The Otter Co-op is a consumers' cooperative in Aldergrove, British Columbia, Canada. It placed 37 by revenues on Canada's Top 50 Co-operatives in 2007.
Management is divided into seven different departments:
Administration
Petroleum
Animal Feed
Hardware & Family Fashions
Retail Food
Human Resources
Credit
The General Manager who oversees all departments is hired permanently, not elected like the Board of Directors.
Anyone wishing to join the Otter Co-op must fill in an application and pay the 10lifetimemembershipfee.Uponacceptance,memberswillbeassignedamembershipnumberaswellasamembershipcard.Membershipscanbepassedontoanyoneoftheageofmajority.Eachdollarspentbyamemberistotaledandattheendoftheyear,membersareissuedapatronagerefundofequity,inproportiontothistotal.Therateofthepatronagerefundisdeterminedbythefinancecommitteeandchangesyearly.Infiscal2007,theCo−op′ssalesexceeded98 million and the percentage projected patronage allocation for 2008 was set at 6.97%.
Each year, a fixed minimum of purchases is also set and members whose purchases surpass that minimum will be awarded a portion of their refund in cash and the rest allocated to their equity account. Members whose purchases totaled less than that minimum have their entire refund added to their equity account. In 1999, the minimum was set to 295andanymemberspendingmorethatyearwouldreceive55Entireequityrepaymentsaremadetomemberswhohavedied,whohaveturned69yearsofageorwhohavemovedoutoftheareaandarenolongerabletomakeuseoftheCo−op.Also,nosinglemembermayholdmorethan25,000 in equity. Any accounts surpassing that limit will receive a cash refund.
Dividend
The Otter District Farmers' Institute (ODFI) incorporated on November 13, 1922. The twenty-five original members, both men and women, had a mandate to promote agricultural awareness and improve life so that settlement would be permanent and prosperous.
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.