Utility Cooperative Communications

What are some examples of Utility Coops using Teletownhall outreach?

Regular Meetings by Telephone Town Hall Meeting
Many COOPs switched to virtual member meetings out of necessity during the pandemic, then continued hosting live virtual meetings because of the success with these forums.  Our coop clients saw more member participation, reached members who would never attend an in-person meeting, and avoided the costs of organizing a physical annual meeting of members.

Our coop forums feature a mix of upper management, content experts and board members. Utilizing our data collecting feature, our clients have handed out large prizes to a few lucky winners, encouraging lengthy participation in the live forum. Our annual meetings for coop clients also saw scholarships delivered to members during the live forum.

The Changing Face of Utility Coops
Some utility coop Teletownhalls focus exclusively on the technological changes that affect cooperative members.  Providing accurate information is often the primary goal of Telephone Town Halls because politicians and news media often speak about energy production and distribution through a lens of bias against the industry.

TTHM reaches out to members directly to notify them about monumental changes being made like a system-wide switch to Smart Meters, to discuss the affects of external factors on pricing, and to report live on efforts to recover from natural disasters. We can tailor our outbound dial to reach individual neighborhoods dealing with storms and outages, then we can identify specific needs of those affected using our Question Screening, Data Collection and Real-Time Polling features.

Our clients have used Teletownhall and P2P Text Alert technology to open up conversations about electric transportation changes and costs to the community, the coop and its members. Some of the more important work Telephone Town Hall Meeting has done as a company has been educating utility coop members and the public in general about the annual fire season, how to stay prepared, and what changes are being made to reduce wildfire risk. TTHM has also reached audiences about urgent matters such as planned power outages, explaining their necessity and the timeline involved.

Verifiable In-Event Voting
Coop management has used our large virtual forums to hold functional annual meetings where they pass motions and elect new leaders by utilizing our real-time polling feature.

Telephone Town Hall Meetings for utility coop clients start with a dialout to members ranging from a few thousand to over 50,000 outbound dials.  Members have the opportunity to hear from candidates, potentially ask questions, then vote in a board election.  TTHM typically dials a membership phone list provided by the client, but we can also create a controlled web registration page for those who need to update their contact information with the coop in advance of an event.  Because we control the dialout, only members have the option to submit questions, and vote in surveys and election polls.

Reporting details how each member voted in each poll, allowing you to further verify the veracity of results.  TTHM also provides a high-bitrate MP3 recording of the entire forum so that it can be posted online or otherwise distributed to members who could not attend the live virtual forum.

Member Power Hour
Utility Cooperatives have used our managed Teletownhall forums for a wide variety of outreach including a “Coop Member Power Hour” that focuses on the communal aspects of being a coop member.  Speakers include both COOP leadership and board of directors using the TTHM Web Simulcast feature or Webinar Integration for a personal face-to-face interaction.  Member Power Hours feature workshops where members and leaders discuss what’s working, look into the technological future of the cooperative, and discuss the affects that supply chain and the economy have on coop costs and utility pricing.

Coop Employee Meetings
Some coop clients hold multiple meetings with employees each year, bringing the entire organization together from multiple offices located across a broad geographic area.  These outbound-dial forums also reach employees who are working in the field.  Employees can either join by phone or webcast.  A strategic team of management and content experts frame the discussion then answer questions.  TTHM provides a Web Registration Page so that employees have the opportunity to update their contact information for each forum.  The Web Registration Page also allows employees to submit questions anonymously prior to the forum and have them read over the air.  Some of our coop clients also offer a Facebook Live stream in addition to our phone and web broadcasts.