As we begin a new year at the cooperative, like many of you, we are reflecting on the year passed and setting resolutions for the year ahead.

In mid-December, the Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative Board and management team spent a day and a half together doing strategic planning. Following a thorough review of CCEC’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, we developed and prioritized objectives that will capitalize on our strengths and opportunities and mitigate weaknesses and threats.

We determined that our current high-level strategic goals of: 1) Maintain financial integrity; 2) Enhance our members’ lives; 3) Ensure safe and reliable service, 4) Ensure process efficiency and effectiveness all remain valid with one addition. Given the magnitude and significance of our fiber broadband project, the board added the strategic goal 5) Ensure Beacon Broadband’s success.

As a member-focused cooperative, CCEC’s strategic plan also affirms our value of the Seven Cooperative Principles. These principles are embodied in our bylaws, defining why CCEC exists and how it functions and is organized. These principles heavily influence the culture among our employees and how we interact with you, our members. The Seven Cooperative Principles are the threads that make

up the fabric of our strategic plan.

CCEC’s programs to promote youth education are an example of how we put into action the principle of Concern for Community and the goal to enhance our members’ lives. We have scholarship opportunities opening for high school students nearing graduation.

• CCEC offers six $1,000 scholarships for local college-bound high school seniors.
• Coos-Curry Electric Charitable Foundation offers six $1,000 luck-of-the-draw scholarships drawn from among graduating seniors who apply to further their education in vocational school or college.
• CCEC sponsors a weeklong, all-expenses-paid opportunity for a high school junior to visit Washington, D.C. This trip is an incredible experience to learn about public service, leadership and the cooperative model.

You can read more about these scholarship programs and additional opportunities on pages 28- 29 in this edition of Ruralite or visit www.ccec.coop. Please encourage high school students you know to apply.

On a personal note, I wish you fulfillment and success in 2023. I am honored and humbled that the CCEC Board of Directors has charged me and the CCEC team to implement the strategic plan. Our mission is to serve you the energy that powers your life.

Best wishes in 2023,

Brent Bischoff General Manager and CEO