Democratic Member Control and the Power of Participation
A message from Pioneer President & CEO Tom Musick
Pioneer is owned by you — the cooperative membership. That means the direction we take, the policies we adopt, and the way we deliver energy is shaped by your input, feedback and involvement.
Beginning in July, our three county boards will meet to make nominations for the 2026 Pioneer board elections. Democracy thrives when people are involved in shaping the services and decisions that impact their daily lives.
At Pioneer, this commitment to democratic engagement is strengthened by the involvement of our members— whether they’re serving on the board of trustees or county nominating boards or casting their vote in our annual election.
Nearly 90 years ago, it was farmers, teachers, and shopkeepers who banded together to bring electricity to rural homes, barns, schools, and churches across Champaign, Miami, and Shelby counties. These weren’t passive consumers; they were pioneers, organizing from the ground up to create and govern their own utility.
While the cooperative has grown and evolved throughout nine decades, the cooperative principle, Democratic Member Control, remains the same — Pioneer is owned by you, guided by you, and powered by your involvement and participation.
What makes Pioneer especially unique among electric cooperatives is how we nominate our board trustees and county boards. Nearly all co-ops appoint nominating committees, but not Pioneer. Our nominating committees, which we call our county boards or county nominating boards, are also elected by the membership. These three county nominating boards each represent one of our primary county areas.
In the early days, each of Pioneer’s main counties, Champaign, Miami, and Shelby, had its own cooperative, its own board, and its own dedicated volunteers knocking on doors, signing up new members, and securing the resources to electrify rural areas within the service territory. When those individual county co-ops came together to form Pioneer Electric Cooperative, their former trustees became county board members — a tradition of democratic member control that we continue to carry on today.
Our now 12-member county boards aren’t just a nod to our history; they’re a vital part of our democratic process. Each year, they meet to consider and nominate candidates for the Pioneer board of trustees and their respective county nominating boards, ensuring the membership has candidates to vote for in the upcoming election.
Beyond nominations, these county board members act as liaisons between the cooperative and the membership and sometimes use their county board experience as a stepping stone to run for a board of trustees position in the future. Through the years, the county boards have also served as sounding boards for board of trustees and cooperative management ideas, before these are shared with the entire membership. Their involvement helps keep the cooperative connected to the values and people it serves.
If you’ve ever considered stepping into a board leadership role, whether as a trustee or a member of our county boards, now is the time to place your name into consideration. You can do so on our website or by contacting us at member@pioneerec.com.
