Who likes change?

If you were to ask this question to a majority of people, they would likely say, "I am for change, if it makes everything better." But when you want to change something, their true colors will surface.

For example, if the music director of a traditional Southern Baptist church replaced the Sunday church hymns with modern praise music without asking anybody, that change would not go over very well, trust me.

There is a saying often attributed to Christian author C.S. Lewis: "Isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when we look back, everything is different?"

Electric cooperatives are not protected from the winds of change. There are around 900 electric cooperatives across the U.S. Within the next five years, over 40% of the CEOs of those cooperatives will be eligible for retirement. I am in that stat. This change in leadership is concerning as the electric industry faces so many challenges.

News channels report about the artificial intelligence revolution, stating the U.S. must win this AI race with China. There is a basic electric demand issue that needs to be addressed in the near future. The data centers that power AI will absorb a great amount of the electric demand capacity, and there are questions on who is going to pay for the generation needs that come with AI expansion.

With the normal residential and commercial growth within electric utilities, that question is easily answered. Those members pay for that growth. But AI growth may be different. Politicians are diving into the issue. They want data centers to pay for all the electric demand, generation and transmission costs up front or build their own generation and transmission assets.

I have not formed an opinion on data center companies being in the electric business, but I can see opportunities for us. Over the past few years, I have written in my monthly columns about various issues facing the cooperative world. We navigated the waters of a worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, electric steel shortages, supply chain delays, labor shortages and the high cost of building electric generation plants and transmission and distribution lines.

While traveling through these rough and deep waters, the cooperative has maintained its focus on safety, reliability and reasonable cost of electricity.

During these times, Gary Smith served as the CEO of PowerSouth Energy Cooperative. He held this position for more than 26 years and had a PowerSouth career spanning over 37 years. Like myself, Gary is an accountant, but he attended law school and became a lawyer not a CPA. However, Gary's greatest asset as CEO was his ability to develop relationships.

These relationships ranged from PowerSouth member cooperatives -- which SAEC is one -- employees and trustees, leaders at Alabama Power Company, the Business Council of Alabama and electric industry leaders.

By the time you read this article, Gary will be retired. The native of Corinth, Mississippi, made a big splash in the electric industry world. But things do change.

Gary and I are "Roll Tide Roll" fans and old enough to remember the times when Alabama had to hire a new head football coach to follow the greatest college football coach ever! Now, I am not going to discuss which Bama head football coach is No. 1 or No. 2, but Paul "Bear" Bryant and Nick Saban are, without a doubt, the greatest. You do not replace those coaches, and you do not replace Gary Smith.

Like Alabama football, PowerSouth has high standards. Our new CEO starts June 1. Damon Morgan will continue to meet those high standards and lead the members through the continuing rough waters of the electric industry.

Damon has over 40 years of service at PowerSouth, mentoring under Gary for over half of those years. Damon has a great ship to sail, and I am confident he will not run that ship to ground.

As far as the country boy from Corinth, I'm going to miss Gary's leadership, knowledge and his friendship. Gary enters retirement with his wife, Debbi, three daughters and sons-in-law and eight grandchildren. As you can see, Gary can stay as busy as he wants to be with his family. Gary also has a boating and fishing companion -- his trusted yellow Lab, Yadi.

Gary, good luck on your next race. You have finished your race at PowerSouth, and like a true Alabama football fan, you finished your race as a champion!

For those of you who think the music class you took in school was not important, you never know when you may be called to jot down some notes. Butterfield then asked the brigade bugler, Oliver Norton, to play the notes. After hearing his rendition, he ordered Norton to play this new call at the end of each day. The music was heard and adopted by other brigades. The piece became the official Army bugle call after the Civil War ended and was given the name “Taps” in 1874.

“Taps” was first played at a military funeral soon after Butterfield composed it when Union Capt. John Tidball ordered it played for the burial of a cannoneer killed in action. By 1891, Army Infantry regulations required “Taps” to be played at military funeral ceremonies. Today it is played by the military at burials, at memorial services to accompany the lowering of the flag, and to signal the “lights out” command at day’s end.

