2 THE POWER OF POSSIBILITY NISC | 50 YEARS OF INNOVATION AND MEMBER SERVICE center called Central Area Data Processing Corporation, and based it in St. Louis. Their mission was to serve co-ops in 14 states. Those two co-ops merged in 2000 to create National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC) and gave the nation’s electric and telecommunications cooperatives — as well as other utilities, public power districts and independent telecoms — access to technology tools that are truly empow- ering. Customers are smarter consumers. Utilities are swifter and leaner. If the lights go out, they come back on more quickly. With a few clicks on a keyboard or taps on a tablet, information arrives at the fingertips of people even in remote locations. A 1964 demonstration of data processing technology, using teletypewriters to store data on punched paper tape. “Every year or every few years, there was a major leapfrog of technology and software. We embraced that. We asked for things we thought were good for everybody.” — JOHN WESTBY VERENDRYE ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE