A new bill has been proposed to help broaden the opportunities for agriculture cooperatives and their member-owners. This Bill was drafted and introduced by The Cooperative Network along with a bipartisan group of legislators. It is the AB 353 and SB 281 – the Cooperative Statute Modernization Bill. This member-driven legislation is the first major proposed revision of the statute in over 30 years.
If the proposed bill is passed and chapter 185 is updated, the cooperative members would be enabled to have option of nominating appointed directors to serve on their cooperative’s board.While drafting the bill the Cooperative Network-led group stated, allowing for an appointed director role lets the individual be fully engaged in decision making, broadens the areas of expertise available to the board and will perhaps even encourage young members to experience how the board operates.
The Cooperative Networks stated to accommodate the addition of a director to their cooperative board the proposed legislation would instead offer them the chance to add additional seats for that outside perspective. This is while maintaining a board majority of member-owners. Appointed directors would also be expected to have the same breadth of duties and loyalty to the cooperative as their fellow board members which is not currently a requirement for current board advisors.
Along with the possible audition of directors to cooperative boards the bill also addresses allowing cooperative holding companies to have the option of voting based on patronage. Currently there are other states that have followed this model for decades. Cooperative Networks states, this update only applies to cooperative holding companies, of which there is currently only one in Wisconsin: Cooperative Resources International. The holding company would have to receive approval from their member delegates in order to implement this change.
There are some possible big changes that could be attained with this proposed Cooperative Statute Modernization Bill. It is important to for cooperatives to know that the proposed legislation only provides cooperative member-owners the additional options to consider enacting these changes. Individual cooperatives would still require member action to enact a bylaw revision allowing for the provisions.
For more information about Cooperative Network and the proposed Cooperative Statue Modernization Bill, visit www.cooperativenetwork.coop.