A cooperative is an autonomous and duly registered association of persons, with a common bond of interest, who have voluntarily joined together to achieve their social, economic and cultural needs and aspirations by making equitable contributions to the capital required, patronizing their products and services and accepting a fair share of risks and benefits of the undertaking in accordance with the universally accepted cooperative principles.
The primary objective of every cooperative is to help improve the quality of life of its members. Towards this end, the cooperative shall aim to:
(a) Provide goods and services to its members to enable them to attain increased income, savings, investments, productivity, and purchasing power, and promote among themselves equitable distribution of net surplus through maximum utilization of economies of scale, cost-sharing and risk-sharing;
(b) Provide optimum social and economic benefits to its members;
(c) Teach them efficient ways of doing things in a cooperative manner;
(d) Propagate cooperative practices and new ideas in business and management;
(e) Allow the lower income and less privileged groups to increase their ownership in the wealth of the nation; and
(f) Cooperate with the government, other cooperatives and people-oriented organizations to further the attainment of any of the foregoing objectives.
Cooperative has two kinds of members: regular members and associate members.
A regular member is one who has complied with all the membership requirements and entitled to all the rights and privileges of membership as stated in the Cooperative Code and the cooperative by laws.
An associate member has no right to vote and be voted upon and is entitled only to such rights and privileges provided by the cooperatives by laws.
Any natural person, who is a citizen of the Philippines and is of legal age or a juridical person like a cooperative or non-profit organization is qualified to be a member of cooperative, provided that the person meets the qualifications prescribed in the bylaws of the cooperative.
Yes, but only of laboratory cooperative.
An applicant becomes a cooperative member when his application is approved by the board of directors. He may exercise his rights as a member after he makes the payments that are due to the cooperative.
Membership in a cooperative may be terminated voluntarily or involuntarily.
The member may withdraw his membership from the cooperative by giving a 60-day notice to the board of directors. Although the provision does not state that the notice should be written.
The general assembly
A general assembly of cooperative members is the meeting of the full membership for the purpose of exercising the rights and discharging the obligations of the cooperative as provided by the Code, its articles of cooperation and by laws.
The share capital of a cooperative is the money paid or required to be paid for the conducts of its operations.
In general, cooperatives may be organized for economic, social and educational purposes.