In this episode of The Co-Op Heroes podcast, we sit down with John Cassidy, CEO of Indiana Electric Cooperatives, to explore how one grassroots advocacy campaign stopped a regressive tax increase that would have blindsided rural communities, and what this fight reveals about defending people who don't know they need a champion.

Most people don't spend their days reading legislative proposals or tracking tax code changes. They're working, raising families, trying to make ends meet. But while they're living their lives, decisions are being made at the statehouse that could dramatically increase their electric bills. By the time they find out, it's too late. That's where advocates like John come in, serving as the eyes, ears, and voice for communities that don't know what's coming.

Early in his career, John faced a defining challenge. Indiana's governor proposed a sweeping tax reform package designed to help the business community. Buried in the details was a dramatic increase to the kilowatt hour tax, a regressive tax that would hit rural electric consumers the hardest. The proposal had the backing of the governor, legislative leadership, and one-party control of the statehouse. When John raised concerns, the Speaker of the House essentially told him to pound salt.

What happened next is a masterclass in grassroots advocacy. John hit the road, meeting co-op leaders in their offices and at local diners, building trust and conveying urgency. He helped CEOs translate abstract policy language into real impacts. A tax increase became "$60 more per month on your electric bill." That got people's attention.

Featured topics:

• How regressive taxes disproportionately impact rural communities
• The challenge of communicating urgency about policies people don't know exist
• Building grassroots campaigns through co-op leaders, boards, and member consumers
• Why showing up in person matters when you need people to trust you and act
• Turning awareness into action: letters, emails, and constituent engagement
• Losing the battle in the House but winning the war in the Senate
• The moment a rural legislator said, "We're going to take care of you on this"
• Why good ideas and organized communities can overcome formidable political opposition
• The empowerment that comes from demystifying the political process
• How electric co-ops continue the legacy of selfless leadership, from bringing electricity to rural America in the 1930s to bridging the digital divide today

John explains how this early victory shaped his entire career and taught him the power of helping others find their own voice in the political process. When people come together for the right reasons and bring their voice to the table, change is possible. And when you're fighting for something bigger than yourself, for member consumers who rely on affordable electricity, the mission becomes deeply personal.

This is a story about fighting battles rural communities don't see coming, empowering people to engage in a process that often feels distant and dysfunctional, and the enduring power of the cooperative mission to serve the common good.

The Co-Op Heroes podcast brings you real stories from electric utility operators, the people who work around the clock to keep our communities powered and served.

In this episode of The Co-Op Heroes podcast, we sit down with David Formella, utility forester at Southside Electric Cooperative in Virginia, to explore what happens when trees, power lines, and people intersect in unexpected ways.

David brings a unique background to utility forestry: a degree in natural resource conservation from Virginia Tech, military service as a Marine, and experience as an EMT. When he arrived at Southside Electric, he discovered that being a utility forester means wearing countless hats, from vegetation management and storm restoration to emergency response and member education.

The stories David shares reveal the human side of keeping the lights on. One day, he went to address a member's complaint about tree removal and ended up calling 911 when the member had a medical emergency. During a helicopter aerial trimming operation, a horse broke loose and went running down the road. Beyond the dramatic moments lie the daily challenges of balancing member concerns about beloved trees with the critical need to maintain safe, reliable power delivery.

What emerges is a portrait of cooperative work that goes far beyond job descriptions. It's about being present in your community, caring about members as people, and being ready to help however needed, whether that's preventing outages, bird-dogging for mutual aid crews during storms, or simply being there when someone needs help.

Featured topics:

• The unexpected emergencies utility foresters encounter in the field
• How cooperatives respond during major storms and restoration efforts
• Bird-dogging: supporting mutual aid crews during major outages
• Aerial trimming operations with helicopters and their unique challenges
• Balancing member relationships with vegetation management requirements
• Why the cooperative model demands caring about people above all else

David's experience shows that working at an electric cooperative isn't just about technical expertise. It's about embodying the cooperative principle that caring about people comes first, even when that means stepping outside your role to help a member in crisis. The same mindset that drives vegetation management to keep communities safe extends to every interaction, creating the foundation of trust that makes the cooperative model work.

When you work for a utility where neighbors are members, you can't just be a forester managing trees. You have to be ready for anything, from medical emergencies to livestock on the loose. David's stories remind us that the cooperative difference isn't found in policies or procedures, but in the willingness to show up, care deeply, and do whatever it takes to serve the community.

The Co-Op Heroes podcast brings you real stories from electric utility operators: the people who work around the clock to keep our communities powered and served.

In this episode of The Co-Op Heroes podcast, we sit down with Nate Melby, VP and Chief Information Officer at Dairyland Power Cooperative, to explore how an electric cooperative became an unlikely pioneer in artificial intelligence, and how that innovation is now spreading across the cooperative movement.

When Nate arrived at Dairyland Power, a Generation and Transmission cooperative, he brought an unexpected background: a PhD in Information Systems and experience with deep learning research in academic laboratories. In 2018, while most industries were still experimenting with AI, Dairyland began building machine learning models to optimize load management and system efficiency. The journey evolved into something bigger.

What started as internal experimentation became VoltWrite, Dairyland's proprietary AI solution. But the real innovation was to not keep the technology to themselves. Following the core cooperative principle of collaboration, Dairyland began sharing VoltWrite with other cooperatives. Today, it's a nationwide service helping electric co-ops across the country work smarter, faster, and more efficiently.

Nate shares the real challenges of bringing AI to an industry skeptical of new technology. The technical barriers proved manageable. The human factor (overcoming doubt, building trust with early adopters, helping skeptics become believers) required patience, board-level support, and demonstrable results.

Featured topics:

• The early days of machine learning adoption at Dairyland
• Why cooperatives were positioned to innovate before the mainstream
• Real-world use cases: semantic summarization, anomaly detection, document analysis
• The big dollar decision: replacing a software project with AI agents built in-house
• Overcoming the human factor in technology adoption
• How board support and demonstrable wins build organizational buy-in
• The cooperative principle of collaboration that turned VoltWrite into a national service
• "Pulling on the thread" problem-solving and agentic AI
• Building agents for compliance automation and complex workflows

Nate explains how cooperatives, constrained by limited resources, are uniquely positioned to benefit from AI. When you work for a utility where every efficiency gain directly serves members, the incentive to innovate becomes clear. And when cooperatives collaborate rather than compete, those innovations ripple across the entire network.

This is a story about leadership, courage in the face of uncertainty, and how the cooperative principle of working together for greater good extends into the age of artificial intelligence.

The Co-Op Heroes podcast brings you real stories from electric utility operators, the people who work around the clock to keep our communities powered and served.