Why do we need members?

Members are important 

It is essential you know why your co-operative or community business has members and ensure your membership strategy supports that objective. Members are important because:

• Co-operatives are owned and controlled by their members.
• Co-operatives primarily exist to meet the needs of their members. 

Who can be a member?

• Members can be workers, customers, suppliers, residents, members of the community, other self-employed people or a combination of all of these (known as multi-stakeholder co-ops).
• Your governing documents should be clear about your purpose and define who is eligible to be a member.
• Your governing document, and your membership strategy should provide guidance on who you should target for membership recruitment.

Why do co-ops have members?

All co-ops need members to govern and run the co-op. But, in line with your mission, you may have members for other reason, including to:

• Generate income.
• Create a potential volunteer pool.
• Gain political influence.
• Build a customer base for products and services.
• Generate and share work.
• Ensure greater community support for your group/organisation - the more different types of people you have involved, the more representative it is of your target community.
• Bring skills and experience to benefit the organisation.
• Deliver more work as an organisation.
• Gather different ideas and opinions, leading to better decision-making.