Cooperative seminar

We had a cooperative pre-membership seminar at school this afternoon. It has been some time since the administration had wanted to hold this seminar so that the cooperative which (I was informed) existed right before I was accepted as a faculty member back in S.Y. 2005-2006 could become legitimate and accredited with the Cooperative Development Authority.

Starting this January I had been running a sort of a "savings association" for the school's employees; I describe the system extensively at EduPhil.org. Currently the total capitalization is at PHP 56,600.00, cash on hand is PHP 8,098.50, and the expected income is PHP 5,638.18. With a total "points" of 5,019 in the system (please see the description for a better understanding of these "points"), the return per point is PHP 1.12. Not bad. The highest capitalist, with a capital of PHP 9,000.00, will have an additional PHP 856.80 at the end of the year (if today was the end of the year, or December 10 in our reckoning). [Note: The amount of points would actually increase if there is fresh capital infused into the system, while the income would only increase if there are additional loans, so the actual return per point may decrease.]

I realized from the seminar that Congress had just passed last February 17, 2009 a new Cooperative Code of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 9520. (The law is so new that LawPhil.net does not have it yet in its database.)

The person who conducted the seminar provided the following cooperative principles:
1. Voluntary and open membership
2. Democratic member control: secret balloting, no proxy voting, no nomination/voting for absent members, 1 member 1 vote
3. Member economic participation
4. Autonomy and independence
5. Education, training and information
6. Cooperation among cooperatives
7. Concern for community