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What You’ll Learn
From teaching 95-year-olds to stream their favorite shows to connecting the 5,000th home to fiber, Beacon Broadband proves inclusion and innovation go hand in hand. Bill Gerski shares how their Connected Senior Program bridges generations and the ways other Utility Pioneers can replicate the success in their own communities.
Notes: Filmed at Calix ConneXions conference.
Guest Speaker
Bill GerskiShow Notes
Transcripts have been lightly edited for clarity and readability.
Intro: A production of Pioneer Utility Resources. StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape their stories and connect with their customers.
Megan McKoy-Noe: A new kind of senior class: how to bridge broadband generations with mentoring. That’s what we’ll be talking about on this episode of The StoryConnect Podcast. Hi, I’m your host, Megan McKoy-Noe, one of the storytellers at Pioneer Utility Resources. And if you hear a little noise in the background, we’re recording live at the Calix ConneXions conference in Las Vegas. So the background noise, it’s the ambiance from the floor show, I think is a good, good way to sum it up.
Bill Gerski: Best way to sum it up, Megan.
Megan McKoy-Noe: I am joined by Bill Gerski. He’s the vice president of marketing and sales at Beacon Broadband in lovely Brookings, Oregon. It is just such a wonderful part of the country. I spent a couple of days there, and I always dream of going back. So Bill, thank you so much for joining us today.
Bill Gerski: Well, Megan, thanks for giving us the opportunity, of giving me the opportunity, to talk about some of the fabulous programs that Beacon Broadband is doing for our communities. As you are well aware, we’re a division of an electric cooperative, Coos-Curry Electric, and they’ve been around for 86 years. And what they’ve done, Megan, is create trust and integrity within the community.
Megan McKoy-Noe: I love that.
Bill Gerski: And now we’re passing that on through the internet. And how can we do that? And one of the ways I really wanted to create a value proposition to all of our members that are out there is how do you price it? How do you, what are you doing for the community? We do, of course, we do price for life. And they’ll never get a rate increase. That’s exciting. Oh yeah. We compete against two really strong competitors out there. So I wanted to differentiate ourselves from the other two companies. Price for life does that. Be having the only ones with local offices, and we do that. We have the best pricing, we have the best speeds. So all those things add up to a value proposition. But I wanted to do something in the community, Megan.
Bill Gerski: Push the envelope, Bill, just get a little bit more. And when I heard about this program, I thought maybe your motto should be “No neighbor left offline,” because that’s how I feel about your connected senior program and your digital literacy efforts. So tell us a little bit about how you push the envelope. You went beyond just the price for life, which is amazing and makes marketing easier. You went beyond that, beyond the local faces and places, and instead created a program to really enhance the experience of everybody at Beacon Broadband.
Bill Gerski: That’s a great question. It’s a great lead in too. When you stop and think, Megan of who Coos-Curry Electric is out there and why we did this. There’s only 11 homes per mile. Now, you take places like Eugene, Oregon, or Salem or Portland where you have close to maybe 500-600 homes per mile. We have 11. And then you take Curry and Coos counties, the two counties in Oregon, are the two of the three oldest age group in all of Oregon. So then I said to myself, so you have 11 homes per mile, and we’re going out and talking to all those 11 homes. Then I realized that a lot of them were older age groups, and about 30% of them had never learned how to use a computer. So how do I sell internet to somebody that doesn’t know how to use a computer? And this is when I came up with a program to teach senior citizens how to use a computer, utilizing high school seniors, matching them up one-on-one for over eight weeks, and they graduate with a certificate. And it says, here’s all the things, and we’ll discuss some of the ingredients in those programs. But that was the overall premise. It was really getting the generations together and teaching them how to use a computer, Megan.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Well, and I heard about this, and I thought, I think last year Scott Paul, who I adore on your team, he mentioned it. Yes. And he mentioned it, and it just piqued my interest. And I know that you had nominations for awards for this program. Your program is up in lights here at Calix ConneXions. So I thought, how do you get kids? And now I have a ten year old. So she’s not a senior in high school yet, but how do you get high school seniors engaged in a program like this? And then how do you find ways for them to share a language with the senior citizens of the community?
Bill Gerski: I think you first, what you want to do is, is create an advisory group.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Okay.
