An electric
cooperative is a member-owned and controlled utility which provides electricity and
associated services at cost to its consumer-members.
Electric cooperatives were established by rural pioneers all across the country in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Cooperatives like Menard Electric Cooperative brought electricity to rural areas that the investor-owned utilities wouldn't or couldn't serve, turning on the lights for thousands of farmers and rural dwellers.
Rural electrification was made possible by the Rural Electrification Administration, created by Executive Order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on May 11, 1935, and later by enactment of the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 on May 20, 1936. REA made low interest loans available to bring the lines into the rural areas. The REA program took off and soon became so popular and successful that electric cooperatives became known as "REA's."
Today, electric cooperatives like Menard Electric Cooperative are the primary providers of electricity in the rural areas of downstate Illinois. The cooperative no longer serves just farmers in the diverse rural areatoday the cooperative serves small businesses and industries, farms, residences, cabins and recreational homes. Because electricity was there, rural areas have developed.
Cooperatives are governed by a unique form of democracy. Consumer-members, who own the cooperative, control it through the election of directors who represent their interests on the cooperative's board of directors. Local control through a locally-elected board of directors ensures all members an equal voice in the operation of their electric supply system. The one member-one vote concept is not only a right of all cooperative members ... it's a responsibility.
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