The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2025 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
Subchapter
003
:
CORPORATORS AND MEMBERS
(Cite as: 8 V.S.A. § 13302)
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§ 13302. Members of a cooperative financial institution; qualifications and voting rights
(a) The members of a cooperative financial institution organized pursuant to this chapter
shall be those in whose names accounts are established and persons borrowing from
or assuming or obligated upon a loan held by such institution or purchasing property
and assuming the secured loan held by such institution.
(b) A single membership in a cooperative financial institution may be held by two or more
persons, and a joint and survivorship relationship and successor relationship, whether
investors or borrowers, constitutes a single membership.
(c) Each member 18 years of age or over is entitled to one vote at any meeting of the
cooperative financial institution, regardless of the number of accounts standing in
that member’s name, provided that only one vote is allowed on an account held by two
or more persons. The internal governance documents may prohibit voting by persons
who have become members within six months of the date when the vote is cast. When
accounts or shares are pledged, the pledgor may vote the accounts or shares so pledged.
(d) Profits and losses shall be distributed at least annually among the members. On each
annual closing day after payment or provision for all expenses and appropriate transfers
to reserves, the remainder of net earnings for the annual period shall be credited
to an undivided profits account. At each annual period, the governing body shall declare
a distribution of earnings. Dividends may also be declared monthly or quarterly. Interim
dividends may be paid at the rate most recently declared by the governing body. Payments
of net earnings to members may be referred to as dividends or interest.
(e) Membership terminates when the amount of a member’s accounts has been paid in full
to that member, or when the transfer of membership to other persons has been recorded
on the books of the financial institution, or when that member’s status as a borrower
from the institution terminates. (Added 1999, No. 153 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. Jan. 1, 2001.)