Category: Cooperatives

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Human Resources

Phil Kenkel

Bill Fitzwater Cooperative Chair, Oklahoma State University

In a recent national project, academic researchers, cooperative managers and members, USDA, agricultural foundations and other stakeholders collaborated to identify the critical issues facing agricultural cooperatives. A two-stage Delphi survey was conducted, followed by expert panel sessions in Washington, D.C. and Minneapolis, Minnesota. The material below summarizes some of the findings from the project.

The quality and skills of cooperative managers and board members has been considered a critical issue for …

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Unallocated Equity

Phil Kenkel

Bill Fitzwater Cooperative Chair, Oklahoma State University

In a recent national project, academic researchers, cooperative managers and members, USDA, agricultural foundations and other stakeholders collaborated to identify the critical issues facing agricultural cooperatives.  A two-stage Delphi survey was conducted, followed by expert panel sessions in Washington, D.C. and Minneapolis, Minnesota. The material below summarizes some of the findings from the project.

Unallocated equity, also called unallocated reserves and retained earnings, is permanent equity capital that is not assigned …

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Challenges for the Board of Directors

By Phil Kenkel, Vice Chair, Cooperatives CoP and Bill Fitzwater Cooperative Chair, Oklahoma State University, phil.kenkel@okstate.edu.

In a recent national project, academic researchers, cooperative managers and members, USDA, agricultural foundations and other stakeholders collaborated to identify the critical issues facing agricultural cooperatives. A two-stage Delphi survey was conducted, followed by expert panel sessions in Washington, D.C. and Minneapolis, Minnesota. The material below summarizes some of the findings from the project.

A wide variety of governance issues including board member …

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High School Cooperative Syllabus

 

G. McKee.

Authors: Greg McKee, North Dakota State University, gregory.mckee@ndsu.edu, and Donald Frederick, Rural Business-Cooperative Service, USDA.

Summary: This page provides links to a syllabus designed for high school teachers who are interested in informing their students about cooperatives. The syllabus is designed to accompany the Co-ops 101: An Introduction to Cooperatives“book.” Whether it be part of a social studies, Ag Ed or Ag Business class, this syllabus provides an excellent teaching structure for the topic of …

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Cooperative Businesses

Authors: Brian Henehan, Cornell University, bmh5@cornell.edu, and Bruce Anderson, Cornell University

Reviewers: Gerald White and Brent Gloy, Cornell University

Organizational Characteristics

Probably the most widely known and proven of collaborative business organizations are cooperatives. They are usually formed of many entities and are legally constituted, limited liability corporations controlled by their members. Cooperative members are often in the same industry and have common economic interests that may involve joint marketing, purchasing of supplies and/or the providing of services.

Most …

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CHS online co-op lessons

 

CHS Lessons and Test

Cooperative Fundamentals Online Lesson

This online lesson provides an excellent summary of how a cooperative works. Prepared in an easy-to-read format, the lesson is broken into sections, and each section ends with a short knowledge check. The lesson serves as a thorough preview or review for a cooperative class or lesson.

Fundamentals Test

CHS has provided this short test to go along with the online lesson above. The test consists of 12 multiple choice questions.…

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Rural Cooperative Development Centers

As of June 2012, nearly 40 Rural Cooperative Development Centers (RCDCs) were located in 26 states. The first centers were funded by the USDA Rural Cooperative Development Grant Program in 2009.

This webpage provides several types of information about the RCDCs:

 

    • Name and Website URL of U.S. Rural Cooperative Development Centers – This
…
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Board of Director Strategy

Authors: Phil Kenkel, Oklahoma State University, phil.kenkel@okstate.edu, and Bill Fitzwater,
Oklahoma State University

Image:BODmeetingfeature.jpgStrategy Board of director meetings are designed to conduct business, communicate with the manager and plan for the future. Parliamentary procedure can help boards accomplish these objectives.

Roles and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors

Planning is a process of setting objectives and determining what must be done to accomplish them. One director of an agricultural cooperative defined planning as:

  • Where are we going?
  • How do
…
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Rivalry among existing competitors in the industry

Author: John Park, Texas A&M University, jlpark@tamu.edu

It is the nature of competition that firms will strive for advantage over their rivals. As such, rivalry is typically the strongest of the five competitive forces in any given industry. It can be defined as the competition that goes on between firms as they try to increase their market share. For example, this can be viewed as the competition that the cooperative faces when members look elsewhere to gin their cotton, sell …

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Sample Management Evaluation Form

Authors: Phil Kenkel, Oklahoma State University

Appraising the manager’s performance is an important activity for the board of directors. Developing a formal process that is routinely applied makes appraisal less confrontational. The appraisal process revolves around the identification of realistic and attainable performance standards.

Standards should cover all functions of the manager’s job and can involve both outcome and activities. Setting the standards should be a joint activity of the manager and board. Performance standards should be continuously evolving with …

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