the members about rate increases.  He does it openly, and honestly.  You see Cooperation among Cooperatives as HWTC and Wolverine work together to deliver an effective message, or simply support one another.  Finally, you see Concern for Community, as each District discusses the amount of charitable contributions made in their local community – and these contributions were funded voluntarily by the HWTC members themselves.

The HWTC meetings require a lot of evening driving by the Wolverine Senior team over a couple weeks each May, but our effort is small compared to that required by the HWTC team.  I feel privileged that HomeWorks invites Wolverine to attend (and speak at) each meeting.  It gives us a chance to tell our story, but more importantly, it offers a powerful reminder for our senior team as to why Wolverine exists.