Read Brita's winning essay!

If you were asked to help promote your cooperative’s annual membership meeting, what ideas do you have for increasing attendance among young member-owners and students?

I believe that there are many ways to help increase attendance among young member-owners and students at the annual meeting. It is important to help students and young member-owners realize the importance of electric  cooperatives and one of the ways to do this is to get more of them to attend the annual meeting.

One way that I think would encourage attendance at the annual meeting among students is to have presentations in schools about what the electric cooperatives do and the importance of them. If students understand why they are so essential to our community, they will be more likely to want to attend this annual meeting with their families. Another way to increase student presence at the annual meeting is to have student representatives on a planning committee for the annual meeting. These student representatives could give their opinions on how the meeting could be improved to be more appealing to students and young people.

Another idea to increase attendance is to sponsor a day camp for youth of different ages on the day of the annual meeting to teach them about cooperatives and electrical safety. At this day camp, the electric cooperative team can demonstrate electrical safety and have the students work on a project that teaches them about electrical safety that they can present at the annual meeting. This, in turn, will encourage families and parents to attend this meeting.

Having high school student organizations, such as FBLA, FCCLA and FFA, serve food, pass out information or help set up for or clean up the annual meeting is another way to increase attendance among students. The electric cooperative, in turn, provides a donation to the organization as a thank you for helping out.

Making sure that people know about this meeting is another way to increase attendance. This can be done by advertising it on different social media platforms, such as Facebook, where many young member-owners and students will see it and be more inclined to attend. The advertisement should tell about all of the different activities and entertainment that the meeting will include for families and young people.

Young member-owners and students will also be more inclined to attend the annual meeting if there is good entertainment and activities for all ages. They could hire a band from around the area, or have a family-friendly comedian for entertainment to encourage more people to come to the meeting. Having fun games and activities to keep kids of all different ages entertained, such as inflatable bouncy houses and obstacle courses, games and face painting, would also prompt more families to want to attend the meeting. In addition, having a variety of different types of door prizes that people could win, such as gift cards or State Fair concert tickets and many more, would make more young people interested in going to the annual meeting. Advertising that there will be a good free meal will also encourage more young member-owners and families to attend the annual meeting.

Getting more young member-owners and students to attend the cooperative annual meeting to help them understand what electric cooperatives are and the importance of them is very important. Having presentations about electric  cooperatives for students at school, having student representatives on a planning committee for the meeting, sponsoring a day camp for students, advertising it on social media, and having different family-friendly activities, entertainment and prizes for all ages are some ideas to help increase the presence of families, young member-owners and students at the electric cooperative annual meeting.