COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURE IN FLORIDA 39

 CHAPTER III

 Organizing and Incorporating

 The first thing that one, who is called upon to form
an agricultural cooperative association, should ascertam
is whether there is an actual need for the association.
Make sure that proper investigations have been made
to determine if an association has a reasonable chance
of being a success.
 Agricultural cooperative associations have been or-
ganized, and plants and equipment have been purchased.
where the volume of the commodity to be handled could
not possibly enable the association to operate on an effi-
cient basis. Many cooperatives have been organized
where the amount of farm products produced in the ter-
ritory, if it were all delivered to the cooperative, would
not be enough to enable it to operate efficiently. Unless
there is a distinct economic need for an association, and
unless an association will have an adequate volume of
business, it should not be organized. No one should have
his name identified with a failure if it can be reasonably
avoided.
 A point that is frequently overlooked is the fact that
a cooperative association has overhead and operating
expenses similar to those of any ordinary corporation in
the same type of business. If the association is not able
to function efficiently and economically, benefits cannot
accrue to the farmers from its operation.

START WITH INFORMATION MEETING:
 In the formation of a cooperative association, meet-
ings are usually held for the purpose of ascertaining the
views of the farmers concerned. Meetings afford a means
of finding out how deeply interested the farmers are in
forming an association. Through meetings, those initi-
ating an association may obtain information that will
help them in making further plans.