Programs
Minnesota Rural Electric Association provides a variety of training to electric cooperatives, collaborates with vendor members to support cooperative needs, and engages with cooperative member-owner families through our annual Youth Tour.
Education
Minnesota Rural Electric Association provides member cooperatives with educational opportunities like new director training, leadership training, and more.
Collaboration
We collaborate with vendors and partners to support our member electric cooperatives.
Youth Tour
Our Youth Tour program, an opportunity for high school students to visit our nation’s capital, is one of many examples of how electric cooperatives support their local communities.
Education
Minnesota Rural Electric Association provides member cooperatives with educational opportunities like new director training, leadership training, and more.
Collaboration
We collaborate with vendors and partners to support our member electric cooperatives.
Youth Tour
Our Youth Tour program, an opportunity for high school students to visit our nation’s capital, is one of many examples of how electric cooperatives support their local communities.
Education
Minnesota Rural Electric Association provides member cooperatives with educational opportunities like new director training, leadership training, and more.
Collaboration
We collaborate with vendors and partners to support our member electric cooperatives.
Youth Tour
Our Youth Tour program, an opportunity for high school students to visit our nation’s capital, is one of many examples of how electric cooperatives support their local communities.
Youth Tour
For more than 50 years, electric cooperatives have sponsored the annual Rural Electric Youth Tour. High school students ages 16-18 are selected for a trip to Washington, D.C. to experience a firsthand look at how government works.
Participating electric cooperatives provide leadership, history, and fun. Youth Tour attendees spend a day on Capitol Hill visiting with our senators and representatives, witnessing the profound grandeur of monuments to our most celebrated leaders, reflecting on the true cost of freedom by eyeing row upon row of white crosses at Arlington Cemetery, and experiencing what life was like on George Washington’s beloved Mount Vernon plantation.
“The Rural Electric Youth Tour is a great avenue for youth to get involved both in the energy production and consumption of their community and in energy policy at a national level. It was a pleasure to meet with the students from southern Minnesota and to hear their thoughts on the renewable energy sources that will come to fruition during their lifetimes. I’m inspired by this future generation of leaders, and I hope to see more students in Washington as part of future Rural Electric Youth Tours.”
To be selected for the Washington D.C. youth tour, you must apply through the electric cooperative that serves your area of the state. Thirty-three of Minnesota’s electric cooperatives participate in the Washington Youth Tour. Each co-op has a unique application process and criteria to select the student or students to be sponsored as delegates. If you are a high school student age 16-18, please contact your local electric cooperative for eligibility requirements.
Member Education
We provide our members extensive training and education opportunities for every role at electric cooperatives. Our areas of training include leadership, management, financial, supervisory, customer service, technical best practices, monthly onsite safety meetings, apprenticeship certification, hands-on technical skills, hotline work, metering and more.
Education is one of the seven cooperative principles, and we strive to support Minnesota’s electric cooperatives with the knowledge they need to provide member-owners with reliable, safe, and affordable electricity.
Members can login to access MREA event calendar and registration.
Apprenticeship
Our lineworker apprenticeship program is an exciting opportunity to be a part of the solution for long-term grid reliability amid the clean energy transition.
From underground system design to understanding circuit fundamentals, apprentices learn the trade from experienced journeymen in the context of a member-owned, not-for profit electric cooperative.
For apprentices, this means something different than working for an investor-owned or municipal utility— it means being a part of a cooperative business model. Guided by the history of serving a local need, electric cooperatives prioritize community service, education, democratic governance, independence and autonomy.
Designed to meet the federal and state Department of Labor requirements, the MREA lineworker apprentice program is four years with the potential to test out in 1-2 years. Apprentices get hands-on learning under journeyman supervision. By the end of an apprenticeship, utility personnel are ready to safely construct, operate, and maintain the electric power system.
Those interested in pursuing a career in cooperative utility linework should have a sense of adventure, passion about their community, and no fear of heights. For more information or to enroll apprentices, contact us.
Vendor Members
Supporting Minnesota’s electric cooperatives would not be possible without our vendor members. Our vendor member program provides advertising and marketing opportunities along with conferences, trade shows and events for vendors to network with electric cooperative employees.
Click here to see our Membership Directory & Buyer’s Guide.
To order a copy, click here.
Interested in sponsoring, exhibiting, or advertising? Contact us.
NRECA International Program
Help bring electricity to the people of Guatemala
In 2024, MREA and the Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives (IAEC) are partnering to bring light and prosperity to people living in Guatemala.
As part of NRECA’s International Program, which helps bring electricity to impoverished countries, MREA and IAEC will be supplying a team of 14 line workers to an area near San Marcos to help electrify two small communities in June.
NRECA’s work has been ongoing in Guatemala for many years. In 2011, the first large group of volunteers traveled to Guatemala to help build electric infrastructure. Since then, more than 7,000 people in rural Guatemala have received power through the work of the NRECA International Program.
We hope to raise at least $100,000 for this trip, which will be supported by donations.
(No MREA dues will be used for the cost of this trip.)
If you would like to help, cooperatives and individuals may make a donation in the following ways:
• By check: Make out to “NRECA International” and put “MN 2024 trip” in the memo (send checks to MREA, 11640 73rd Ave. N., Maple Grove, MN 55369)
• Pay directly through PayPal by clicking scanning this QR code with a mobile device:
• Pay directly through PayPal by clicking here.
Cooperatives may consider unclaimed capital credits. The first $60,000 of donations received will be matched by the generous support CFC. Also, cooperatives that borrow from CoBank may utilize their Sharing Success matching grant program for up to $10,000. The 2024 program begins April 1 (https://www.cobank.com/citizenship/corporate-giving/sharing-success).
Let us know if you plan to give to this year’s trip using these matching funds. Money raised in excess of what is needed for this trip will be held for future international electrification efforts.
Cooperatives who have volunteered to send a line worker on this trip:
- Lake Country Power
- MiEnergy Cooperative
- Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative
- Nobles Cooperative Electric
- People’s Energy Cooperative
- Sioux Valley Energy
- Stearns Electric Association
Learn more
Iowa has participated in an electrification effort in Guatemala in the past. This short video summarizes their experience: https://youtu.be/jAV-gqPOTW4
Learn more information about NRECA’s International Program here: https://www.nrecainternational.coop
Another great video of how this trip can impact those who volunteer and those who receive the power: https://vimeo.com/788766898
Thank you for your consideration of this great cause!