In 1976, my dad, Lt. Col. Joseph W. Bailey, was stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas. We lived in military housing on Biggs Army Airfield. There was no air conditioning in the military housing there, but we had this cooling device called a swamp cooler. The climate in West Texas is very dry, so the swamp cooler required windows to be cracked open slightly so moisture could be added into the dry air. By morning, you would be under blankets in the West Texas summer heat.

Every evening, “Taps” would be played, and I could hear it through the cracked windows.

I remember lying in bed, my heart filled with pride in our country and my eyes swelling with tears, proud of my dad and his service. You see, I’ve always heard that my dad entered the Army at 16, but he never told me when he entered the Army. A few months ago, I saw a picture of the Army National Guard unit in New Brockton, Alabama. The year was 1956, and there was my dad, who was born in January 1940. That puts him at 16. Also in the National Guard unit photo was his dad, Leon Bailey.

With my dad’s service and the sorrow for the lives cut short serving our great country, I still have the same reaction every time I hear “Taps” whether it’s played at Arlington National Cemetery, Normandy American Cemetery in France or on TV.

I pray we never forget the sacrifice of those lost while serving in the military.

When I write about “Taps” signaling the end of day, you may think “lights out” sends shockwaves within an electric utility, but I look at this action as energy conservation and not a power outage. We are entering the summertime season, which means summertime afternoon storms. My prayer is for your cooperative to catch a break from storms this year, but outages are going to occur. You can track outages by downloading the SAEC app from your smartphone’s app store or by visiting our website.

May is a good month to make sure your HVAC units are functioning properly. You will have better luck getting someone to check your unit in May before HVAC companies hit their busy season.

As you spend Memorial Day with family and friends, take a moment to reflect on the number of white crosses at the various national memorial cemeteries. There are 45 sets of brothers buried at the Normandy American Cemetery, killed during the D-Day landings and subsequent battles.

These families made a huge sacrifice. Each cross is a life cut short. Thank them all in your heart for your freedom. God bless them all.

Friendly Advice

This time of the year is like starting with a clean sheet of paper. Nature blossoms with new growth. Fruit trees begin to bloom with an array of colors. We start planting gardens and flowers in our yards.

People start exercising more because the weather is warmer, but not yet hot. I try to exercise throughout the year. I know the older I get, the stiffer I become. So, I know that motion is lotion to my joints.

Some days I go for a walk at the Troy Recreation Center. The outdoor track is wonderful. It’s great to see all ages out exercising, but I’ve noticed a trend among the younger people exercising. They do not speak to you — even after you speak. It’s not just the younger individuals, but the number of nonspeakers is growing.

This is Alabama. We are so Southern-friendly that we wave to individuals while traveling on our interstates. Why are we losing our Southern nature of being friendly, respectful, and our wonderful hospitality? In my opinion, it is this thing about 3 inches wide and 6 inches long called a cellphone. People are so addicted to their devices that they are willing to endanger their lives, as well as others’, to read a text that’s showing a thumbs-up emoji. It is sad to see individuals operating a vehicle while texting someone. The information is not that important, and if you deem it to be important, then stop your vehicle. Our crews have spoken many times of the near misses they experience while working on the roadways.

With all that being said, these devices can be a great asset when used to communicate with our members. It allows your cooperative to notify you when your power’s out. Before you say it — sure, I understand you know your power is out when you're at home, but our text notification also lets you know when you’re not at home. We also let you know when it’s restored. Communicating with you assures you that we are working on your outage.

With our South Alabama Electric Cooperative (SAEC) app, you can perform a long list of functions. Once you set up your account information, you can view your current statement, which looks identical to the statement you receive in the mail. You can make a payment or click on the account billing history, which stores 12 months of history. You can view the number of billing days and total kilowatt-hour usage for a particular month. Heck, you can even view the actual bill sent to you back in that month.

My favorite SAEC app tool is the usage tracker. There is a default date range of the last 7 or 30 days, or you can select a custom date range. This energy information shows our members the impact of their electric use during cold and hot weather. When we have cold weather, as we had in late January and early February, this usage tool gives you a heads-up on what to expect on your next electric bill. My least favorite tool of the SAEC app is the outage function. This function allows you to report an outage, view your account outage history, and view our current system outage status. I don’t like to see outages, but they do happen.

The SAEC app is a powerful tool for our members, but never access any apps when driving. If you need any assistance with our app, please contact 1 of our member service representatives, and they will help you on your app journey.

We are pleased that a large percentage of you appreciate the daily usage text notification on your electric account. But information is only as good as a current cellphone number. If you change your cellphone number, please let the cooperative know the new number.

Use your phone and our wonderful app, but don’t use them when driving or walking. One may cause you to lose your life or take an innocent person’s life. The other will cause you not to show off our great Southern hospitality and miss God's wonderful creations around us.

Finally, enjoy the new seasonal time because each year they get less and less. God has blessed us with life to serve Him and enjoy his creation. I hope you have a great month.

The Next Chapter

Well, the college football season is over. The Alabama deer season is fast closing. But it’s still winter, so what else is there to do?

For romantic guys like me, you need to turn your focus to your wife or girlfriend. February is the month of love, and Valentine’s Day is February 14.

Lately, I’ve been writing about the changes in the electric industry, but I would like to focus on a specific change at South Alabama Electric Cooperative.

1 of your long-term cooperative employees is retiring in February. Chris Sanders has served the cooperative faithfully for over 40 years. Now he has decided to focus on another chapter in his life.

Chris and I have worked together at the cooperative for 33 years, but we have known each other our entire lives. Yes, we are second cousins, but we are as close as any brothers. Just ask his wife, Tammy. Her regular complaint about our long phone conversations: “Don’t y’all see enough of each other that you don’t have to talk to each other all the time.”

Chris is the general foreman for your cooperative. He has basically held every position for the outside employees. To say I am proud of Chris is an understatement. I think about how God blessed us both with great careers. If you had told us about our cooperative careers over 40 years ago — when we worked together at the peanut-buying point in Ariton — we would have laughed our socks off. No way we could see this in our future. God is definitely good.

Chris’ attention to serving cooperative members is unparalleled. He has done all he can for members and fully understands they pay for us to have jobs and retirements. I don’t want to paint our working relationship as all serious. Laughter fills the office many afternoons, which is why I will miss him.

Chris and I grew up in a time when dads were tough on male children, wanting them to be the best. Chris is younger than me, but I remember a football game in his senior year at Zion Chapel High School. He played running back when he normally played center and linebacker. He scored four touchdowns. We celebrated on the field after the game, and Chris’ dad, Johnny Sanders, known as J.A., came up to Chris and said, “Son, on that last run, if you would have cut it back to the right sideline, you would have gotten touchdown number 5.”

That was how dads were then, always pushing us to be better.

Chris and I have talked about how the tough way they raised us made us into the men we are today. J.A. would be proud of the career Chris has completed.

1 of the hardest things to do in leading your cooperative is saying goodbye to employees/friends because we are family here. Not working with Chris will be tough, but I know his next chapter will be as full and fun as the chapter he’s closing at South Alabama. I may not see him as much, but I’m sure we will burn up the phone, and I am sure I will hear Tammy in the background saying, “My goodness, don’t you all ever get tired of talking to each other?” Well, Tammy, the answer is no.

Happy retirement to my cousin, brother, friend, and employee. You have earned it, and I have to tell you just 1 more time as your boss, “Tighten up, Cod.”

Now that the South is basketball country, February is a warmup to March Madness. But February can produce some very cold weather, and electric bills can still be high. So, please conserve electricity use.

