Rural Missouri - November 2022 - 5

Missouri
RURAL
Volume 75 | NOVEMBER 2022 | Number 11
EDITORIAL STAFF:
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Rural Missouri (ISSN 0164-8578) (USPS 473000)
is published monthly by the Association
of Missouri Electric Cooperatives, 2722 E.
McCarty Street, Jefferson City, MO 65101, Caleb
Jones, CEO/executive vice president. Individual
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Circulation of this issue: 583,153
RM | PERSPECTIVES
Who needs a bucket?
by Caleb Jones | cjones@amec.coop
ecently I pulled up at a
four-way stop and spotted a
5-gallon bucket in the middle
of the road. I couldn't help it.
I stopped the truck and picked it up.
I know every farmer reading this can
relate. You just don't pass up a good
bucket.
R
I wish I could count the number of
times Dad sent one of us kids into the
weeds for some stray treasure that
fell off the back of someone's truck.
To this day I can't pass up a nice
piece of two-by-four, a hunk of chain
or the lid off a cooler that could be
the one I lost after a Mizzou game.
Dad taught us that you never can
tell when you might need something
like that two-by-four and a bucket
is always handy. Growing up on a
farm in Dade County, Dad lived in a
time when you couldn't always afford
to buy new things. Having a ready
supply of scrap angle iron or not-toorusty
bolts often meant the difference
between getting the hay in the barn
or having to wait until the mud dried.
This great country we live in has
always been a land of plenty. If you
don't believe me, pull out some
old photos of your family gathered
around the Thanksgiving table to see
the abundance we have been fortunate
enough to have.
Sadly, those days of plenty seem
to be slipping into the days my dad
experienced where you might not
find what you need even if you have
the money to pay for it. I haven't
seen the figures yet, but my friend
Garrett Hawkins over at Missouri
Farm Bureau tracks these things.
Every year they show the cost of that
Thanksgiving feast is going up. I've
even heard concerns that folks can't
find a turkey to roast.
Your local electric co-op is experiencing
the same thing. I heard Lynn
Thompson, manager of Consolidated
Electric Cooperative, speak at a
meeting recently. He told us that one
of the most common items used by
electric co-ops - ordinary bolts that
go inside meter bases - are made
A good bucket is really hard to pass up.
just across the street from the co-op
in Mexico, Missouri. Yet when the
co-op ran low on these they were
told it would be a long wait thanks to
shortages of raw materials. When our
co-ops do find the poles, wires, transformers,
bolts or whatever they need
to keep your lights on, chances are
the cost of them has doubled.
Like any good farmer, co-ops are
doing exactly what my dad did. They
are scrounging their warehouses to
make sure nothing goes to waste,
even reusing transformers from lines
that were taken out of service.
These supply chain issues are
annoying for everyone, but the cooperative
way is helping. Missouri's
electric co-ops are participating in a
" spare parts " forum that lets a co-op
facing a shortage of materials connect
with someone who has a surplus.
This " Cooperation Among Cooperatives "
is one of the seven principles
your cooperative operates under.
It's allowing us to keep up with the
demand for new services while ensuring
your electricity stays on.
If you see me in the ditch somewhere
along the road, don't worry. My
truck hasn't broken down, but feel
free to stop if you need a new bucket.
Caleb is the executive vice president
and CEO of the Association of Missouri
Electric Cooperatives and a member of
Boone Electric Cooperative.
NOVEMBER 2022 | RURALMISSOURI.COOP 5
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Rural Missouri - November 2022

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