Manager’s Message – July 2018
Down the Line
Dear Co-op Community Members:
The Seven Cooperative Principles explain the ideals for why a cooperative business organization exists. Put another way: The Seven Cooperative Principles are like our nation’s Declaration of Independence that we celebrate every July. For example, in May, Lane Electric conducted its annual election to the board of directors. Members completed their ballots and re-elected incumbents Chris Seubert from the Central District and Jerry Shorey from the Oakridge District.
That is cooperative principle No. 2 in action: Democratic Member Control. You are a member of a local democratic organization controlled by its members. Every member has an equal vote—one member, one vote. You elect representatives from the membership to set co-op policies and make decisions. Your representatives are accountable to the membership for their responsibilities to the co-op on behalf of the membership.
Local control through a democratic process. That sounds “self-evident,” doesn’t it? That sounds like Lane Electric is “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed …” Read on below and think about how great it is to be a part of a local co-op that preserves your right to have a democratic voice in your electric service.
Matt Michel, General Manager
In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
