032: Why This CEO Thinks Every Co-op Should Steal Each Other's Best Ideas (with James Tanneberger)

In this episode of The Co-op Heroes Podcast, we sit down with James Tanneberger, CEO of South Central Indiana REMC, to talk about the programs that turn a utility into a neighbor. He makes the case that the smallest gestures, a rounded up bill, a hat off a Christmas tree, a hand on a truck door, are what set a cooperative apart from anywhere else he has worked.  James came to co-ops after years at municipal and investor owned electric companies, including the largest electric company in the country. South Central Indiana REMC is his first cooperative, and after eight and a half years there he says the culture is different in a way that shows up everywhere, especially in how close the company stays to the community it serves. He walks through Operation Roundup, where members' bills are rounded up to the next dollar and a volunteer committee decides which nonprofits get the funds, right down to a heated debate over whether to fund a stray cat rescue. He talks about the employee auction that raises money for Christmas baskets, the tag tree in the lobby where staff pick a child's name and gift, and the coats and gloves left out all winter for anyone who needs them, no questions asked. Featured topics: How Operation Roundup works, and what actually happens in the room when members decide where the money goes The Christmas auction and basket program, and how linemen end up bidding on $1,000 ladders for a good cause The hat and glove tree in the lobby, and why the co-op never asks who takes one Touch a truck events and live line demos, and what it means to teach kids and first responders real electrical safety  Where James finds new ideas, from IEC's monthly roundup of co-op news to conversations between neighboring co-ops Why he thinks the industry needs a shared library of these community programs, so no one has to reinvent them alone James is not describing a marketing strategy. He is describing a company where showing up for the community is just what people do, whether that means running a chainsaw, chairing a committee, or handing a stranger a pair of gloves. This is a conversation about what it looks like when a cooperative decides its job includes more than keeping the lights on.