Community Co-op Holds Annual Meeting

Today Community Co-op held its 89th annual meeting. As usual there was a big crowd there to enjoy lunch and the annual meeting. Whenever I go to a co-op annual meeting I marvel at the foresight of the founders. There was a need for some type of service, and in many cases farmers worked together to form a co-op business. One difference of a co-op is that some of the profits are returned to the customers that do business with the co-op.

General Manager Lisa Karl told me that over the past 50 years, Community Co-op has returned $6,471,332 to it's patrons. Normally about half the profits are returned to patrons and the other half is retained by the co-op to be used for operating capital. One important function of the annual meeting is to elect a board of directors. Customers have a voice in how the co-op is managed because they elect the board. The board of directors than hires a manager to run the day-to-day operations of the co-op. Yes, their motto is true, "where the customer is the company!"