I guess I should address my earlier statement about being romantic.

I am as romantic as an elephant is eloquent moving around a china shop. My first date was to the movies with my to-be wife to see the romantic classic “First Blood.” Being the romantic guy, Rambo was setting a great example for us other romantic guys.

So, I’m not romantic, but I will say Happy Valentine’s to my wife and daughters. Enjoy your time with all your family. It is all way too short.

Think About It

A new year serving the members of South Alabama Electric Cooperative has begun. The older I get, the faster the years seem to pass.

As a young lad in 1966, the first season of “Star Trek” aired — I was trying to use some Scottish words (“young lad”) to honor my favorite character, Scotty. On the show, Captain Kirk would order Mr. Zulu to go to warp speed. All I know about warp speed is it was fast, and I feel the years passing by at Warp Speed 7.

I don’t like New Year’s resolutions because most are broken very quickly. I like to think! Mostly, I think about my character as it relates to my faith and service to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Next, I think about my character as a husband, a father, and PawPaw to my grandsons. If I don’t think about these attributes of my character, Satan will get a foothold in my life. I ask Jesus each day to guide me down his path, not mine.

The other day, I read about an organization where all they do is think.

The article addressed the issue of artificial intelligence data centers sponging up excess energy capacity. There are areas around the country where electricity prices have increased twice as much as inflation. This increase is hovering around 18%. Your cooperative has not changed any electricity rates in more than 2 years. For 2026, we budgeted a slight increase of 3.2%, mainly due to the higher cost of power, higher interest rates, and the cost of building an electric distribution plant.

The think tank blames soaring energy demand on AI data centers. But the real impact of data centers is not on the electric grid yet. When you look at the data, which I’d expect those thinkers would do before throwing out solutions, the initial capacity shortage is from regulations causing power generators to close baseload fossil fuel plants before their end of life. These were either not replaced or were replaced with intermittent power facilities like solar or wind. When you close more than you build, you fall short!!

If you can get equipment like generators and transformers, building a baseload natural gas power plant takes about 4 years. Over the past 2 decades, electric use has been flat. Manufacturers have long lead times supplying utilities because they are not tooled up to the new demand for these generators and transformers.

Is the surge of AI data centers causing more electricity demand? Yes. Can we solve that problem? Yes. I believe in capitalism and the American can-do spirit.

The think tank’s road map to solving the problem includes AI data centers putting heat pumps in households currently using inefficient electric heating, cooling or water heating. They also want data centers to provide batteries and a 5 kW solar panel system for suitable homes.

They say it’s time to reject the idea that the solution is adding more fossil fuel power plants to the grid, while ignoring the missed opportunity inside millions of households with existing links to the grid.

We don’t need to be exclusively in any 1 source of energy. We need to be diversified in our energy portfolio. But let me address each roadmap scenario.

First, heat pumps work best when a home is properly insulated. Otherwise, homeowners may use more power to get to their comfort level. How will manufacturers produce all those heat pumps, and who will install them? It puts us back into the same short supply scenario as we are in with generators and transformers.

Second, investing in home batteries and 5 kW solar panels. As my oldest grandson, Kristian, would say, “Pawpaw, what would happen if?” What would happen if we were to have 10 days of extremely cold weather with some snow and limited sunshine? The batteries die, and the solar panels do not produce. The electric grid would have to be able to support the additional demand from those homes. This has already occurred, sadly, in February 2021. The electric system failed in Texas, and people died. This scenario from the thinkers increases that risk.

In my opinion, the underlying goal of these thinkers is not to solve the electricity demand issue. It’s to push their plan for exclusive renewable energy at any cost.

Your cooperative has a reasonable, not perfect, track record for serving our members. We’ve been pushing energy-efficient heat pumps and insulated homes over my 33-year career.

Y’all have a great month, and think about it.

You Know, There’s Hope

I am truly amazed when I read something in the Bible that prophesies about things centuries before the event occurs. That brings me to the Book of Isaiah.

