Oct 6, 2026 · 6 min · 8 segments
What makes a cooperative different? In this episode of Beyond the Lines, we explore the Seven Cooperative Principles that guide United Electric Cooperative and cooperatives around the world. From…
The first of these seven is voluntary and open membership.
This means we cannot discriminate against people we serve.
So if you want service from us and can meet our guidelines and bylaws for service, such as safety, financial, and other considerations, we have to provide you service.
We don't make judgment calls on what you're doing with electricity.
We're here to serve as long as you pay your way and provide for the cooperative.
The second one is democratic member control.
Democratic member control means you, the members, select the board of directors who governs the cooperative.
Governing of a cooperative means they set the policies.
They don't run the day-to-day operation, but they set the guidelines we operate on.
The board has one employee, the CEO.
For United, it's me.
Their directions go through me to the operations of the cooperative, so we have member-led policies we operate under.
So when we say democratic member control, we mean democratic member control.
The first of these seven is voluntary and open membership.
This means we cannot discriminate against people we serve.
So if you want service from us and can meet our guidelines and bylaws for service, such as safety, financial, and other considerations, we have to provide you service.
We don't make judgment calls on what you're doing with electricity.
We're here to serve as long as you pay your way and provide for the cooperative.
The second one is democratic member control.
Democratic member control means you, the members, select the board of directors who governs the cooperative.
Governing of a cooperative means they set the policies.
They don't run the day-to-day operation, but they set the guidelines we operate on.
The board has one employee, the CEO.
For United, it's me.
Their directions go through me to the operations of the cooperative, so we have member-led policies we operate under.
So when we say democratic member control, we mean democratic member control.
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