Cooperatives -- more than just a business
When David Liuska was three years old, his anxious mother discovered
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David Liuska, board director |
he had fallen into a hole. He didn’t understand the importance of the hole at the time. Nor did he know what a lineworker was, or why Capital Electric line crews were putting a pole into that hole and setting his family’s first transformer.
While he doesn’t remember the welcome flash of that first light bulb back in 1951, Liuska says he does remember other significant changes that electricity brought to his home: the first television, refrigerator, electric stove, and washer and dryer.
“Those are all antiques now,” he says with a laugh. “The electric era changes faster than we can go, sometimes faster than we can comprehend.”
Liuska has served on the board of directors for Capital Electric Cooperative for 24 years. The most significant change he says he’s seen as a director is the significant amount of growth.
“In the last five years, it’s really boomed,” he says. “When I became elected to the board, I think we had 4,800 members. Now we are pushing 13,000 meters.”
Providing service to those meters, or serving the member-owners, is Liuska’s focus as a director.
“This cooperative is an organization where the member is the owner, and each vote counts. We as directors manage the co-op the way the people see fit, and to the best of our ability,” he says.
Liuska says he understands the cooperative philosophy of serving the people well, because he grew up with Capital Electric and Farmer’s Union. But he recognizes that future generations may not have had the same opportunities, and he says he’s concerned about the future of cooperative boards.
Liuska says the current directorship for Capital Electric is strong, and he doesn’t plan on retiring from his position anytime soon. Along with his service to the co-op, he says he stays busy volunteering his time in Wing, at the American Legion post, booster club, theater, horse club and Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church. He’s also active with the Tuttle VFW and Amvets, as a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corp.
While his volunteer services take as much time and dedication as a full-time job, Liuska says his primary job is raising cattle on a farm southwest of Wing. He and his wife of three years, Marcia, live in town, where she teaches math to seventh grade and high school students.
Liuska has two sons with his former wife, Diane, who passed away from cancer in 2000. Davin works on the farm, and Dwane lives in Seattle.
When farming and volunteering allow for a break, David and Marcia enjoy taking small road trips and sight seeing.
In reflecting on his 24 years of committed service to the cooperative, Liuska says it simple and best. “I just like to serve,” he says.
Capital Electric Cooperative thanks David for his continued dedication to the cooperative and to the member-owners.