Isaiah started his prophecy approximately 740 years before Jesus Christ was born, which is referred to in time as B.C. or Before Christ. Isaiah urges the people to care for the poor and the needy, commit to following God’s ways, and pursue social and economic justice. Sounds like more people today need to study the Book of Isaiah.

But he also wrote about the sign of Immanuel. In Isaiah 7:14, he wrote, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

Immanuel means “God with us.” Again, in Isaiah 9:6, he tells us that God’s son will be born as a baby and called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” On December 25, we celebrate these prophecies coming true in the birth of God’s son, Jesus, as the Messiah. In this truth, there is hope!

As I write about things in the Bible or types of energy sources and climate change in my monthly column, I would be naive to think everyone agrees with me. But the freedom to express yourself is 1 of the greatest attributes of living in the United States of America. This column is my platform to express my beliefs and insights into the electric industry. The reader can agree or disagree and civilly express their opinions to me.

It saddens my heart to hear the hate speech and attacks toward individuals who believe differently. This evil has led to a Bible-based conservative being murdered in front of thousands of college students and a presidential candidate being shot while at a political rally. If you cannot accept that not everyone is going to believe as you and you cannot discuss your thoughts in a civil manner, then follow the Bible’s guidance. If someone does not want to hear what you have to say, knock the dust from your feet and move on.

We must look toward the Prince of Peace. He fully understands the hate and evil of this world because the worldly hate was directed toward him over 2,000 years ago. But he overcame the worldly hate, and that gives me hope.

We need to take time this holiday season to look at ourselves and our words. Speak or write your beliefs and accept civil debate, but do not call people Nazis or Hitler unless you fully know the history of those individuals or the party that you’re comparing them to.

In 1972, I lived in West Germany. I had a wonderful teacher who believed in showing his students the history of Germany — not just in words but by seeing it. We took field trips to castles, toured vineyards, and visited West Berlin.

But the most profound trip was to the Dachau concentration camp. This camp, the first established by the Nazi government, was originally formed for political prisoners or opponents of the Nazi regime. Later, prisoners included Jews and homosexual individuals. These prisoners were used as forced laborers and in medical experiments, including those to test how long a human could survive in various water temperatures, mainly cold water. I saw the gas chambers where prisoners were killed and later cremated or bulldozed into mass graves. I asked my teacher what caused people to do this. He said, “Pure evil.”

My time at Dachau was 27 years after it was liberated by the American forces in 1945. Let me be clear, there are no places like Dachau in the United States, including Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Please, if you’re going to use terms to express the actions of others, follow the lead of the Wonderful Counselor and express yourself with civility and, most of all, love.

We should be grateful and thankful as the luckiest human beings alive to live in this country. At this time, the United States is the greatest country to ever exist, and I hope we all can agree on that. So, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus as Christians, we are to share our faith. We are all sinners, but we do have hope.

As I reflect on this season, the most important thing in my life is my faith. Merry Christmas to you all.

Be Thankful & Responsible

November — which seems to come along a lot faster than it used to — always gives me pause to consider the things I'm thankful for.

First and foremost, I’m thankful for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I want to represent Him in my work, my family, in all aspects of life. I’m thankful for Him giving me that chance. It is a daily challenge to serve Him to the fullest.

I’m thankful to live in a country where people have entered military service, whether drafted or voluntarily, to defend this country so we all may have the right to speak our minds — not to mandate, brutalize or intimidate, but the freedom to speak our beliefs.

Lastly, I’m thankful for my mother, Nan Rae Wilson Roth. This is her birthday month, and I’m thankful for the mother she has been through the years, a rock providing me with the base to live my life in a positive manner.

But I also look back and ask myself this question: Where are we going with all this stuff that’s being spewed out in the electric industry? You hear about climate change and about how the electric industry cannot serve future demand with the projected growth in data centers and organic growth. There are real challenges out there. The electric demand challenges will definitely have to be addressed. The demand challenges are solved by building a generation power plant, which comes with a high cost.

Politics can help with some of those challenges or hurt, but people will have to act on these challenges.

We must get rid of all the hoopla surrounding what politicians or groups want our electric industry to look like and focus on an electric industry that really works. The common-sense electric industry model must continue to develop solutions in a cost-effective and reliable manner. The solutions mandating 100% renewable by 2035 by various states with no regard to reliability and cost, are like my college accounting teacher used to say, “That’s just drugs; it will not work.” There are people or groups that think the renewable path is the answer — I guess they like drugs!

The way I see the challenge of members wanting to install renewables for their electric needs on their property is to go for it. But if those same members wish to connect to the cooperative’s distribution system, then they should have to pay for the cost to connect. This issue is a challenge for distribution co-ops. If the renewable electric member wants electricity just for backup in case their renewable energy doesn’t work, then other members could be subsidizing the renewable member. Another big issue with renewables is that they normally do not work without subsidized costs from our government.

If it works, I’ve said many times, capitalism will provide the method for it to work. If it has to be held up by the federal government, then it’s not a reliable answer.

This issue did not occur overnight. Politics can give a direction. People must solve it. There’s no greater model of federal government providing direction, not subsidizing, than back in 1935 when the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) was developed through politics with an executive order under Franklin D. Roosevelt. The following year, it was funded through Congress. The REA funding provided loans to rural electric cooperatives, not subsidized grant funding. They opened the door, but people made it work and got it where it is today.

The board of trustees, your cooperative employees, and our generation and transmission cooperative employees will address future electric challenges head-on.

Over the past 2 and a half years, we have been fortunate enough to plan the operations of South Alabama Electric Cooperative (SAEC) so as not to require rate increases. It is our goal to keep going in that direction, but we must understand that when we are projecting to build and supply electric power to our membership, the cost to do so is going to increase.

We work for you, the members, and must look at being efficient and building our system in a positive, reliable manner, not through whims that come down the pipeline. I have faith that we will develop solutions that work and come forth to give you the best, reliable electric service at a reasonable cost.

Politics will not solve this; the people and member-owned cooperatives will.

Have a happy Thanksgiving, and be thankful for the great country that we have the pleasure of living in. Also, give thanks to God for the many blessings that we have.

Leaping Into Fall

October is a wonderful month. It’s a time when we may have some hot weather, but by the end, it is usually beginning to feel a lot like fall.

Farmers are gathering their crops of cotton, peanuts, and corn. And there are many outdoor activities, from hunting to high school football. For the college game in our great state, we’re fortunate to have the University of Alabama, Auburn — War Eagle for those of you who are fans — and Troy University playing great football throughout October. Best of all, October is my anniversary month, so happy anniversary, Nelda!

Also, October is what we electric cooperatives call a shoulder month. What does that mean? For our members, it means your power bill is usually not as high. As temperatures start to cool, your air conditioning doesn’t work as hard to keep your home comfortable.

This is also the month when South Alabama Electric Cooperative holds its annual meeting. By now, you should have received your meeting package with the annual report and voting instructions for trustees in districts 1 and 2. These trustees are voted on by the members, and the winner will serve as your representative to the co-op for the next 3 years.

1 of the 7 principles of a cooperative is Democratic Member Control. What does that mean? As a member of South Alabama Electric Cooperative, you can exercise that principle by voting for your trustee of choice. The trustees are elected among the membership and are accountable to the members. The members have equal voting rights — 1 member, 1 vote. If that isn’t reason enough to vote, you can even lower your power bill simply by filling out the ballot. The process is very quick, and you will get a $20 bill credit.

So, take the time to complete your ballot — make sure to add your email and cellphone numbers — and exercise your voice by voting for the trustee you wish to serve you.

