"Win-Win: An Informal History of Associated Electric Cooperative Inc."
Click to request a copy of "Win-Win"
In the strictest sense, this is a book about Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., the third tier in a unique three-tier system of cooperatives that bring affordable and reliable electricity to the state's rural consumers. From a broader perspective, it is about utility cooperation and finding out, success by success, how much better to go it together than to try to go it alone.
It also is a book about heroes. About the giants of the Missouri rural electric cooperative movement, who sacrificed ego and personal power - with some reluctance, to be sure - to build the better mousetrap called Associated. About their pragmatic counterparts on the private power side who were willing to set aside philosophical differences for mutual gain. About the attitude on both sides that made possible joint planning and shared use of power plants and transmission lines to avoid duplication and to save money for everybody. That's a win-win situation in anybody's language. It explains the title of this book.
So, consider it a book about winners - their vision and imagination, their courage and risk-taking, their determination and skill, their luck, good and bad, their individual foibles and their collective wisdom.
While its subject matter is very important, even vital, to the lives of Missouri's rural citizens, the book is filled with anecdotes and tales told out of school. That makes for easy reading. And, while it deals with important decisions and actions relative to electric power supply in Missouri, it deals equally with the human drama behind the deeds.
Jim Jura
CEO and General Manager
Associated Electric Cooperative Inc.
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