COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATION BY-LAWS. 19 



Article XIV. — Duties and Rights op Members. 



Section 1. A member shall have the right to give away or retain for his own use 

 much of his farm products as he may wish, but he shall not sell any product contracted 

 to the Association to an outside party, except products offered to and rejected by the 

 Association. 



Sec 2. In case any member is offered a price in excess of the price then obtainable 

 by the Association, said member shall turn over said offer to the Association for filling 

 from said grower's goods. 



Note.— This provision is necessary to prevent an outside disgruntled dealer from making a false 

 offer, to test a member's loyalty and arouse dissension, with the idea of disrupting the organization. 

 Allowing the organization to handle this offer compels the mischief-maker to make good on his offer; 

 the grower gets the boosted price, if the dealer does not back down, and the organization handles the 

 deal, and so is strengthened rather than injured. One or two such experiences have usually discouraged 

 this very common form of outside interference. 



Sec 3. Each member shall have a number or mark which shall be permanently 

 stamped on every sack, box, barrel, crate, basket, or other package packed by him or 

 under his direction, for shipment through the Association. Any loss occasioned by 

 improper packing or grading shall be charged to the member whose mark is found on 

 8 aid package. 



Sec 4. Products packed on the grower's premises shall be inspected as they are being 

 packed by an Association inspector. He may be employed and paid by the grower 

 to assist in packing, but he shall be held accountable alone to the Association for his 

 inspection work. His own private mark shall be placed upon each package he packs 

 or inspects and he shall be held jointly responsible with the grower for the pack as it 

 may be disclosed in the final market, ordinary deterioration excepted. 



Sec 5. On or before [April 1] of each year each member shall report to the Associa- 

 tion the acreage of products to be grown by him that year and the acreage the products 

 of which he promises to market through the Association . During the growing season, 

 each member shall furnish such information, concerning the crops pledged to the 

 Association, as may be requested by the manager. 



Note. — This section is intended for organizations handling perishable products such as fruit and 

 vegetables, where it is important to know the volume of business to be handled. 



Sec. 6. Each member of the Association shall have only one vote. This shall not 

 be exercised except when all debts and dues owed by him to the Association have 

 been fully paid. Voting by proxy shall not be permitted. Except in case of the 

 removal of a director or officer, as provided in Article VI, section 6, of these by-laws, 

 absent members may vote on specific questions by ballots transmitted to the Secre- 

 tary of the Association by registered mail, and such ballots shall be counted only in 

 the meeting at the time at which such vote is taken. 



Note.— In a stock company, which is organized to earn profits on the money invested in the business, 

 a member votes in proportion to the number of shares he holds, but a true cooperative association is 

 based on the individual member, a number of whom unite to do something in which they have a common 

 interest. In the former, money controls; in the latter, men. While there may be cases where the voting 

 power of the members may be made in proportion to the acreage of their products, it will generally be 

 found that any attempt to vary the voting power of members will be unwise. The practice of allowing 

 a member to collect the proxies of absent members and vote the same tends to give a single member 

 powers in the association, which are too dangerous to be allowed. 



In some of the largest nonprofit cooperative associations it has been felt that it was neither fair nor 

 wise to demand that the large producing member should be held to the same vote as a small producing 

 member, as their responsibility and liability are so unequal. In such a case the voting power of mem- 

 bers may be proportioned according to the amount of their products or acreage handled through the 

 Association. 



Sec 7. Any member may withdraw from the Association at any time between [the 

 first day of January and the first dav of the following March]; but such withdrawal 



