In 2009, we applied to the Financial Services Authority to become a 'sponsoring body' able to register new IPS co-operatives. That was so we could create a new standard format for co-operative rules - multistakeholder co-operatives, also known as 'Somerset Rules'.
These rules have certain advantages over existing model rules provided by Co-ops UK and others:
- they enable a co-operative enterprise to be 'shared' by more than one group of stakeholders - for example, a community supported agriculture scheme could be 50% controlled by producers, and 50% by consumers. Or a business could be 60% controlled by its workers, and 40% by the local community.
- they are designed to enable the widest range of options for financing your co-op by issuing shares to members, and to outside investors.
- they closely follow co-op principles - even those like education and sustainable development that are often not referred to in rulebooks.
- they are 'social accounting ready', so that future co-operators must evaluate their success at achieving the co-operative's stated mission.
We should say that in many cases - maybe most cases - the model rules that are already widely used are perfectly satisfactory. However, we think these new rules will open up new possibilities for co-operative enterprise.