The first cooperative principle is voluntary and open membership. This was a driving factor in western Kentucky in 1936 and 1937 when neighbors and friends decided to work together to form Henderson Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation. Spurred by the need for electricity to improve the rural life style and economic benefits, these people voluntarily joined together to be better able to reach their dreams of electricity in their rural homes, farms and businesses. Soon, many people in western Kentucky and other parts of Kentucky and across the entire country were forming cooperative organizations to reach this same dream. Once established with an infrastructure of wires, poles, transformers, meters, and members consuming electricity, the local cooperatives were viable economic business organizations facing the prospect of significant growth in numbers of members and their increasing appetite for electricity. To meet long-term power supply concerns, it only took a few years to see one of the next cooperatives to be formed. In 1961, three cooperatives, Henderson-Union RECC, headquartered in Henderson, Green River RECC, headquartered in Owensboro, and Meade County RECC, headquarte...red in Brandenburg, created Big Rivers Electric Corporation. Today the three member-owners of Big Rivers serve more than 121,000 members in 22 counties.