Scribd
Upload
30 views

Professor: People Often Come Together To Form Organizations For Different Purposes. These Could Be For

The document discusses cooperatives, which are organizations owned and operated by their members for their mutual benefit. Specifically, it defines cooperatives as businesses comprised of members who work together and have access to shared facilities for their benefit. Common examples of cooperatives mentioned include craft shops owned by artisans, antique dealer shops where each dealer rents space, and multi-purpose cooperatives that provide various services to members. The document outlines some key principles of cooperatives, such as voluntary membership where all members are equals, and operations guided by a democratic constitution.

Uploaded by

Manoj
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
30 views

Professor: People Often Come Together To Form Organizations For Different Purposes. These Could Be For

The document discusses cooperatives, which are organizations owned and operated by their members for their mutual benefit. Specifically, it defines cooperatives as businesses comprised of members who work together and have access to shared facilities for their benefit. Common examples of cooperatives mentioned include craft shops owned by artisans, antique dealer shops where each dealer rents space, and multi-purpose cooperatives that provide various services to members. The document outlines some key principles of cooperatives, such as voluntary membership where all members are equals, and operations guided by a democratic constitution.

Uploaded by

Manoj
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Professor: People often come together to form organizations for different purposes.

These could be for


social welfare or even for business purposes. In terms of economics, these organizations could include
corporations, companies, and partnerships. One of the oldest and commonest of organizations, but one
that is little understood, is the co-operative.

Now, a co-operative or co-op is defined as a business model in which the organization is comprised of a
membership. The members will operate some type of business such as a store, apartment house or even
perhaps some type of production center. The business is owned and operated by the members who
work together for the benefit of all. In this way, they will have free use of all the facilities available to the
co-operative. They may or may not share in all the profits, but certainly each member will contribute
some fee or even a percentage of their sales to the co-operative to keep it running.

Let’s take, for example, a craft house. A craft house could include several facilities that the members
would use. In this case, the members would be crafters, people who create handcrafted goods. You
could have a ceramicist, a painter, a woodworker, a jeweler or anyone else who creates some type of
craft. The facilities would most likely feature both work areas and a store front. It might also have some
type of warehouse or storage space. All the members would generally pay an entry fee and then a
monthly fee to participate. The members would also take turns running the store and handling sales
while other members are creating their goods.

One type of co-op that I regularly encounter is antique dealer co-ops. I enjoy antiques and so I spend a
lot of free time going to different antique dealers in the area as well as on my travels. I frequently come
into stores run by co-operatives. These are simple types of co-ops in that each dealer is renting a certain
amount of space. In turn, they must also work in the store from time to time making sales as well as
taking queries from customers.

The earliest type of co-op was the trade guilds in medieval Europe. These trade guilds were centered on
a specific trade such as carpentry, masonry and other skilled labor.

Co-operative associations are all voluntary and they all work on some fundamental principles which
we’ll now examine. First, the members must join it and all members are treated as equals. Co-ops also
work according to a constitution or some type of by-laws accepted democratically when the co-op is
established. Finally, the co-ops are meant to bring the members closer together and bind them for a
common purpose.

The scope of the co-op has become very wide in modern times. We can find co-ops for nearly every
purpose of life. There are a number of co-operatives which help consumers. In this form of co-op,
members share the cost of economic goods and may purchase items in bulk and then distribute them
equally among themselves.

In agriculture, we can find several types of co-ops. There are agriculture credit societies to provide
financing to farmers. Marketing co-ops help farmers sell off surplus produce in farmers’ market. Again,
there are housing co-ops in industrial centers and large cities in which members help each other.
One other type of co-op that seems to be making great strides is what is known as a multi-purpose co-
op. These co-ops cater to several needs – financial aid, housing, medical, food and clothing – for their
members.

There are several advantages associated with co-operative societies. First, they eliminate the
middleman. This means that people can go directly to the society for whatever purpose and not have to
deal with either bureaucracy or overbearing rules and regulations. So, farmers who need credit can get
this at a much lesser rate of interest than say a bank which may have many requirements the farmer
cannot possibly meet, and an interest rate that makes it nearly impossible to repay. Yet another
important aspect about co-ops is that they teach economy. Members work very economically as they
know that the gains they receive from the co-op will be their own gain.

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy