October is National Cooperative Month, when cooperatives of all types are celebrated and have the opportunity to tell the world why our business model is important and relevant in the 21st century.

Diverse Power Incorporated is a nonprofit electric cooperative, formed in 1936 to bring affordable, reliable electricity to rural homes and farms.

Each of the nation’s 900 electric cooperatives, including Diverse Power, is an independent business, but we’re all connected in a vast network that serves 42 million people in 47 states, including about 4.4 million in Georgia. We provide power to 19 million businesses, homes, schools, churches, farms and other establishments in 2,500 of America’s 3,141 counties.

To accomplish this feat, the nation’s electric co-ops employ nearly 70,000 workers. In Georgia, 41 electric cooperatives have more than 5,900 employees.

Much more goes on at each cooperative than just keeping the system running. Those who don hard hats and climb poles to work on power lines might be the most visible employees of electric utilities, but it takes a host of other employees to keep the power flowing.

Member services representatives take care of phone calls and bill payments, and they administer programs and services, such as home energy audits and scholarships for high school graduates. Staking technicians and engineers plot where new lines will be built, while purchasers maintain an inventory of equipment and negotiate contracts. And a board of directors oversees the work of the co-op with its goal remaining the same as it was when Diverse Power was formed almost 80 years ago: to provide you, our members, with reliable, affordable electricity.

It’s the cooperative way.