Cooperatives are voluntary organizations of people who have a common interest in providing themselves with goods or services on a not-for-profit basis.

Cooperatives are local.

Because Cooperatives are local, they are more accessible.

Consumers have a voice in the operation of Cooperatives on a "one vote per member" basis.

 Most electric Cooperatives, including SouthEastern, were originally financed by the Rural Electrification Administration (the REA), a federal agency created in the 1930’s to address the fact that over 90% of rural homes had no electricity at that time.

 The REA was created to loan money to existing power companies for rural electrification purposes, but despite the availability of long-term, low interest loans, the existing power companies concluded there was no profit in serving rural areas, and as a result of that decision the people of rural Southern Illinois joined together to provide to themselves what the power companies would not, literally making SouthEastern a power company, "for the people and by the people".

 Because Cooperatives are owned by the people they serve, Cooperatives have a commitment to the communities their members live in.

Members also learned that their Cooperative extended service to 540 new accounts in 2002 and constructed 31 miles of new power line.  The Cooperative updated two of its substations to accommodate the new growth along the Route 13 corridor west of Marion and used extensive testing procedures at each of its 36 substations to improve the reliability of every member’s electric service.  In total, the Cooperative spent some 4.5 million dollars on additions and improvements to its electric system.

The Cooperative plans to improve clerical and billing services to members by installing new equipment and plans to change the billing procedure for residential members sometime in the future.

When the change is implemented, members will continue to read their own meters, but will forward their readings to the Cooperative where the bills will be calculated and members invoiced for the amount due.

Members also learned that their Cooperative had one of the lowest rate schedules of any of the 26 electric cooperatives operating in Illinois, and despite the fact that SouthEastern’s wholesale cost of power would increase by 5% in September of 2003, no rate increase was planned for 2004, barring unforeseen circumstances.