New Basin Electric Director Jerry Beck: Farmer, father, rural electric leader

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Basin Electric’s newest director, Jerry Beck, joined the Basin Electric board in December. Beck represents District 11 replacing retired director Charlie Gilbert. Each director is elected to a three-year term and represents one of 11 membership districts.

All directors must be end-use consumers, elected to their distribution cooperative board, and subsequently also elected to their Class A board. In this way, any director serving on Basin Electric’s board must serve on both these boards before being eligible – a true line from wholesale generation and transmission to the member turning on the light switch.

Tell us a little about you.

I live in Spencer, Iowa, on the farm where I was born.

I am a farmer by trade and spent my career raising corn and soybeans. I have one grown daughter, Elizabeth.

I have also been fortunate to mentor a young man since he was a boy, and he is like a son to me. He has taken over the farm, but I still help out in the spring and fall, which I really enjoy.

What inspired you to want to serve rural electric cooperatives?

I have always liked the cooperative business model and felt serving rural electric cooperatives was a cause important enough to give up part of my life for.

When you're not wearing your co-op hat, what are you doing?

I am a township trustee and a member of the local Lion’s Club where I help as much as I can to raise money for community betterment projects. I love restoring antique tractors and going on organized tractor rides. They’re souped up to go about 30 miles per hour, and we get up to 350 tractors together and drive everywhere from the Black Hills to Wisconsin. I also love anything to do with horses.

Learn more about Jerry Beck, including the most surprising thing he has learned about serving on Basin Electric’s board, where he sees the cooperative in 20 years, and his philosophy for serving on a co-op board in Meet new Basin Electric Director Jerry Beck in the winter issue of Basin Today.

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