Retro silver

Retro silver
Silver retro

I'm interested in Ewheels coop as a

Monday 18 January 2010

How a social co-operative Works?

Much like any other business a social co-operative aims to create value, in this case the value is kept at the centre of the business and not automatically distributed to the investors.
The five types of membership represent the whole community required to both generate value and to invest the value created.
At its heart the co-operative will have five votes, one from each membership representative, they will appoint a management team, set the years objectives in both financial and non-financial terms, create the boundaries of ethical values for the business to run inside and decide how the value created will be reinvested in the whole membership community.
Customers, like the original dividend stamp earning members of the Rochdale Pioneer cooperative, 160 years ago, customers can buy a share in the co-oporative and receive a dividend proportionate to their purchases.
Workers, also like the early pioneer Co-op, can buy a share and receive dividends proportionate to the hours they work.
Suppliers, unlike the early pioneers, are also eligible to buy a share and to receive a portion of the monetary value created, proportionate to the value of their supplies.
Investors, as investors, can never control more than one of the five basic representative shares. They receive interest on their investment, and a dividend according to the value of their investment, from the value allocated to investors.
Friends, people not directly involved in the value creating processes, who represent the world outside the co-operative -- from the planet to the neighbours, their interest is in seeing how the dividend allocated to them is reinvested in the world outside. In order to vote both for the management, and major policy decisions, friends will also be able to buy shares.

In an attempt to prevent money dominating votes, each share will be named to one company or one individual and will carry one vote within the category of shares.

50 euros seems to be an affordable price for shares. Entry and exit to the co-operative should be free of blockage and cost. Voting rights should probably be given after one year of membership, apart from the founding members who have to vote on the opening management team and the founding principles.

One of these founding principles is that of sustainability; not that any human made entity can be everlasting, more that heritage left behind is of greater value than that started the cycle.

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