Grades 3–5 · Societies
How can members jointly own and use a cooperative?
Four people sharing a tool service can also own and help control the business that provides it. That is the fictional cooperative here: members organize around shared needs. In other cooperatives, members may be users, workers or producers, with a role beyond buying a service.
The fictional tool-service cooperative has four member-owners who also use its tools. Sharing a collection can give each access to equipment that would otherwise need to be obtained separately. The tools still need storage, upkeep and a way to keep track of who is using them.
Suppose the members consider replacing a worn tool. Under their stated agreement, each member has one vote in that decision. A decision can authorize spending, but someone must still obtain the replacement, record it and make it available through the daily service. Member control and operating work fit together without being the same activity.
The same four member-owners connect to Own and govern and to Service, showing their two roles. The stated one-vote-each rule guides this example's decisions, while the Tool service requires daily operating work.
In the diagramMembers as owners and service users4 fictional member-ownersOwn and governCooperativeTool serviceService4 member-owners • 4 users • stated rule: 1 vote each
Shared ownership still needs resources for upkeep, repairs and replacement. Different cooperatives arrange those resources differently, but calling tools jointly owned never makes the work costless. In this example, the people benefiting from the service also help control the business that keeps it running.
About this explanation
Starting knowledge: Understand that a business can provide a service and that a group can make agreed decisions.
Sources
- USDA Rural Development — Cooperative Services
- USDA Rural Development — Cooperatives in Agribusiness: Ownership, Control and Benefits