Wireside Chat

When the weather gets cold, like it did in mid-January, everything is affected — including electric vehicles. Southwestern Electric Energy Manager Julie Lowe discusses her experience driving the cooperative's Tesla Model 3 during the drastically low temperatures, as well as her view of the EV market in general, in this month's podcast.

The new year is a time to both reflect on the year that was and project ahead to the year to come. Southwestern Electric CEO Bobby Williams joins the podcast to discuss some recent topics as well as what's on the horizon for the cooperative.

CEO programs in our local communities are helping broaden the horizons for high school students. Facilitators from two area CEO programs, Erin Niebrugge of the Fayette County CEO program and Amanda Dussold of the Bond County CEO program, join the show to discuss the goals of the program, their roles within it and what kind of students are good candidates for the program.

Southwestern Electric employees gave reasons why they were thankful in 2022, and we liked the idea enough that we're doing it again in 2023.

Capital credits. It's a difficult concept to understand for the uninitiated, and even more confusing when a cooperative makes changes to the way they return them to members — as Southwestern Electric is preparing to do after the new year. Fortunately, Billing Manager Veronica Forbis is well versed in the topic, and she joined the podcast to explain capital credits and what the new policy means for Southwestern members.

On Sept. 9, 2023, Southwestern Electric Cooperative held its 85th Annual Meeting of Members outside the Vandalia Statehouse. In this month's podcast, hear the addresses from CEO Bobby Williams and Board President Ann Schwarm in their entirety.

It's that time again — the 85th Annual Meeting of Members is next month. This year, we're holding the event outside the historic Vandalia Statehouse in Fayette County. SWECI Vice President of Member Services Susan File makes a return appearance on the podcast to detail the day's events, what's new, what's familiar, and everything you need to know about this year's annual meeting.

A few months ago, we told you about the six local high school students who attended the Illinois Electric and Telephone Cooperatives Youth Day in Springfield, Illinois. In conjunction with that event, two of those area students were chosen to attend the NRECA Electric Cooperative Youth Tour in Washington, D.C. Those students, South Central High School's Boston Hails and Highland High School's Kylie Ketcham, joined host Nathan Grimm to discuss the trip and their big takeaways from the whirlwind few days in the nation's capital.

Cooperatives like Southwestern Electric are guided by seven cooperative principles. That doesn't mean such pillars are limited to cooperatives, though. In this month's episode, we explore the seventh cooperative principle, concern for community, through the lens of Southwestern Electric's partnership with Anderson Healthcare at the system's new Goshen Campus development.

When an outage occurs, it takes a village — our Southwestern Electric village, specifically — to get your lights back on. Southwestern Chief Operating Officer Marvin Ayala joins the podcast to detail all the moving parts that set in motion when an outage strikes, and how each of them contributes to the larger goal of restoring power as quick and safely as possible.