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Professional Progression: Pete Byrum
After high school and college, Pete Byrum worked a couple of jobs, but no job felt like a permanent “home” until he took a position just beyond his high school’s front doors at his hometown electric cooperative. It was a place his dad had encouraged him to look into since high school. At age 28,… Continue reading.
Professional progression: Stefanie Lifford
In four short years, Stefanie Lifford has gone from taking calls from individual consumers to now working on the electric distribution side monitoring power flow, troubleshooting outages, and helping keep the lights on for large numbers of consumers at a time. “That was really the big picture for me,” she said. “As a customer contact… Continue reading.
Youth making a difference
Since 2009, Indiana Electric Cooperatives has recognized young Hoosiers through the Youth Power and Hope Awards. The awards program — coordinated by the staff of Indiana Connection magazine — honors a select group of middle school students in grades 5 through 8 who are making an impact on their communities. The winners for 2022 were… Continue reading.
Professional Progression: Jason Clemmons
After college, Jason Clemmons worked as a high school guidance counselor in his hometown of Rushville. He also facilitated a young mothers’ group and worked with at-risk youth through the Mayor’s Youth Council at the Boys and Girls Club. He had a full plate. These were 80-hour weeks, he said, giving him little time to… Continue reading.
Career Profile: Samantha Kuhn
Samantha Kuhn grew up surrounded by all things electric cooperative. For most of her life, her dad was a cooperative CEO, including the CEO of Kosciusko REMC in northern Indiana. But as a college student interested in journalism, she never dreamed she’d follow her dad’s footsteps into a career at an electric utility … until she… Continue reading.
Taking it to the limit
Electric linemen are a tough breed. They climb 30-foot wooden poles in all kinds of weather with only metal spikes strapped to their legs and a leather belt around the pole and themselves. They work within reach of live power lines protected physically by only rubber gloves and sleeves. But Brent Buckles, a former lineman… Continue reading.
Career Profile: Chad Hinesley
The average worker will hold 10 different jobs before the age of 40 and a dozen throughout his or her career, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says. Chad Hinesley was right at that average. He held 10 different jobs by age 44. But how many “average workers” hold 10 different jobs without ever changing employers?… Continue reading.
Randy Kleaving
Randy Kleaving always heard one proverb when he was young: “No matter how good something is, when you’re done with it, you need to leave it better.” That’s something he says he’s always taken to heart: in his vocation as a farmer, and multiple avocations as volunteer firefighter, county commissioner, and director on his local,… Continue reading.
Cooperatives are a special, special place
Chris Chastain’s first experience with an electric cooperative was as a “fuzzy” — a nickname the linemen and outdoor crews gave to college kids hired as summer interns. “I suppose that probably derived from the peach fuzz still on our faces,” Chastain says. But, what the Rose-Hulman electrical engineering student saw at his hometown electric… Continue reading.
Professional Progression Brittany Sams
When Brittany Sams was hired as an accountant at LaGrange County REMC, her college degrees and experience prepared her for accounting and business, of course. But no education or previous experience prepared her for the not-for-profit business model and the many accounting differences that come with a consumer-owned utility. The plan was for her to… Continue reading.
One Bad Day … Led to a Wonderful Life
By Richard Biever Chuck Tiemann recognizes more than most how one bad day at work can change a life. He cites his by the day and hour: Thursday, May 1, 1980 — May Day, appropriately — 1:58 p.m. … Central Time. That’s when Chuck, not three years into his career as a lineman for a… Continue reading.
Helping Others
Since 2009, Indiana Connection magazine and electric co-ops like yours, have teamed up to honor middle school students in grades 5-8 who are making a difference in their communities through the Youth Power and Hope Awards program. The latest group of winners was honored on Dec. 7 at the Indiana Electric Cooperatives Annual Meeting held… Continue reading.