As July looms on the calendar, here at NTCA we are getting ready for our Summer Symposium, and hopefully our last virtual one for a while. Myrtle Beach and Branson are already on the 2022 calendar. This meeting is the premiere educational meeting for directors and volunteer leaders in the rural broadband space. It provides strategic, forward-thinking insights on effective leadership and successful practices in governance. Key topics range from new leaderships skills, increasing visibility for your company in the community, how to best protect your telco (yikes on the cyber front!) and staying on top of and getting involved in advocacy efforts that support your telco and community.
This year, we would also have been remiss if we did not share some timely programming with NTCA’s volunteer leaders on DEI, shorthand for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Having dug deeper into our own efforts here as a trade association, I think there is huge value in sharing some of the lessons learned in this critical space with our membership and thinking through what tools we might be able to provide for NTCA members to incorporate some of the best DEI practices into their hiring, operations and board representation.
Why? Because having a DEI focus is not only the right thing to do but it’s also good for business. That is why I was simply delighted that Curtis Wynn, CEO of Roanoke Electric Cooperative and past NRECA President, agreed to sit down with me once again to share some thoughts around diversity, equity and inclusion and why he has made DEI at electric coops a priority during his leadership noting that these have been cooperative values since the beginning. These thoughts will be further shared with those who join our Summer Symposium and hopefully will help kick off some critical discussions in the rural broadband space.
As Curtis shared recently in the RE Magazine, “As we witness an energy transformation that requires a different approach and a new perspective, workforce diversity becomes increasingly important... A 2018 McKinsey analysis of companies in the United States and the UK found that firms with the most gender diversity among executives were 21 percent more likely to record higher profits and 27 percent more likely to offer better products. Furthermore, companies with 'highly diverse' employees in areas like age, sexual orientation or socioeconomic background were 33 percent more likely to have higher profits than competitors." The numbers are there, the key is taking some steps to implement.
I had the chance to ask Curtis how his coop actively recruits diversity and he shared the many steps they take from working with local schools on internship and apprenticeship programs, including with HBUCs in North Carolina. I was also curious how they ensure that their board also reflects the diversity of their service territory and he shared the outreach efforts the coop implements to start targeting local leaders well before there are board vacancies. Both very actionable items in the broadband space.
A lot of food for thought and I am hopeful that Curtis’s words will start some critical conversations at future NTCA meetings as well.
And he has promised to let me know when Roanoke Electric Cooperative hires their first woman “lineman!”
