2023 New York Laws › CCO - Cooperative Corporations › Article 1 - Short Title; Policy; Definitions › 3 - Definitions.

§  3.  Definitions.  (a)  The  term  "agricultural  product" means any
product of cultivating land, and includes floricultural,  horticultural,
viticultural, forestry, nut, dairy, livestock, poultry, bee and any farm
products or by-products thereof.
(b) The  terms  "feed," "food," and "food products" mean any substance
capable of human, animal or poultry consumption, including all  articles
of drink, confectionery or condiment, whether simple, mixed or compound,
and all substances or ingredients added to food for any purpose.
(c) The    terms    "cooperative,"   "cooperative   association"   and
"cooperative  corporation"  mean  a  corporation  organized  under  this
chapter,  or  heretofore  organized  under any special or general law of
this state, for the cooperative rendering of mutual help and service  to
its  members.  A  cooperative  shall  be either a general cooperative, a
membership  cooperative,  an  agricultural  cooperative  as  defined  in
article  six  of  this  chapter  or  a  worker cooperative as defined in
section eighty-one of this chapter.
(d) A  cooperative  corporation  shall  be  classed  as  a  non-profit
corporation,  since its primary object is not to make profits for itself
as such, or to pay dividends on invested capital, but to provide service
and means whereby  its  members  may  have  the  economic  advantage  of
cooperative  action,  including  a  reasonable and fair return for their
product and service.
(e) The  term  "member"  means  the  holder  of  a  membership  in   a
cooperative,  whether  evidenced  by a certificate of membership or by a
certificate of stock or by other authorized means of identification. The
term includes a member association or corporation as  provided  in  this
chapter.
(f) The  term  "person"  includes  an  individual,  a  partnership,  a
corporation, an association, or two or more individuals acting together.
(g) The term "net margins" or "net retained proceeds" means the amount
by which the undistributed receipts from operations exceed the  expenses
thereof.
(h) The  term  "patron"  refers to persons, partnerships, associations
and corporations who transact business with the  cooperative  either  as
producers or purchasers, whether members or not.
(i) A  cooperative  corporation does not include any corporation which
is formed or may be formed under the banking law, the insurance law, the
railroad law or the transportation corporations law. Except as otherwise
expressly provided in this chapter, no cooperative corporation shall  do
any  business  for which a corporation may be formed under any such law;
but the  lawful  operations  of  a  cooperative  credit  corporation  as
authorized  in  this chapter shall not be deemed banking or violation of
any provisions of law as to banking.
(j) The  term  "cooperative,"  "cooperation"  or   any   abbreviation,
variation  or  similitude  thereof,  shall  not  be used as or in a name
except by  a  corporation  defined  in  this  chapter.  Any  cooperative
corporation may sue for an injunction against such prohibited use of the
term.  A violation of this prohibition is a misdemeanor, punishable by a
fine of not more than five hundred dollars.
(k) A membership cooperative is a non-stock cooperative  which  admits
only  natural persons to membership, which provides services only to its
members and which makes no distribution of net retained  proceeds  other
than to its members on the basis of their patronage.
(l) The  terms  "buying, selling or leasing homes for its members" and
"conducting housing" shall include but not be limited to,  the  purposes
and uses of residential facilities for the mentally disabled licensed by
the  office of mental health or the office for people with developmental
disabilities.