Phil Kenkel
Bill Fitzwater Cooperative Chair
Cooperative leaders have the responsibility of protecting the cooperative’s financial security and providing members with information as to the firm’s status and performance. One aspect of that transparency is to describe how the cooperative retained and distributed profits. In the early days of U.S. agricultural cooperatives, there was very little non-member business and all profits were allocated to members in a combination of stock and cash patronage. Under those conditions, the description of the …