Story by Drew Woolley
The goal of the first South Central Rural Telecommunications Cooperative's (SCRTC) hosted Lunch and Learn event at the LaRue County Public Library was to let the audience quiz cooperative experts about technology. As it turned out, most of the questions revolved around a single topic.
“Everybody would want information on Windows. So, we ended up talking about that the whole time,” says Nicole Randall, who works in marketing and sales for SCRTC. “And then we went to the Mary Wood Weldon Memorial Library in Glasgow and thought, ‘Why don’t we do a Windows class?’ It was super helpful, great questions and feedback.”
The Lunch and Learn sessions started in October 2024 to enhance SCRTC’s community involvement and help share its technological expertise. With local libraries already holding community education classes, partnering with them seemed natural.
“We were looking for ways to get into the community and provide some basic education. And we thought, who better to partner with than the libraries?” Nicole says. “They have a similar mission. They want to help others, and they’re a trusted source. It was a great merge.”
Since that first event, the topics attendees emphasized were used to guide the following Lunch and Learn, allowing discussions to match the community’s interests. Nicole is encouraged to see the number of retirees coming out to the events to learn more about changing technology.
“The more you can get people talking about it, the things they don’t understand or the issues they’ve had, the easier it is,” she says. “And when you get through that technology block with computers, it opens up a whole new quality of life.”
While questions about the features and uses of Microsoft’s operating system have dominated the conversation so far, other ideas have been given, such as expanding into cybersecurity basics and how to set up devices like printers. She also hopes SCRTC can host the events in more areas and even appeal to younger audiences.
For Nicole, it’s another way for SCRTC employees to be visible in the community. Like those who are already active as coaches, church members, and teachers, employees can bring the cooperative mission to life by interacting with the community through the Lunch and Learn sessions.
“I think that’s what we do. Being member-focused, our job is to be out in the community doing things,” she says. “We’re not just a business. We’re a provider. The more we’re communicating with our people, the more feedback we get, the better we’ll be.”