It’s your cooperative
Celebrate National Cooperative Month
In the 1930s, investor-owned utilities said there wasn’t enough profit in extending electric lines to the Texas Hill Country and that it couldn’t be done. Our early community leaders took that as a challenge.
Future-president Lyndon B. Johnson helped lobby the Roosevelt administration to bring electricity to the region, and E. Babe Smith, a local rancher, canvassed the Hill Country to sign up farmers and ranchers for electric service. PEC was incorporated in 1938, and energized the first 1,800-mile section of line in 1939.
But the history that made PEC possible goes back much further than the 1930s. Cooperatives like PEC are rooted in the Cooperative Principles, developed in 1844 that form the basis for the modern cooperative movement. Those principles are: voluntary and open membership; democratic member control; members’ economic participation; autonomy and independence; education, training, and information; cooperation among cooperatives; and concern for community.
Today, we’re excited to celebrate National Cooperative Month with you. In the words of the employees who have dedicated themselves to serving you, find out what makes being a member of this cooperative special.
Member owned, member governed
“PEC is governed by the member-elected board of directors. This means you have a say in the cooperative’s direction. As a member, you can attend board meetings and sign up to speak. You can vote in your district board election, and you can even run for a director seat yourself.”
Sylvia Romero,
PEC Governance Manager
Part of the community
“We give back in a variety of ways, including grants to area nonprofits, volunteer days, youth programs, and more — because at PEC, we’re not just employees, we’re your friends and neighbors.”
Caroline Tinsley Porter,
PEC Community Relations Manager
Serving you, finding solutions
“Every PEC employee is dedicated to making a great member experience, from system design, to lineworkers in the field, to customer service. If we can help, we’ll do whatever we can.”
Tim Nance,
PEC Vice President of Member Relations
People, not profits
“As a cooperative, we’re not here to make a profit — we’re here to serve our members. That’s why any margins PEC makes are reinvested to ensure we continue to deliver safe, reliable electricity, and the rest are returned to members through capital credits.”
Randy Kruger,
PEC Chief Financial Officer