In 1988, Microsoft Office and the World Wide Web were still in the early stages of development, and desktop-computers were replacing electric typewriters. Just as office technology has increased considerably since then, so has the technology used in the electric industry, with advanced metering infrastructure and smart electronic devices becoming widely used. Even lightbulbs, which Victory Electric once gave away to members every month, have evolved since the late 1980s.

Monica Lampe, accounting clerk, has seen many changes in technology and the cooperative since joining Victory Electric in 1988 as part of the member services team. Lampe recently retired after 35 years of dedicated service to the cooperative. She served with five different managers in that time and had four positions in member services and human resources as well as accounting and payroll.

“When I started there wasn’t even a computer here. We did everything by paper,” Lampe said.
 

In the early years of her time at Victory Electric, employees would input information into a single computer. At the end of each day, they used a dial-up modem to transfer the data to an outside provider, which updated members’ accounts and overnighted a printed report to Victory. Instead of looking up member accounts digitally as they do now, member services representatives (MSRs) looked up current balances and customer information on printed ledger sheets and card files.

“Yes, technology has come a very long way!” Lampe said. Instead of the digital outage maps commonly used today, Victory Electric employees formerly applied sticky notes to large, printed wall maps of the service area in order to keep track of outages as members called in to report them.

“I remember one time at midnight it was so bad they had to call us in. I didn’t want to drive into a blizzard at midnight, but the phones were ringing and if people are out of power, we’re going to be at work,” she said.

The ice storm of 2007 was an especially challenging weather emergency for the cooperative to manage, she recalled. A severe ice storm Dec. 10 to 11 that year caused extensive damage to power poles, lines and transformers. According to the National Weather Service, it was the worst ice storm in Kansas history. Lampe said multiple crews arrived from the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) to help, and they needed food and lodging to be arranged for everyone as they dealt with the ice storm and the costly damage it caused. Many members were without power, and it took a couple of weeks to fix the damage. The ice storm even toppled part of Sunflower Electric’s transmission system, which was quite unusual, she said.

In spite of challenges like these over the years, Lampe said, “I wouldn’t stay that long if I didn’t enjoy it.”

She also had many special memories and highlights during her time at Victory Electric, such as serving as a chaperone for local youth while they attended the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour in Washington, D.C.

Employee memories

“I’ve really enjoyed the people that I work with,” she said, noting that it was especially easy to get to know everyone when the company had only 10 employees in the office and 10 to 12 linemen. “It was very family-friendly, where we knew everybody’s spouses, we knew their kids — we knew everything about each other.” After the legacy Victory Electric system merged with the Aquila system acquired by the Mid-Kansas Electric Company in 2007, Victory Electric’s service area grew and so did the cooperative, which now employs an average of 70 people.

Lampe said when the company was small, employees also did more cross-training than they do now.

“During that time, you also changed your hat a lot,” she said. If the MSRs needed help up front, other office staff would step in and assist members. When there were outages to resolve, it was all-hands-on-deck.

“I think about the only thing I didn’t do was work on the line. I was never a lineman,” Lampe quipped.

Sandy Long, billing coordinator, began working at Victory Electric as a data entry operator about two years after Lampe started working at the cooperative. She said the two have grown close over the years and watched their children grow up together.

“I wish her well and it’s been wonderful working with her. We’ve been around a long time!” Long said, adding with a grin that the duo once got in trouble at the office for talking too much.

“It seems like a long time, but also feels like it went really fast when you look back at it — and that’s also what they say about life,” Lampe said.

Lampe has seen many employees come and go during her tenure at Victory Electric.

She has also enjoyed seeing other employees grow in their careers over the long term at Victory. “I feel like I’ve watched everybody grow up — like Ryan[Miller] and Eric [Speer], who came in as really young pups  —  and I got to see them mature, get married and have children.”

She added, “Victory offers a great benefit package, and when you can start building that future for yourself, you really don’t want to walk away from it.”

Future plans

Lampe said the thought of retiring is a little scary since it’s something she’s never done before, but she looks forward to having the freedom to travel and spend more time with her nine grandkids. Her husband, Shawn, works for Dodge City Public Schools, and they have four children — Crystal, Ty, Morgan and Ciera.

Victory Electric employees value the expertise and enthusiasm Lampe gave to the cooperative for so many years. Chief Financial Officer Angela Unruh said, “Monica has been a dedicated Victory employee for more than 35 years. She has a wealth of knowledge that will be difficult to replace. We want to congratulate her on a well-deserved retirement and wish her the best in the new chapter ahead!”

Manager of Plant Accounting Steve Stecklein said, “I have enjoyed working with Monica. She has been an important part of our team for many years.”

Congratulations and thank you for a job well done, Monica!