A commitment to community

A core value of cooperatives upheld by local people you know and trust. 

YEC is proud to have local peo­ple look­ing out for you. We are res­i­dents like you, shar­ing your same val­ues, schools, church­es and aspi­ra­tions of pro­vid­ing good lives for our fam­i­lies. Our ded­i­ca­tion to mak­ing a dif­fer­ence goes beyond our job descrip­tions; we care about the heart of the matter–the great com­mu­ni­ties we share in York, Chester, Lan­cast­er and Chero­kee coun­ties. Mak­ing your life bet­ter means we are mak­ing life bet­ter for our friends and fam­i­ly. There­fore, our com­mit­ment runs deep, our inten­tions are hon­est, and our promise is true.

They say there is strength in num­bers, and we believe that’s true. We have many dif­fer­ent depart­ments at YEC that work togeth­er to pro­vide you with excel­lent ser­vice. We would like to intro­duce sev­er­al of our employ­ees who work hard each day to serve you in dif­fer­ent capac­i­ties. And guess what? They are co-op mem­bers, too. Keep an eye out for more locals serv­ing you in future edi­tions.

Showing our commitment to community

Let us intro­duce you to York Elec­tric’s employees—and a few fam­i­ly mem­bers. Hear their thoughts on being a part of our com­mu­ni­ty and serv­ing you.

‘At YEC, we all work together’

Q: How long have you been mem­bers of YEC and how long have you been an employ­ee?

Wes Dover: I’ve been an employ­ee just a few years longer than I’ve been a mem­ber. I start­ed at YEC in 2001 and have been a mem­ber since 2003.

Q: What is your favorite part about your job?

Wes: One ben­e­fit of my job is being able to meet with mem­bers and help deter­mine how to get them pow­er. By liv­ing and work­ing in our com­mu­ni­ty, I have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­tin­ue that rela­tion­ship after­wards.

Q: Speak­ing of pro­vid­ing for your fam­i­ly, does your job affect your fam­i­ly life?

Wes: Some­times I’m not able to make school func­tions or fam­i­ly din­ners, but it is for a good rea­son. Since I’m help­ing oth­er peo­ple, my fam­i­ly appre­ci­ates what I do and under­stands my absence. Luck­i­ly, we don’t have many out­ages, so I can be there most of the time.

Q: Anna Kate, what do you think about your dad being away work­ing?

Anna Kate: I wish he was there, but I under­stand that his job is impor­tant. He’s help­ing oth­er fam­i­lies in our com­mu­ni­ty when they need it most.

Wes: It’s a team effort–both at work and at home. Hay­ley and my kids sup­port me so that I can do my job to the best of my abil­i­ty. Whether I’m help­ing get the lights back on or plan­ning for future growth–it’s all about tak­ing care of our mem­bers. At YEC, we all work togeth­er to pro­vide our mem­bers with great ser­vice and make a dif­fer­ence in our com­mu­ni­ty.

‘Going above and beyond’ and ‘Taking care of members’

Q: What do you do here at YEC?

Jamie Dus­ton: I am the front office coor­di­na­tor at YEC, and my goal is to pro­vide sup­port and lead­er­ship to our front office staff includ­ing col­lec­tions, cashiers, and our Fort Mill branch office. My ulti­mate goal is to take care of our mem­ber ser­vices team so that they are well-pre­pared to give excel­lent cus­tomer ser­vice every day. I also work direct­ly with mem­bers and give every effort to go above and beyond to make their expe­ri­ence a pleas­ant and sim­ple one.

Jen­nifer Brooks: My role as call cen­ter coor­di­na­tor is to pro­vide sup­port and lead­er­ship for the ladies in the call cen­ter. I’m usu­al­ly signed into the call loop tak­ing calls and tak­ing care of the mem­bers just like the oth­ers in the call cen­ter.

Q: What is the most reward­ing aspect of your job?

Jamie: I would say the most reward­ing aspect is when I know I have real­ly made an impact in some­one’s day, when I know that what I did pro­vid­ed hope to what seemed to be a hope­less sit­u­a­tion.

Jen­nifer: The most reward­ing part of my job is being able to help our mem­bers. We receive all types of requests in the call cen­ter, so mak­ing sure our team has the knowl­edge to take care of each ques­tion is impor­tant. Whether we are look­ing at a mem­ber’s billing ques­tion, con­nect­ing new ser­vice, enter­ing an order for a repair or report­ing an out­age, we have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to make a dif­fer­ence and show our mem­bers the val­ue of their mem­ber­ship.

Q: You are both mem­bers of YEC. Do you feel like that impacts your deci­sions at work?

Jamie: I feel like being both a mem­ber and an employ­ee help bring things full cir­cle for me. I am proud of what I do because I know what kind of ser­vice York Elec­tric pro­vides both in the field and with­in the office.

Jen­nifer: In every deci­sion I make, I think about what is best for our mem­bers. I always try and treat peo­ple the way I would want to be treat­ed whether at work or in my per­son­al life.

Q: How do your fam­i­lies feel about being mem­bers of the co-op and about your job here?

They ‘like the challenge’ of ‘working in a dynamic environment’

Q: You two have some of the most haz­ardous jobs at YEC. Why do you do what you do?