I also hope you will take a few minutes to look over the annual report. With costs continuing to climb, as they seem to have done everywhere over the past few years, I am happy to say the cost of your electric service from SAEC has not changed in over 2 years. That is a great accomplishment, and I would like to give a shout-out to all our employees who help manage the costs of running your co-op in a financially responsible manner.

I would also like to express the same appreciation to the current board of trustees. We recently said goodbye to board member Douglas Green, who represented District 6 for over 40 years. Everything is always changing. As I was sad to lose a man who truly believed in me, the trustees changed, too. This change made way for David Lowery from South Crenshaw County. We are excited and honored to welcome Mr. Lowery, who has had a long career as a football coach and educator in the public school system, most recently in Brantley.

So, if you see Mr. Lowery, congratulate him and let him know how much you appreciate his service to our cooperative. I am confident he will serve the members in a way that will make us all proud.

Finally, you may have noticed that I gave a “War Eagle” earlier in my column. That was a shoutout for all our members who pull for the Tigers. But as a graduate of Troy University, back when it was Troy State University, I always have to leave room to say, “Go Trojans!” And as a huge Alabama football fan, you know I had to squeeze in a “Roll Tide!”

Until next month, enjoy a beautiful October as we leap into the fall of the year.

How Is Your Attitude?

I would like to write this month about attitude, specifically, my attitude. This summer, I was traveling across our wonderful country when a criminal broke into my vehicle and stole my checkbooks, camera, and approximately a dozen SD cards from my camera bag.

I immediately took steps to protect my bank accounts, but those SD cards were priceless because they contained pictures from past vacations and family events over several years. The criminal obviously did not care about our personal treasure on those cards, and we cannot get those moments back.

As you can probably guess, my attitude shifted from joy to grumbling about how unlucky I am and why this would happen to me. After getting the window repaired and cleaning the glass from inside the vehicle, we continued our trip. Soon, my attitude turned around, realizing that the incident could have been much worse and only set us back by about 4 hours.

Life is always going to happen. Philippians 4:4 states, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I say again: Rejoice!” When we can rise above life’s circumstances, we see things from a different perspective, and it shows in our attitude.

How is your attitude toward your electric cooperative these days? Over the past year, South Alabama Electric Cooperative (SAEC) has been forced to make some changes to how we do business. There have been hiccups, from issues with members receiving their monthly bills on time to the cooperative receiving payments effectively. I have tried to apply Philippians 2:14 to these situations. “Do everything without grumbling or arguing.” I failed this verse under the theft situation, but I tried!

So, how are we trying to fix this issue? The speed of light is faster than tires on the road, so we are strongly encouraging all of our members to receive their bills via email. We call this an e-bill or going paperless.

This is how it works: When the cooperative creates a billing file to be printed and snail-mailed to you, the members who have signed up for e-billing will get an email letting them know that their bill is ready. From there, members can log in to their SAEC account and view their bill. The digital version is “identical” to the bill you would receive in the mail, but about 2 weeks faster.

Why would your cooperative want you to go paperless? For one, it saves money on mailing costs. But, as electric bills continue to rise, it also guarantees you will receive your bill on time, giving you more time to prepare payment.

There are also other benefits to setting up an online account. Each year, between the end of January and April 15, we get an uptick in calls from members wanting to know how much they paid in the past year. It is the time of year that we all love. No, not football season or deer season. It’s tax time!

With an online account, this information is only a click away and available to all members, no matter how your bill is delivered to you. Even without signing up for e-billing, we can set up a text notification letting you know that your e-bill is ready to be viewed online about 12 days before it is due. This function provides you access to your electric bill, just in case the mail service loses or is late with your bill.

If you choose regular mail and don't receive your bill, please log in to see the bill online. It is just a few clicks away. And always remember Philippians 2:14: Don’t grumble about change, but rejoice because change can be good.

If you have any questions, our member service representatives will be happy to walk you through the process. Thank you for your positive attitude toward your cooperative, and I promise to continue working on my own.