Bill Gerski: So let’s start in the community. Who’s the most logical group is your electric cooperative. So you get the marketing person.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Of course, that would be Kelsey.
Bill Gerski: Kelsey and Keith. Keith Buchhalter who, thank you, Keith, if you’re listening to this, when you do for being my copilot on a lot of these programs. But then you also, I went out and got the head of the hospital because we do telehealth. I went out and got the banking groups because we do online banking. So all these groups are going to be a part of it. And then you go meet with the high school principals in all the areas you have and said, “Listen, I’d really like to have ten high school seniors that you could give credits to teach seniors how to use computers. And then they put out a post, “Who would like to have credits and time off to go teach senior citizens how to use computers?” So the seniors then come, and then we start. I teamed up with a group called the Soroptimist Club, and these are a lot of ladies in each of the communities. I think you probably have a group where you are, Megan, but they help young adult females get scholarships and everything. So we tied in with them, and they let us use their facilities, and then they helped us find senior citizens that they have already in their groups. And then we can also post. I send out an email blast to our customers and saying, listen, we’re teaching people how to use computers. If you’re a senior and you know somebody that could use this because if they’re a senior who don’t know how to use an internet, it’s hard to text them.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Yeah, they probably won’t be following your social media.
Bill Gerski: But people can refer them to it. And we’re sold out, every class.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Okay, so when you say sold out, how many? You said ten high school seniors are engaged for this. And is it an eight week program or a six week?
Bill Gerski: It’s an eight week program.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Eight week program.
Bill Gerski: And I’ll refer to that. The first week is get to know each other. So it’s an hour class. Tell us about yourself. Why do you want to learn to use a computer? And the students sitting there, too. Why do you want to help a senior? Then the last week is graduation. We have a luncheon for them. They get their certificate. They’re allowed to bring in their family. A cake.
Megan McKoy-Noe: There’s cake?
Bill Gerski: There’s cake, and they can bring their family with it. So you have a senior citizen that brings their grandkids and watch grandma and grandpa get their certificate of completion. And there’s a lot of tears.
Megan McKoy-Noe: No.
Bill Gerski: Yes, absolutely
Megan McKoy-Noe: Okay. I love this so much, and I haven’t heard of anyone doing something like this.
Bill Gerski: It’s just – I agree. I mean, I was very lucky, but I also was said to myself as I’m driving down the road, how do I reach out to people that don’t even have a computer and sell them internet? You can’t do it. So it’s a little bit of like, hey, if I could teach you how to use a computer, and you like the fact that Beacon Broadband and Coos-Curry were part of this, then maybe you’ll sign up for our internet service going on down the road. I already spent a lot of money, well we spent a lot of money, putting fiber down the road. And you have these homes that older people live in them. If I can’t service them, then it was a waste of money. So if I can get in the home. But a lot of people like, they’re really shy. Seniors don’t like to be taught new things a lot of times, but if they can come in a classroom one-on-one, have a high school senior, spend that whole eight weeks with them, they really create a bond that’s unbreakable. And actually what happens is Megan, after the eight weeks are done, they share phone numbers, and the seniors will call the seniors in high school, and they’ll come out to their house and help them. Because we’re such a small community, everybody knows everybody. So the senior citizens know the kids’ parents or their grandparents. And so they just, and it was so great when we had the luncheon and the graduations that we do. Our oldest one was 92 years old. Her son is Court Boice, and he’s a state legislator for Oregon, and he got his mom involved. And the funny story is she graduated, and she sent Court an email. And he called her immediately on her cell phone and said, “Hey, Mom, somebody hacked your computer.” And she said, “Well, why?” And he goes, “I got an email from you.” And she goes, “That’s me. I did that. I sent you an email,” and he called me up to thank me.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Oh my goodness. So right away, you’re seeing the benefit of this story because you’re making an impression and helping your members live a better life and have better connections with family, right?
Bill Gerski: Right.
Megan McKoy-Noe: And the students, they’re getting credit and coming in. Is it like a work study program?
Bill Gerski: It is.
Megan McKoy-Noe: So it’s better than working at maybe another job because they’re coming in. They’re teaching, but they’re also learning about Beacon Broadband and Coos-Curry Electric’s commitment to the community, making relationships with folks that can mentor them in other ways.
