Source: http://www.workercooplaw.org/maine/
Timestamp: 2018-02-23 04:26:14
Document Index: 373450740

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 2', '§ 1971', '§ 1973', '§ 1974', '§ 1975', '§ 1976', '§ 1977', '§ 1978', '§ 1979', '§ 1980', '§ 1981', '§ 1982', '§ 1983', '§ 1984']

Maine — Worker Cooperative Law Project
Part 2. Corporations Without Capital Stock Chapter 85. Cooperatives
Subchapter 3. Employee Cooperative Corporations
§ 1971. Title
This subchapter shall be known and may be cited as the “Employee Cooperative Corporations Act.”
1. Employee cooperative. “Employee cooperative” means a corporation which has duly elected to be governed by this subchapter.
2. Member. “Member” means a natural person who has been accepted for membership in and owns a membership share issued by an employee cooperative.
3. Membership fee. “Membership fee” means an initial payment made by a person to an employee cooperative as a condition to becoming a member.
4. Patronage. “Patronage” means the amount of work performed as a member of an employee cooperative, measured in accordance with the articles of incorporation or bylaws.
5. Written notice of allocation. “Written notice of allocation” means a written instrument which discloses to a member the stated dollar amount of that member's patronage allocation and the terms for payment of that amount by the employee cooperative.
§ 1973. Application of other laws
Except as otherwise provided in this subchapter, employee cooperative corporations are governed by Title 13-C, the Maine Business Corporation Act.
§ 1974. Registration of securities
Employee cooperatives are subject to Title 32, chapter 13. The fee charged for registration or renewal shall be $10.
§ 1975. Formation of employee cooperative corporation; revocation
1. Election. Any corporation organized under former Title 13-A or Title 13-C may elect to be governed as an employee cooperative under this subchapter, by so stating in its articles of incorporation or articles of amendment filed in accordance with Title 13-C.
2. Revocation. An employee cooperative may revoke its election under this subchapter by a vote of # of the members and through articles of amendment duly filed in accordance with Title 13-C.
§ 1976. Use of words “cooperative,” “co-op”
No person, firm, corporation or association, domestic or foreign, hereafter commencing business in this State may use the word “cooperative” or “co-op” as a part of its corporate name, unless it has complied with this subchapter or some other statute of this State relating to cooperative associations. A foreign association organized under and complying with the cooperative law of the state of its creation shall be entitled to use the term “cooperative” or “co-op” in this State if it has obtained the privilege of doing business in this State.
§ 1977. Membership in employee cooperative corporation
The articles of incorporation or the bylaws shall establish qualifications and the methods of acceptance and termination of members. No person may be accepted as a member unless employed by the employee cooperative on a full-time or part-time basis.
§ 1978. Membership shares; fees
1. Issuance of shares. An employee cooperative shall issue a class of voting stock designated as membership shares.
2. Payment. Each member of an employee cooperative corporation must be issued a membership share upon payment of a membership fee, the amount of which must be determined from time to time by the directors. Title 13-C, section 621 does not apply to membership shares.
3. Ownership limited. Each member shall own only one membership share, and only members may own those shares.
4. Voting stock limited. Unless otherwise provided in this subchapter or in the articles of incorporation of an employee cooperative, no other capital stock other than membership shares may have voting power. In the event that proposed amendments to the articles of incorporation would adversely affect any nonvoting class of shareholders, such action may not be taken without the vote of those shareholders, as provided in Title 13-C, sections 1003 and 1004.
§ 1979. Amendment of bylaws
The bylaws of an employee cooperative may only be amended by members, except as provided in Title 13-C, section 207.
§ 1980. Earnings or losses
1. Apportionment. The net earnings or losses of an employee cooperative shall be apportioned and distributed at such times and in such manner as the articles of organization or bylaws shall specify. Net earnings declared as patronage allocations with respect to a period of time, and paid or credited to members, shall be apportioned among the members in accordance with the ratio which each member's patronage during the period involved bears to total patronage by all members during that period.
2. Method. The apportionment, distribution and payment of net earnings required by this section may be in cash, credits, written notices of allocation or capital stock issued by the employee cooperative.
§ 1981. Accounting for earnings or losses
§ 1982. Internal capital account cooperatives
2. Allocation to accounts. An internal capital account cooperative shall credit the paid-in membership fee and additional paid- in capital of a member to the member's internal capital account, and shall also record the apportionment of retained net earnings or net losses to the members in accordance with patronage by appropriately crediting or debiting the internal capital accounts of members. The collective reserve account in an internal capital account cooperative shall reflect any paid-in capital, net losses and retained earnings not allocated to individual members.
§ 1983. Revocation of election as employee cooperative corporation
When any employee cooperative revokes its election in accordance with section 1975, the articles of amendment must provide for conversion of membership shares and internal capital accounts or their conversions to securities or other property in a manner consistent with Title 13-C.
§ 1984. Mergers
An employee cooperative that has not revoked its election under this subchapter may not consolidate or merge with another corporation other than an employee cooperative. Two or more employee cooperatives may consolidate or merge in accordance with Title 13-C, chapter 11.