CSA Rules Comparison Archive

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Following are old versions of the rule comparison table see Hazelhurst CSA Rules Comparison for the latest version.

At the Committee meeting on 6th January 2010 Alison agreed to produce a comparison table for the two sets of rules the Committee is considering, the Co-operatives^UK Community Finance Model Rules 2008 and the Somerset Rules Co-operative Community Supported Agriculture. On 20th January 2010 Alison posted the comparison table as a Word document, below is a wiki version of that table with an additional section for Yvonne's criteria, which was suggested on 21st January, some additional questions were suggested by Chris on the same day.

Membership

Item	Cooperatives UK	Somerset Rules
Who can be members?	Rule 5: The Board may at its discretion admit to membership any person or corporate body or the nominee of any unincorporated organisation who supports the objects of the Society and who has paid or agreed to pay the appropriate annual subscription (if any) for the time being in force. Rule 6: The Board may refuse any application for membership at its absolute discretion.	Rule 1.4: The co-operative has the aim of building membership within its stakeholder groups, and ensuring that its membership fully reflects the diversity of those groups and of the wider community. Rule 1.6 (a): The co-operative is open to applications for membership in the appropriate class without discrimination, subject to the willingness of the applicant to take on the responsibilities of membership that have been agreed by the committee, completion of any application procedure that may have been agreed by the committee, which may include a reasonable probationary period the right of the committee to refuse membership where it believes there is good reason to do so.
How do members join?	Rule 6: upon acceptance and payment of the minimum amount of share holding required as determined by the Board from time to time, and the annual subscription fee (if any) the Society shall issue to her/him/it share certificates as appropriate and shall enter her/his/its name in the register of members... Applications for membership shall be in such form as the Board may from time to time direct.
What powers do they have?		Rule 1.5 (b): User members, who are the main beneficiaries of the co-operatives services and have only limited access to profits, play the principal role in the direction of the co-operative. Non-user members are subject to limits on their powers.
What controls are there for membership?

Management of democracy

Item	Cooperatives UK	Somerset Rules
How are general meetings organized?	Rule 14: A Special General Meeting shall be convened either upon an order of the Board or at the request of three members of the Society or ten per cent of the membership, whichever is the greater.	Rule 2.6 (b) (iii): General meetings will be convened by the committee... at the request of 20 per cent of the membership (rounded up), 30 per cent of the membership in any one class (rounded up), or twenty members 2.7 (a): All members have the right to propose resolutions.
Who has voting rights?		Rule 2.7 (d): If there are fewer than three members in any class of user membership, then the voting strength, expressed as a percentage of the voting strength of user members, of each class will be the proportion of user members in that class. Otherwise it will be fixed as follows: class number % voting strength (totalling 100%) 1 50% 2 50% Non-user members shall have no voting rights in general meetings.
What allowance is there for consensus decision-making?		Rule 2.3: The business of the general meeting and committee is governed by such standing orders as may be adopted by a general meeting; these will remain in force until they are amended or repealed by a general meeting. Such standing orders may not contradict these rules but may allow for the taking of a vote (other than a vote on procedure) to be deferred to allow for the development of consensus.
What general powers does the General Committee have?
What other support is available to the general meeting and the Committee in case of dispute?
How are Standing Orders organized?

Profits

Item	Cooperatives UK	Somerset Rules
Can dividends be paid out?
Can interest be paid out?
How might/must any surplus be distributed otherwise?

The wider community and Cooperative sector

Item	Cooperatives UK	Somerset Rules
Do the rules allow for social accounting?
How does the organisation work with the wider cooperative movement?

Amendments to the Rules

Item	Cooperatives UK	Somerset Rules
How are amendments to the rules facilitated?

Dissolution of the Cooperative

Item	Cooperatives UK	Somerset Rules
How should this be managed?
How should assets be distributed?

Yvonne's Criteria

Item	Cooperatives UK	Somerset Rules
When established as a legal structure (year)	2008	2009
Estimate no. of organisations adopting this (UK)		3
Specific relevance to different types of participants Investors Growers (paid) Volunteers Food buyers Organisers/board Local community
Accepted by potential funders
Cost implications at set-up and per annum (Est.)
Name and track record of key advisors
Simplicity and ease of use

Additional Questions

Item	Cooperatives UK	Somerset Rules
Have the rules been designed for a IPS conducting any kind of business (are they generic) or are they specifically designed for a CSA project?
Are the rules written in up to date, plain English, wherever possible?
Committee
Who can be on the Committee, how many should be on the Committee and what, if any, restrictions are there on Committee membership?
Can the Committee co-opt additional members and what restrictions are there on this?
What happens if there is a conflict of interests for a the Committee member?
Do the rules specify how decisions should be taken at Committee meetings?
What safeguards are there in the of the Committee deciding to make substantial alteration to policies on membership applications, co-operative dividends, pay, social investments, health and safety, equal opportunities or corporate social responsibility?
What safeguards are there in the case of the Committee deciding to significantly change workers terms and conditions?
What safeguards are there in the case of the Committee deciding to make compulsory redundancies?
What are the rules regarding payment of expenses of Committee members and the the employment of Committee members?
Sub-Committees and Officers
What provision do the rules make for officers other than the Secretary and Treasurer?
What provision do the rules make for the formation of sub-committees?
How can a director be removed from office?
General Meetings
Do any decisions at general meetings require a vote other than a 50% majority?
Who can call a general meeting and under what circumstances?
What is the quorum of general meetings? And what happens if a meeting doesn't achieve a quorum?
What provision is there for a secret ballot at meetings?
What provision is there for proxy voting at meetings?
Members
How can a member be expelled and what appeal procedure is available to them?
Can a member have their membership cancelled, under what circumstances might this happen and how can they appeal?
What happens when a member dies or goes bankrupt?
What provisions are there for the organisation to recover debt from members?
Co-operative Principals
How are the co-operative principals of autonomy and independence enshrined in the rules?
How do the rules require that the organisation has a committment to education?
How do the rules commit the organisation to environmental and sustainability goals?
Do the rules require that the co-operative identify itself as a co-operative, democratic social enterprise, or community enterprise?
Do the rules encourage members to get invloved with the wider co-operative movement?
How do the rules ensure that other co-operatives have a fair chance to when contracts are awarded?
What requirements do the rules place on the organisation for the membership to reflect the diversity of the community?
How are the democratic aims of the co-operative incorporated into the rules?
How do the rules relate to the Seven Co-operative Principals?
Assets and shares
What happens if the liquid assets and investments of the co-operative exceed £10,000?
Can organisations buy shares in the organisation and are there any restrictions on this?
What provision is there in the rules for transferable shares?
Multi-stakeholder Structure
What provision is there in the rules for the workers to have a balanced say in the running of the organisation compared with the consumers?