Bill Gerski: Megan, you hit it. You just hit a home run. Because now I’ve just tied in last month with the Southwestern Oregon Community College. They have taken over the foundation for me. And so, we just had a golf tournament two weeks ago where I raised over $11,000 to buy computers. And all of the people that the broadband company and the electric cooperative, all the vendors we use said, “Yes, I want a team, yes, I want a team.” So they all got a team. And now the college is saying, “Bill, what we really want to do is, can you bring those seniors in high school and the seniors to our classrooms at the college?” And this way, not only do the seniors and the older people want to take additional courses, but what it’s doing is it’s recruiting the high school seniors to stay on and go to college in our community, and to continue working there and not move away like a lot of them already do.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Well, and are there any scholarships that are available to the kids, or any stipends to the kids that are doing this?
Bill Gerski: Well, we’re going to start doing that. We give them t-shirts, and we feed them, and we do stuff like that
Megan McKoy-Noe: You mentioned cake. That’s important.
Bill Gerski: They get a full lunch, and it’s really nice, and it’s probably, you know, ten and ten. You already have ten seniors in high school, but at the graduation, there’s probably 60 or 70 people there.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Wow. All right. So let’s get, I mean, we I think everyone listening is like, this is amazing. I want to do this. You mentioned it is eight weeks. So the first week is getting to know you. The last week is the graduation. But how long are these sessions? How many hours? You said, it’s ten seniors, high school seniors and ten senior citizens. So you’ve got 20 people meeting. How long do they meet? And then do you have people from the community speaking? You mentioned the hospital, folks that were involved. You mentioned, you’ve taken some of these meetings into libraries. You’re getting out in the community. What does the agenda look like?
Bill Gerski: Well, I think what you’re referring to, Megan, is the curriculum.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Yes. That is in fact, Bill, what I am talking about. Just describe – that is a much shorter way of saying when I was beating around the bush on. Describe your curriculum for us, Bill.
Bill Gerski: Well, here’s the funny part. We’re sitting at the Calix station here at the Wynn Hotel in Vegas at the Calix conference. And one of the best things that happened to me is I did not know that Calix had a university called Calix University. So I approached them, and they were more than happy to write the curriculum for us to learn how to use the computer.
Megan McKoy-Noe: No.
Bill Gerski: So they came out to our offices, and we sat down with professors and everybody. We had technical support people from my staff, and they wrote a six. It’s actually a six week course because the first weeks getting to know each other. Last week is graduation, and then it’s one hour per week.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Perfect.
Bill Gerski: And we have a full time instructor. We pay her to do this. She comes in. She has all of her bookwork and stuff. Then we have a person that donates his time. He’s a technical advisor. He sets up all the computers before they walk in the class. So all ten computers are set up. Everything’s up on the screens, all the books are right in front of them. All they have to do is sit down and get ready to do the class.
Megan McKoy-Noe: And then the paired seniors sit together and go through it together.
Bill Gerski: Oh, they absolutely do. They sit right next to, like you and I are sitting next to each other, Megan. They sit next to each other over an eight week period. They really get to know each other. And when they did the graduation, like I said, they came in, and we had a lot of the state senator there. Everybody saw what we were doing. But what was great was to sit there, and when everybody came in to do the luncheon and the graduation, to watch the seniors run towards each other and hug and say, “You graduate. You did this.” And they really, there was so much pride. I had tears in my eyes. I’m not going to, I’m not going to kid you, Megan, because it’s something I created, and this is part of my legacy. I’ve been doing this for 55 years in this industry. I was in cable TV forever. I was a senior executive at Warner and Viacom, Adelphia, Sirius Satellite Radio, big, big companies. But this was my way of giving back to the rural communities of how can we support them. It’s just not about throwing internet out there and having high speed fiber. It’s what can we give back to the communities that we serve, that they’ll give back to us in the long run. And the smiling faces is really makes me happy.
Megan McKoy-Noe: It’s building lifelong connections. That’s what it is. And I love that you’re leveraging the different partnerships, whether it’s local community partnerships, the national or international partnerships that you have with folks like Calix. And you mentioned that they worked on the curriculum for you. So I would imagine if someone is a Calix customer, they can reach out to Calix and ask for an example of the curriculum. I don’t know if y’all have it available.
Bill Gerski: Well, it’s funny you say that. I just met with the NRECA, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
Megan McKoy-Noe: I worked there for many years.
Bill Gerski: Brian O’Hara, and I had a meeting the other day, and he would like to take this entire program and put it out to the broadband group. There’s a new broadband group with the NRECA, and he would like me to bundle this, package it and distribute it to all the members so they could have a program. So I think it’s in the works, Megan.
Megan McKoy-Noe: I love that this is in the works. You know, we’re cooperatives. We love sharing ideas and supporting each other.
Bill Gerski: That’s what cooperatives do. We cooperate with each other. Yeah.
Megan McKoy-Noe: I love that. So you had. You said you sold out. I mean, I assume they’re not. Is there a charge for anyone that wants to participate?
Bill Gerski: Absolutely no charge. We supply the computers. There are computers. We can reuse them, but we get a discount through the electric cooperative by buying computers that are, like, $300 bucks for our laptops. And if the senior wants to buy that, we charge them what we paid for it, and then we just use that money to replace it with it.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Okay.
Bill Gerski: So about half the seniors buy the computer.
Megan McKoy-Noe: They take it home with them
Bill Gerski: They got to know it. They like it. Yeah, a little Microsoft, and they know how to do everything. And the first thing I always ask them to do, please send me an email to BillG@BeaconBroadband.com. And sure enough I get these emails, and they’re touching. They say thank you for teaching me how to use a computer.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Oh, I love that. And you mentioned that you’re also adding cybersecurity into the mix, right?
Bill Gerski: Yeah, well take a look at banking. I mean there’s so many different things. Let’s just go through the list a little bit. Telehealth. Okay. I always ask the class, how many of you would like to talk to your doctor so you don’t have to go 27 miles to meet your doctor? You can do it online now. Now, you can talk to your doctor online. How many people would like to do Amazon, shop Amazon? So they didn’t know how to use a computer, they couldn’t shop online. Now they’re shopping Amazon. How many of them could you Zoom with their grandchildren across the country? Now they can zoom with their grandchildren. How many of them could be on Facebook, and now they can get social media and stuff like that. And then last but not least, government agencies, a lot of them have to get their checks in the mail. Now, they can go online and get their Social Security. But there’s where the banks come in because they don’t want to keep sending out paper bills and paper stuff. They want to go online, and then they will come in and help us do cyber security, so nobody will steal their passwords. And a great story, Megan, is I was sitting next to a gentleman who was about 85, and he said, Bill, how do you pick a password? I said, well, I said, you got to be private about it. And I said, let me ask you a question. What kind of car do you drive? And he said, I drive a Subaru. And I said, okay, so your password is Subaru one with a capital S. And so he was sitting there. Subaru1. He wrote it down in this little lady next to him. I think she was 90. She said, Gus, Gus, Gus, what’s your password? He goes, I’m not telling you. He goes, it’s private. I go, perfect. That was perfect.
Bill Gerski: So the banks come in and teach all that. The hospital wants people to learn how to do that. They want you to go online and check when you went in and got a physical, that you can come and check your stuff online. So everybody wins in this program.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Well, and I was going to ask, so you’ve got a, I assume you probably have a waiting list of folks that want to –.
Bill Gerski: We do.
Megan McKoy-Noe: What about on the high school seniors side? Tell me a little bit about that experience. They’re getting credits for this, but what is the participation like? Have you had any issues getting those kids involved?
Bill Gerski: We’ve had issues in Brookings, where our headquarters is for the internet company, simply because of the timing issues. So if they’ve got, they have a break, an Easter break or something like that. You have to make sure your eight weeks times with the high school, because if they disappear, it doesn’t help, and they do disappear. And I’ve had to have donations from people. Well, donations of time where employees of Beacon and Coos-Curry, some of the employees will come in and step in for the high school students. So it’s not always perfect, but you have to have a backup system. So I have to be able to, for high school students, say, Hey, Bill, I want to come. But we’re at a class in Eugene up in Oregon University. I have to find four people to do it. So I create a backup list of people that know how to use computers really well, and they’ll sit in.
Megan McKoy-Noe: And they’ll be there just in case you need them. And then I love that. That’s a nice tip from the trenches.
Bill Gerski: And you’re also talking about. So one of the things we just did, Megan, is we shut down our video service. We had a video package, like a cable TV package, and we found out we probably shouldn’t have launched it in the first place. But we did, and we ended up with about 800 some customers, and we realized we were not making money. We couldn’t negotiate contracts with big programmers. So and at the time we launched it, streaming wasn’t a big hit yet. Now you’ve got YouTube and Hulu+ and all the other guys that are doing that. So we’ve switched everybody over as of September 29th, we shut everybody down. But while we were shutting them down in phases, I had classes at the library to teach everybody, not just seniors, but seniors were the biggest class, and we brought in TV sets and all my employees, and we taught people how to stream YouTube and Hulu+. And then if they had a big problem and they were already our customer, I sent my salespeople out to their house to hook them up, and we got everybody completed. We only lost 30 some customers over the whole thing.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Over more than 800.
Bill Gerski: Over 850.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Wow, that is wonderful.
Bill Gerski: It’s all about education.
Megan McKoy-Noe: It really is.
Bill Gerski: You know, whether it’s computers or streaming TV, there’s so many things that can branch out from this. Now, I’ve had a couple of seniors actually get in touch with me that if I ever need somebody to help some of the other seniors, they’d be willing to do it because they really enjoy it.
Megan McKoy-Noe: I love that so much, Bill.
Bill Gerski: Seniors helping seniors.
Megan McKoy-Noe: You know, it’s a beautiful, beautiful program. And again, it goes back to building those lifetime connections in your community that goes beyond the wire.
Bill Gerski: Well, we do so much for our communities. And you mentioned Kelsey. Kelsey does such a great job with, you know, getting books and getting toys and getting food drives. And, you know, we’re involved in the Azalea festivals down there. And the electric cooperative does such a great job. And now we’re doing it too. So when we’re in the parade, here comes the big boys, the big trucks, the bucket trucks and the electric cooperative. And here comes right behind them, the Beacon Broadband group. And, you know, we talk a lot about culture. It’s a huge culture difference because most of our employees at Beacon Broadband have only been there 2 or 3 years, whereas the employees of Coos-Curry Electric have been there for 20, 30, 40 years. So it’s a new culture thing that we’re teaching them. But when you’re part of a cooperative, all of our employees really love the benefits that are part of all this, as you’re well aware of working with all the co-ops.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Oh, yes. It’s a lifetime, a different type of connection, working at co-ops. It’s a beautiful thing. Well, before I let you go, one last question for you. If another broadband provider wants to start a connected senior program, and they, you know, maybe they’re at a telco, so they’re not a member of NRECA’s broadband program. Where should they begin, and what should they watch out for?
Bill Gerski: First thing I would say is send me an email at BillG@BeaconBroadband.com BillG, “g” as in “gold” @BeaconBroadband.com. Send me an email. Tell me you’re interested, and then I can share a lot of it. Like I said, the biggest thing is building a group of advisors that are going to come in because now you’re going to start attracting money. People want to donate, and you got to buy the computers, so you’re going to have to have a foundation. We initially used Coos-Curry Electric Foundation, and they actually gave us, I think, something like $7,500 to get it started. And the foundation was so great about all that. And Kelsey’s on the foundation. Thank you, Kelsey. But anyway, then we got money from everybody else, and the money started coming in. So you’ve got to be able to have that money placed somewhere where you can trust. And now we’re using the college’s foundation, and now they’re providing instructors and classrooms and computers.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Beautiful. So look for partnerships. Plan ahead and get ready for community impact.
Bill Gerski: Yeah, you’re going to get – and once you start doing that, make sure you get the press involved and do your press releases of what you’re trying to do for the community, because really, it’s your strengthening the community bond with everybody. It’s a get your senators involved. Your congressmen involved. Who doesn’t like to help senior citizens? That’s part of our, it’s part of our lifeline.
Megan McKoy-Noe: Yeah, no, I agree. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story with utility pioneers. He is Bill Gerski at Beacon Broadband, and I’m Megan McKoy-Noe at Pioneer Utility Resources. And until we talk again, keep telling your story.
Outro: StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources, a communications cooperative that is built to share your story.