West Oregon Electric Cooperative

Overview

Building on a Strong Foundation

West Oregon Electric Cooperative (WOEC) has served rural communities in northwest Oregon since 1944. Their work is rooted in cooperative values and a commitment to reliable service. To continue supporting members effectively, WOEC chose to refresh their website. They partnered again with Powerful to create a modern design, keep content current, and exceed accessibility standards. The updated site strengthens how visitors find information and interact with their cooperative.

A website refresh is a natural step for a cooperative that continues to grow while staying true to its roots. By returning to Powerful, WOEC ensured this project built on a familiar foundation and carried forward the design strengths of their previous site. The new platform maintains a timeless look that still feels current, helping WOEC stay ahead of the curve and keep online information clear, organized, and reliable for every visitor.

A Forward-Thinking Approach to Cooperative Service

WOEC wanted their redesigned website to reflect their continued progress as a cooperative and the practical needs of the people they serve. A key part of this goal was finding ways to simplify everyday tasks for visitors. Many members check on capital credits each year, and WOEC wanted this process to feel easy, efficient, and aligned with their cooperative values.

To support this goal, Powerful introduced the Capital Credits Lookup tool. Instead of scrolling through a long spreadsheet, visitors now enter their name into a simple search field. If they have unclaimed capital credits, their name appears immediately. From there, they click on the result and are taken to an online form where they can validate their membership and confirm the patronage due to them.

This process reflects cooperative principles in action—especially transparency and members’ economic participation. It gives visitors a direct way to engage with the cooperative and understand the benefits they have earned.

The tool makes a familiar process significantly easier. Visitors can complete the entire task in minutes, from any device, without downloading a file or searching through a list. It reduces confusion, limits manual steps, and gives members an accessible way to check their information on their own time. For WOEC, this supports their goal of presenting themselves as modern and forward thinking.

Powerful’s STAR Standard in Action

A major priority for WOEC was improving accessibility across key resources, especially forms and documents that visitors rely on every day. Many of these materials existed only as PDFs, which can be hard to read on mobile devices, difficult for screen readers to interpret, and challenging for search engines to find. WOEC wanted every visitor to access the content they needed in a format that was clear, flexible, and easy to use.

Powerful addressed this goal by converting important PDFs into fully accessible webpages and online forms, following the STAR Standard—searchable, translatable, accessible, and responsive. This shift gives visitors multiple ways to interact with essential information.

For example, the New Residential Service Application is now a simple online form that works on any device. Visitors can complete it in Spanish using the built-in translation tool. Anyone relying on a screen reader can move through the form field by field. The content now lives directly on the website, which allows it to appear in search results when someone looks up how to start service in the WOEC area.

This same approach was used for other frequently accessed resources, including WOEC’s rate information. Turning these PDFs into structured webpages makes the details easy to scan, understand, and compare without downloading or zooming.

Transforming PDFs into webpages and online forms creates a clear improvement in accessibility. These updates support WOEC’s goal of offering reliable, accessible information and reflect their commitment to serving every member.