How does signing up for internet service from my co-op instead of a national brand help me?
When it comes to signing up for internet service, ask yourself these questions:
Do you want to sign up for Internet from a national brand that doesn’t have a personal interest in your community? Or do you want to sign up for fiber-optic internet offered by the cooperative that has provided reliable services to your community for nearly 100 years?
As a member of the Alcorn County Electric Power Association (“ACE Power”), you own a share in our mission. When more people buy ACE Fiber, the profits generated are returned to ACE Power, with the goal of reducing future electric rate increases. But we know it’s about more than that, right?
When you sign up for ACE Fiber, you join a family of people who care about making your town a better place to live. Since 1934, this cooperative has put its members first and worked to bring the most dependable, reliable electricity to homes at the end of the line.
Every person who works for ACE Power and ACE Fiber works hard to maintain a legacy of reliability and a family-first mentality. The people who pick up the phone when you call are your neighbors. That means your power and internet service is their power and internet service.
That makes it personal.
Rising Tides
Recently, we started a podcast called “Rising Tides.” Rising Tides refers to the saying, “A rising tide lifts all boats.”
The name “Rising Tides” suggests that as ACE modernizes its technology, expands its customer service offerings, and pioneers into new territories. Every member benefits!
As a cooperative, we’re all about being a rising tide for our community, and that starts with our leadership team. We decided to interview them and share about the often-overlooked benefits of investing in ACE Fiber as opposed to [the other guys].
6 Overlooked Cooperative Member Benefits
Leadership that Looks Out for Members Most of All
“Our board is a five-member board and really they have no agenda other than serving the membership of Alcorn County Electric Power Association. We’ve put a lot on their plate, and they’ve really stepped up and provided valuable leadership that our community really deserves.” – Sean McGrath, CEO
“We see our members every day. We talk to them at the stores. We see them at church. A lot of times when a member has an issue, they may come to you at church or they may come to you in the store and talk about things. We provide that member service not just during normal business hours but basically a lot of the time outside of work. The good thing is that we all take pride in our work, and we want to make sure that we’re providing good service to our members. We take the time to talk to them, whether we’re here at the job or off the job.” – Jason Grisham, COO
Staying Ahead of the Trends with Modern Technology
“When I first interviewed here, we talked about adding technology to our system so that we could provide reliable power. And we’ve done that a lot, and we’re continuing to do that. We’ve added an outage management system. We’ve added an automated metering infrastructure… they have greatly enhanced the way that we battle these outages when they come. And so that’s one of the things that we’re proud of here at ACE.” – Jason Grisham, COO
“We are kind of the one that sticks our neck out there and maybe goes against the grain or is the first to raise our hand to volunteer to do something that maybe we see is coming down the pipe. We want to be the ones to go ahead and get the ball rolling on some new initiatives.” – Drew Galloway, CFO
Historical Legacy of Integrity, Dedication, & Hard Work
“When I think about the legacy of ACE, there’s a lot of things that come to mind, but integrity, dedication, and hard work—those are some of the foundations that ACE was formed on and that was back in 1934. I think those same principles can be applied to today’s work environment, and I think we’ve got the employee base here that’s got that same determination and that same level of integrity and those foundational principles to be able to succeed in the future. I think that’s how we continue on the legacy of ACE.” – Sean McGrath, CEO
“I feel like our culture is rich in tradition. We come from a very successful line of past employees who have paved the way for us.” – Marci Gurley, Chief Human Resources Officer
Family Values
“I’m thankful every day…that I get to be part of a team that cares about each other and cares about everybody’s family members. It’s just a close-knit team that is working toward one goal of making Alcorn County the best that it can be by providing efficient, effective, dependable service.” – Drew Galloway, CFO
“We also talk about the fact that ACE is your second family. At ACE, you are going to spend a lot of time with your employees, and you’re going to get to know them well. So, whenever a family here has a problem or an issue, a lot of times our other employees are the ones that help take care of that problem. And so that’s one thing we’re very proud of.” – Jason Grisham, COO
Fulfilling, Lifelong Careers for Locals
“We get folks that want to show up for work every day and do a good job for our community and provide a valuable service, not only with electric but with telecommunications as well.” – Sean McGrath, CEO
“You know it was good management and really good employees that were here for the long haul when you see people come to work at ACE, and they make a career out of it. We’ve got employees that have been here 10, 15, 20, 20 plus years, and it just says something about the organization in itself and how it maintains the atmosphere and makes it a great place to work.” – Drew Galloway, CFO
“It’s a big community and family. They took me in, welcomed me as a college student, and now I’m here working full-time and have been ever since. I wouldn’t go anywhere else.” – Marci Gurley, Chief Human Resources Officer
“ACE helped me grow into a better man. I wanted to come to work here because I had two uncles who worked here, and I saw how they were treated. And I wanted my family to grow up in this. That’s the reason why I came here.” – Anthony Marshall, Warehouseman
Doing What’s Right Over What’s Easy
“You see ACE being active in the community—honesty, integrity, hard work, very dependable, and reliable. We just had a crew get back yesterday from helping another co-op. They’d been there for four or five days straight working, you know, 12-to-14-hour days…From the top all the way down, you can just see all of those core values in every aspect of ACE.” – Drew Galloway, CFO
“When we send an employee out to repair a line and fix a problem, we want them to do it the right way. We want to do it in such a way that it’s not just putting a patch on it, but we do it in such a way that we know it’ll provide reliable service for years to come.” – Jason Grisham, COO
Interested in hearing more from our leadership team? Check out these blog posts:
A Letter from the CEO – https://www.ace-fiber.com/letter-from-the-ceo/
ACE Fiber Extending Network to New Albany – https://www.ace-fiber.com/ace-fiber-extending-network-to-new-albany/
