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KFU Urgent Participation in CHS Producer Survey
Kansas Ag Connection - 02/09/2016

Kansas Farmers Union reminded farmers that, if they are a producer-member of a co-op doing business with CHS and they want to keep the CHS board as producer-governed, they need to complete an online survey that CHS has presented to its membership.

At the CHS 2015 annual meeting, the Articles and Bylaws vote was postponed indefinitely as presented. One factor for the postponement was the membership was not given adequate time to provide input on the issues.

The proposed amendments to the CHS' Articles and Bylaws recommended for approval by the CHS Board of Directors were:

-- Modify the CHS membership definition to remove the requirement that cooperative members be producer-only cooperatives. Today, cooperatives doing business with CHS may have non-producer members, and some may have non-producers serving on the cooperative's board. These arrangements are not consistent with the current producer-only membership requirement.

-- Give the Board of Directors the flexibility to approve non-member patronage arrangements by permitting the Board to establish policies for these arrangements rather than having to include the rules for those arrangements in the Bylaws.

-- Remove obsolete references to the former Cenex, Inc.; Cenex Supply and Marketing Division, and the Company's Defined Business Unit/Member program.

"Now is our time to provide the board and leadership the input that we asked for," KFU leaders said to farmers in an email to members Monday. It advised farmers to follow this link to complete the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3ZBSLYT

"We feel there are solutions to the governance and patronage issues other than giving the Board of Directors complete freedom to approve non-producer membership and patronage," KRU wrote to its members.

For example, KFU offered one solution to establish a clear and concise membership agreement. A signed agreement will hold co-ops accountable in how local co-ops are governed and their membership status with CHS.

"CHS leadership needs to hear that farmer-only governance is non-negotiable as the co-op continues to grow," KFU leaders wrote. "As co-op members, we have an opportunity to influence the direction of the co-op that we helped build."

The survey closes on Feb. 15.

KFU members were also advised that they could contact their local cooperative leadership to express their concerns regarding this issue.


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