Co-operative Management and Administration
What the exam tests here
The division of authority between the general body and the managing committee, the duties of office bearers, statutory meetings and elections, and the professionalisation debate. Questions often describe a management failure and ask you to identify the correct authority to act.
Structure of authority
- General body - the supreme authority of members; approves budgets, audit reports, dividend, bye-law amendments and long-term decisions.
- Managing committee/board of directors - elected, entrusted with day-to-day governance; its term is five years under the State Act, and elections must be completed before the term expires.
- Office bearers - chairperson, vice-chairperson, secretary and treasurer, chosen as the Act and bye-laws provide.
- Paid management - a manager or chief executive with departmental staff, responsible to the board for operations.
Statutory discipline
- Annual general meeting within six months of the close of the co-operative year, with due notice to members.
- Mandatory audit of accounts by a panel auditor; audit rectification report placed before the general body.
- Reservation of seats for women and for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes on managing committees.
- Elections conducted under the State Co-operative Election Authority in Maharashtra; failure to hold elections attracts statutory consequences, including appointment of an administrator.
Worked example
A board of nine members wishes to change the bye-laws to raise the borrowing limit. The correct route: the board proposes, the general body approves by the prescribed majority, and the amendment is then submitted to the Registrar for registration. Reasoning to write: the board cannot amend bye-laws by itself because bye-laws define the society's contract with its members and must be registered.
Professionalisation
Co-operative management must combine democratic accountability with professional skills - accounting, credit appraisal, marketing and information technology - and member education under principle 5.
Traps that cost marks
- Giving the board power to change bye-laws.
- Counting quorum loosely or treating those present as the base for special resolutions.
- Confusing the Registrar's statutory powers with the board's managerial powers.