A co-op is founded when people with a similar need form an organization to provide goods or services. For example, a credit union is a co-op.

You are a customer and a member of this nonprofit organization. This gives you certain rights that are quite different than if you were a customer of a for-profit utility that is owned by shareholders. In addition to having a say in how the company is operated, you will gain a share of the ownership as you use our services. A cooperative's net margin above expenses and reserves does not belong to the utility; it belongs to the individual consumer-owners of Hancock-Wood. The margins must either be used to improve or maintain operations or be distributed to Hancock-Wood's consumer-owners. Indeed, this is one of the major aspects of a cooperative that make it truly unique.

Electric cooperatives are:

• private, independent electric utility businesses
• owned by the consumers they serve
• incorporated under the laws of the states in which they operate
• established to provide at-cost electric service
• governed by a board of directors elected from the membership, which sets policies and procedures that are implemented by the cooperatives' professional staff

In fact, according to the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA), over 120 million people -- two of every five people -- are members of 48,000 U.S. cooperatives, and worldwide, some 750,000 cooperatives serve 730 million members.

You might be familiar with some well known national cooperatives, such as Welch's, Land O'Lakes, Ocean Spray, Sunkist, Publix Supermarkets, ACE Hardware, Nationwide Insurance and the Associated Press.

In our electric cooperative industry, nearly 1,000 rural electric co-ops own and maintain nearly half of the electric distribution lines in the U. S., cover 75 percent of the land mass and provide electricity to 36 million people. Here in Ohio, there are 25 different electric co-ops serving more than 320,000 homes and businesses in 77 of Ohio's 88 counties. Their combined service areas cover about 40 percent of the state's land areas, including most rural areas.