It is now time to formalise internal governing rules and register your cooperative according to national laws. You may also think about the relation of your organisation to the cooperative movement: becoming a member of a cooperative federation may allow you to benefit from advisory support and inter-cooperation synergies, even beyond the start-up stage.
The governing documents are necessary at least for three reasons.
The constitution formalizes the basic rules of your cooperative, giving details of why the organisation was created, what are its main principles and objectives, what it is there to do (which services it aims at delivering), and how it is organised. Although it can be modified by the membership, the constitution is the basis on which the whole structure is to be organised in the long term: modification processes should thus ensure to keep stability and encourage consensus – over conflict – in the approbation process.
A model of constitution is available in the downloads section. Be aware that this is only a model, and should be adapted to your needs, but also to legislative requirements.
In addition to the constitution, the cooperative may use other governing documents, for example:
Since you already have gathered a team (step 1) of motivated people with whom you have collectively created the cooperative project, you may already have quite a clear idea of who the cooperative members will be – at least during the foundation process. However, the question about future joining members might still be unanswered.
Your membership rules should be consistent with the first cooperative principle: “open and voluntary membership”. This does not mean that you have to allow anyone to join your cooperative, but that the conditions to become a member should be objective and non-discriminatory.
Membership is to be thought wisely and strategically. Is your cooperative aimed at integrating a massive number of members, or on the contrary keeping a low number of active members? Will the services be provided only to members, or also available to non-members? If you opted for a multi-stakeholder organisation – and depending on the local legislation, should the joining procedure and conditions be equivalent for all kinds of members?
Membership systems are closely related to the governance model you would like to create: do not hesitate to innovate and make your own! The good practices on iCareCoops.eu might give you some inspiration.
The objectives and principles of your cooperative are the basis on which should be defined the way the organisation will be run and who will be responsible to manage it, i.e. its governance. “Governance is defined formally as the systems and processes concerned with ensuring the overall direction, supervision and accountability of an organisation” (Sustain, 2015).
The governance will ensure an appropriate daily organisation of your cooperative. It is important to find mechanisms allowing both accountability and transparency, so as to minimize the risks to the members while ensuring inclusiveness.
A standard cooperative governance scheme would be the following:
The toolkit “Establish your cooperative governance ” will provide you with some useful schemes and interesting models.
iCareCoops provides a sustainable, ICT-driven solution to our ageing society's increasing need for care. The project aims to develop a new way of promoting and supporting elderly care cooperatives as a model to organise elderly care in an efficient way.
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