As a result, members are not generally aware of their financing obli- 

 gations and the extent they have or have not met them based on their 

 use of their association's services. 



2. There is a need for commitment to redeem allocated capital . 



Managers and directors generally assume that (1) the individual amounts 

 would have little favorable impact on the typical recipient, (2) co-ops 

 would have great difficulty in locating many owners of such equities , 

 and (3) present patrons would prefer using such funds to improve services 

 to producers. 



But we disagree with this last assumption in observing another area of 

 need for commitment in most if not all the associations: -- a need for 

 commitment to grow and to improve services. Notable exceptions are: 

 Cedarville with its expansion into improved vacuum cooling and a new 

 pepper packing line and Gloucester County with its move to Mullica Hill,, 



3 . There is a need for commitment by members to patronize their own 

 organizations . 



Most grower -members of all the organizations will sell to a buyer or 

 through a broker who offers more pennies on any particular deal than 

 the cooperative can^ 



Thus, a prerequisite for establishing a sound basis for direct sales to 

 the large buyer -- a steady supply of good, uniform quality, well- 

 packed produce -- cannot consistently be met by any of the cooperatives. 

 Sadly enough, the lack of commitment to patronize is a failing of many 

 of the associations' directors. 



4. There is a need for commitment by boards of directors to adopt sound 

 management practices -- to build strong organizations » 



This is evidenced by the failure to use a systematic approach to finan- 

 cial management. As a result, credit extension and collection procedures 

 are loose or nonexistent, there is almost complete rejection of use of 

 financial and operating budgets as planning and performance evaluation 

 tools, and there is a preference for jawbone exhortation rather than 

 carefully prepared cost-benefit analyses and projections to substantiate 

 proposed fixed asset expenditures, new services, or cost savings proce- 

 dures . 



