Have cooperatives maintained member interest above organizational perpetuation?
The best measurement of this internal pressure is the level of continued membership. Cooperatives have held their own in recent years. However, a number of factors may be eroding support of the organizations, The inter-cooperative competition and “free ride” issues identified above any be leading factors. Nourse may not have envisioned another serious issue cooperatives face today. Failure to return earnings retained by Cooperatives for operational financing certainly does not measure up to his insistence of not tying up the member’s limited capital in an organization. Just last week, Randall Torgerson, Deputy Administrator for Cooperatives, USDA Economics, Statistics and Cooperatives Service, warned Wisconsin cooperative leaters that the lack of adequate programs to meet the finance revolving issue may be costing cooperatives the participation of would-be members. He reported that a 1977 study of the Farmer Cooperative Service found, “Only 32 percent have programs for retiring retaine
