Meeting with members in a different,
but useful new way for the cooperative
by
MAURI MONTGOMERY
There’s always another way around the mountain, or around a pandemic.
United members this month pitched in and helped the co-op widen pandemic social distancing protocols by a lot—in this case, by miles.
And in the end, the long-distance conversation the cooperative was seeking to have with member-owners, crisis or not, was safe, convenient and nearly as meaningful as it would have been had it taken place the old-fashioned way—in person.
Nearly 300 Burleson- and Alvarado-area cooperative members—all of whom in May were invited to dial in by phone or to stream a conference call event through their computer—joined United’s first test run through a remote access Town Hall Meeting where they heard Cameron Smallwood, chief executive officer, provide timely updates on a variety of co-op projects, have a chance to ask questions and to weigh in on a couple of survey questions.
While Smallwood’s topics highlighted United’s responsiveness during the COVID-19 outbreak and the cooperative’s ongoing systemwide advanced metering deployment, it was his review of United’s progressing high-speed broadband network construction that expectedly drew the listening audience’s greatest attention and the most questions. During the approximate 45-minute call, only a couple of questions fell outside interests that largely centered on the cooperative’s immense broadband project, the metrics for which United had prepared to further validate in polling queries slated for the event.
As soon as members were prompted to do so, a stream of questions started pouring into the phone center as members asked when internet service would be available, how the service would reach their homes (overhead or underground, via fiber-optic line or wireless, etc.), how much internet service was going to cost, would the service include TV and telephone options, would data limits be imposed, etc. Smallwood answered as many of those questions as he could in a short time frame, but also conveyed the cooperative would try to follow-up on as many of the unanswered questions as possible, individually.
Mingled in with member phone and online inquiries about the broadband network, the first polling question of the day asked: How likely are you to subscribe to United’s new high-speed internet service when it becomes available at your location?
Member response was immediate and it also was reassuring from the cooperative’s perspective. Realistically, even though the response represented a small member sample, the largely positive response suggested the cooperative’s initial and very conservative planning estimates relating to service take rates have likely been just that—early and conservative. Because members compelled the cooperative to move forward with the project, its success is tied to their patronage and support of the endeavor.
Another pressing internet service question the cooperative wished to understand better was whether members had a preferred level of service they would naturally seek as distribution expanded. The next survey question of the day was: What internet speed interests you the most?
There was no clear favorite in the poll. Among the three primary service level offerings that will be offered to residential subscribers, the preferences were split nearly equally, but with the 500 Mbps level having a slight margin.
By happenstance, studying viability for a remote conference event was earmarked among other annual 2020 cooperative work objectives well before the COVID-19 virus outbreak made United’s traditional community communications venues an improbability for the immediate future. So the timing was right for a test run of the process in view of the country’s cautious reopening of more normal business and social activities, even while the virus was still making its grim and lingering presence known across the nation.
As it turned out, the event was judged successful, it served a useful purpose and the remote access communication platforms are now considered to be another helpful tool that will be incorporated into United’s expanding communications portfolio, especially when face-to-face interaction with members is not always feasible.