Chapter III Membership

Article 14 Citizen who have the capacity for civil conduct and enterprises, public institutions and organizations that are engaged in production and operation which are directly related to the business of a specialized farmers cooperative may become members of the cooperative, provided that they can make use of the services offered by the cooperative, recognizes and abides by the charter of the cooperative and complete the formalities for joining the cooperative as prescribed in the charter. However, a unit that exercises the function of administering public affairs shall not join such cooperative.

A specialized farmers cooperative shall have a membership roll and file it with the registration authority.

Article 15 Farmers shall account for at least 80 percent of the membership of a specialized farmers cooperative.

If the total number of members of a cooperative is 20 or less, there may be one enterprise, public institution or organization as its member; if the number exceeds 20, the number of enterprises, public institutions or organizations shall not exceed five percent of the total number.

Article 16 A member of a specialized farmers cooperative shall enjoy the following rights:

(1) to attend the membership assembly, have the rights to vote, to elect and to stand for election, and exercise democratic management of the cooperative according to the stipulations in the charter;

(2) to make use of the services and production and operation facilities provided by the cooperative;

(3) to share profits according to the stipulations in the charter or the resolution of the membership assembly;

(4) to consult the charter, membership roll, minutes of the membership assembly or of the conference of members’ representatives, resolutions of the board of directors and of the board of supervisors, and financial statements and account books; and

(5) other rights as are stipulated in the charter.

Article 17 The system of “one person, one vote” shall be adopted for election and voting at the membership assembly of a specialized farmers cooperative, and each member shall have the right to one basic vote.

Members who make considerably large capital contributions or who effect considerably large amounts (volumes) of transactions with the cooperative may, according to the stipulations of the charter, enjoy the right to extra votes. The total number of extra votes of the cooperative shall not exceed 20 percent of the total number of the members’ basic votes. Each time a membership assembly is convened, the members present at the assembly shall be informed of those members who enjoy the right to extra votes and the number of extra votes they each enjoy.

In the charter restrictions may be placed on the scope of the extra votes to be cast.

Article 18 A member of a specialized farmers cooperative shall be charged with the following duties:

(1) to execute the resolutions of the membership assembly, the conference of members’ representatives and the board of directors;

(2) to make capital contributions to the cooperative as stipulated in the charter;

(3) to effect transactions with the cooperative as stipulated in the charter;

(4) to share losses as stipulated in the charter; and

(5) other duties as stipulated in the charter.

Article 19 If a member of a specialized farmers cooperative intends to withdraw from the cooperative, he shall submit a request to the director-general or the board of directors three months prior to the end of the fiscal year; and if an enterprise, public institution or organization intend to withdraw from the cooperative as a member, it shall do so six months prior to the end of the fiscal year; if the charter stipulates otherwise, the stipulations there shall prevail. The membership qualifications of such member shall be terminated at the end of the fiscal year.

Article 20 A member shall continue performing the contract concluded with the specialized farmers cooperative before the termination of his membership, unless otherwise stipulated in the charter or otherwise agreed upon by him and the cooperative.

Article 21 At the termination of the membership, the cooperative shall, in the manners and within the time limit as are stipulated in the charter, return to the member the amount of the capital contributions recorded in his account and his shares of the common reserve funds; and it shall, according to the provisions in the second subparagraph of Article 37 of this Law, return to him the distributable profits earned by the cooperative prior to the termination of his membership qualifications.

The member whose membership qualifications are terminated shall, according to the stipulations in the charter, share the losses and debts incurred by the cooperative prior to the termination of his qualifications.