Jere­my Huff­stetler: I like the chal­lenge of my job and learn­ing new things every day. I also get to apply what I know to help mem­bers. I help them trou­bleshoot any prob­lems they are hav­ing and point them in the right direc­tion to get them repaired. If I can fix it, I do, so that it saves the mem­ber time and mon­ey.

Zack Smith: I enjoy work­ing in a dynam­ic envi­ron­ment. I’m also proud to be part of an orga­ni­za­tion that strives to serve the com­mu­ni­ty in a pos­i­tive way.

Q: You are also both mem­bers of the co-op. How does it feel to be an employ­ee and a mem­ber?

Jere­my: As a co-op mem­ber, you know you are going to receive safe, reli­able pow­er. As an employ­ee, we play an inte­gral part in mak­ing that state­ment true. When my fam­i­ly and I cut the lights on, I know I played a part in pro­vid­ing that ser­vice. My fam­i­ly and I have lived on co-op lines for four years, and I have been a line­man here for almost 11 years.

Zack: I’ve tech­ni­cal­ly been a mem­ber all of my life. I grew up on co-op lines, have been an offi­cial mem­ber for the last 13 years, and an employ­ee for 12 years. It’s sat­is­fy­ing to pro­vide the same lev­el of ser­vice to my fam­i­ly that I pro­vide to my friends, neigh­bors and the mem­ber­ship.

‘I’m making a difference’

Q: You’ve been an employ­ee for a while. What has made the biggest impact on you?

Cathy Heffn­er: Being an employ­ee of the co-op has allowed me to see our com­mu­ni­ty in a dif­fer­ent light. I’ve been blessed to meet so many won­der­ful peo­ple work­ing in the field as a meter tech­ni­cian. Some­times, you need to be a friend. Some­times, you need to offer your help. Some­times, the peo­ple you meet give you help you did­n’t know you need­ed. My job allowed me to appre­ci­ate the pow­er of human con­nec­tion.

Q: What makes the co-op dif­fer­ent?

Cathy: We tru­ly care about our mem­bers. Being local and a mem­ber myself, I’m able to help my neigh­bors and my friends. As an employ­ee, I’m mak­ing a dif­fer­ence where I live and in the lives of peo­ple I know. Help­ing oth­ers is a way of life that won’t stop after retire­ment.

Members ‘first and foremost’

Q: What role do you play in look­ing out for our mem­bers?

Karen Good: I look out for the mem­bers from an account­ing per­spec­tive. I do my best every day to make sure the coop­er­a­tive’s finan­cials are record­ed prop­er­ly as all prof­its are returned to the mem­ber through cap­i­tal cred­its.

Q: How long have you been at YEC?

Karen: I joined YEC in May 2017.

Q: You are a mem­ber, too. What does your YEC mem­ber­ship mean to you and your fam­i­ly?

Karen: There’s a dif­fer­ent cul­ture here that I great­ly appre­ci­ate. We don’t cut cor­ners. Employ­ees take their tasks at hand seri­ous­ly and every­thing is com­plet­ed with the high­est qual­i­ty. Being an employ­ee and see­ing day to day busi­ness makes me even more appre­cia­tive as a mem­ber because I know YEC, as a whole, is look­ing out for the mem­ber first and fore­most.

Q: What does com­mu­ni­ty mean to you?

Karen: To me, com­mu­ni­ty means peo­ple sup­port­ing one anoth­er. We all work as a team and sup­port each oth­er, but we also sup­port our com­mu­ni­ty through var­i­ous pro­grams and events like Oper­a­tion Round Up and the Ted­dy Bear Trot. I’m hap­py to be a part of the co-op and our com­mu­ni­ty.

All in the family

Q: Tell us a lit­tle about your­self.

Ben Hall: I am the ware­house coor­di­na­tor for YEC and have worked here for sev­en years. For the first three years here at the co-op, I was a line­man. I’ve been a mem­ber for 31 years–nearly all my life–and now live in my fam­i­ly’s old farm house with my wife and three boys.

Q: What does mem­ber­ship mean to you?

Ben: Mem­ber­ship has a unique mean­ing for me. I grew up know­ing a lot about the co-op because my grand­moth­er, Jean Hall, was an employ­ee here back when the YEC office was in down­town York. When she mar­ried my grand­fa­ther, John Hall, a state coop­er­a­tive newslet­ter head­lined their announce­ment as the “Co-op Wed­ding.” My grand­moth­er, the co-op employ­ee, mar­ried a mem­ber. The co-op was a lot small­er then, so being a mem­ber was exclu­sive. Even though we have grown a lot over the past 78 years, your co-op mem­ber­ship still means the same today–we are still owned by those we proud­ly serve and employ peo­ple from around here.

Q: What does being a co-op employ­ee mean for your fam­i­ly?

Heather Hall: Although Ben is busy at work and some­times has to leave us when out­ages occur, I’m grate­ful his job allows him to pro­vide for our fam­i­ly. My hus­band is a tal­ent­ed guy–kind of a “jack of all trades,” so it makes me hap­py and proud to know that he can use his skills on the job, help­ing oth­er peo­ple.

Ben: There’s some­thing new every day in my job. I like being able to use my knowl­edge to help take care of our mem­bers and oth­er employ­ees.