Approved 5-8-2023

The purpose of this text is to establish a procedure to revolve out abandoned equity (e.g., Member-Owners with no current address on file and/or who have failed to comply with Member-Owner credit policies). Implementation of this procedure is subject to the Finland Co-op continuing to achieve its annual goals for number of new Members, amount of new equity and net profitability.

1) Educate and Involve Our Member-Owners

Advise Member-Owners through the local paper of record and through Co-op’s website that the Board will annually consider authorizing a minimum of $3,000.00 of the oldest abandoned equity, net after any indebtedness due to Finland Co-op, be returned to Member-Owners, provided a current address is provided by a specific date OR, if no current address is provided in a timely manner, that amount will be donated to the Finland Cooperative Community Fund through the following process:

1. Mailing each member to their last known address a notice advising each of those inactive Member-Owners to advise Finland Co-op of his/her current address within 60 days OR his/her abandoned equity will be donated to the Finland Cooperative Community Fund.
2. Annually posting in the local paper of record for at least two weeks the names of Member-Owners (to the limit prescribed in 1a. above) with abandoned equity (but not the amount of that equity) along with a notice advising each of those inactive Member-Owners to advise Finland Co-op of his/her current address within 60 days OR his/her abandoned equity will be donated to the Finland Cooperative Community Fund.
3. Annual posting and mailing should happen by July 1st of each year.

2) Prepare an annual report for the MN Department of Commerce using the linked guide as a resource. Report must be submitted by November 1st of each year.  https://mn.gov/commerce-stat/pdfs/2022-holder-reporting-guide-kaps.pdf 

3) Pay the funds that are not claimed by the deadline to the Finland Cooperative Community Fund.