Power of the People

You may be seeing or hearing information in local media about MTEMC and Power of the People. It’s an attempt to remind folks of all ages about what Middle Tennessee Electric is…what a cooperative stands for…and what being a member means.

To start with…

MTEMC was born in the minds and will of ordinary people – homeowners and farmers in rural Middle Tennessee who were told providing electricity to them was impractical by power companies in the larger cities. These people wanted the conveniences of electricity, so they built an electric company themselves. They formed a cooperative…Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation in 1936.

The profit of a not-for-profit

By forming a cooperative, members agreed to pool their resources and share costs in bringing electricity to the area and in running the system they would build. And that’s just how it works today. The purpose of this cooperation is not in making a profit, but in keeping electric rates as low as possible and in keeping reliability as high as possible. As a not-for-profit, the employees who work for the cooperative understand its resources and investments are to be managed with the good of the members in mind…not with a goal of generating profits for stockholders.

More than a customer

By being part of the cooperative, you are more than a customer; you are a member. MTEMC is not merely an organization you receive a service from and send payments to…you are part of the organization. By virtue of your membership, you automatically receive all the benefits other members receive, such as low rates, good service reliability and a number of helpful services the cooperative offers. But beyond that, members who choose to can become more involved in how the cooperative works. For example, the cooperative has a number of boards and committees members can seek to become part of. There is an Annual Meeting of members, where members vote for the cooperative’s Board of Directors and on proposed changes to the cooperative’s bylaws. And members are always welcome to provide their input through a phone call, a visit or an e-mail.

Keeping things local

As a member, it is important to know that the money you send to the cooperative goes to benefit the cooperative…for now and the years to come. If MTEMC has more money coming in than going out on its ledger sheet, that excess margin is put right back into the system…either to retire debt or to improve the electric system to keep rates low and reliability high. And when you call MTEMC’s toll free numbers to reach member service or to report an outage, you can rest assured that the person you are connected to is working right here in Middle Tennessee.

Concern for Community

MTEMC has a long history of making positive impacts in the communities it serves…it’s part of the cooperative way. MTEMC’s most recent contribution to community has been the Customers Care program. Through this effort, and the fund-raising of Operation Round Up, MTEMC gave back $1 million to community causes between December of 2004 and summer 2005. That’s $1 million that would not have been there otherwise that’s going to feed the hungry, house the poor and assist the disabled.

Some good-tasting pudding

You might be saying something like, “All these philosophies are nice, but does it make a difference for me?” Like the old adage, the proof of the pudding is in the taste. It can look good, smell good and feel good, but all that doesn’t matter if it tastes bad. What matters most for the majority of electricity consumers is keeping the lights on and rates comparatively low. In those two categories, MTEMC wins the taste test almost every time. According to the Department of Energy, electric rates in Tennessee are among the 10 lowest in the nation…and in Tennessee, MTEMC’s rates are just about the lowest of all. In fact, among the state's largest utilities MTEMC is easily the lowest. And as for reliability, MTEMC’s average outage time per customer is just half the nationwide average.

Growing on

MTEMC has grown rapidly during its most recent history, faster than any other electric utility in Tennessee. Our membership is approaching 170,000. We maintain nearly 10,000 miles of power lines, and we distribute nearly 5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. While there are many challenges associated with addressing our growth, one of the greatest is maintaining the personal touch that is such a hallmark of cooperative service. It is a challenge we are committed to successfully dealing with, especially over the next few years.

Why this campaign?

Perhaps a reason you’ve come to the site is to see some rationale for this campaign…It is very much an awareness campaign, aiming to educate members that they are, in fact, members. With the dramatic population increases in our area, many incoming residents are not familiar with what a cooperative is. Also, surveys say today’s younger generation is not as informed regarding the benefits of cooperative membership as older generations. Power of the People is a message and a campaign to simply communicate what and who the cooperative is. MTEMC considers advertising and communications with members very important, but even so, less than one-tenth of one percent of the cooperative’s revenues are used for these purposes.

Got questions? Have comments? Send us an e-mail at info@mtemc.com.