Members urged to attend merger informational meetings and return ballots by Dec. 18
Farmers Cooperative Company (FC) and West Central® Cooperative on Friday mailed ballot packets to each organization’s voting membership. The ballot packets, which are 9×12 white envelopes with each respective cooperative’s logo, should arrive before Thanksgiving.
Members are invited to attend one of 20 informational meetings hosted jointly by FC chief executive officer Jim Chism and West Central chief executive officer Milan Kucerak. Members may register for a meeting online at wccgrow15.com or fcgrow15.com or by calling their cooperative location.
Members are asked to review the information in the packet, mark YES (in favor of the merger) or NO (not in favor of the merger), sign the ballot, place one ballot in one official business-reply, postage-paid envelope, and return it.
Votes may be cast by
- Mail—Needs to be received by the auditors by noon on Dec. 18
- Delivering to an auditor at one of the informational meetings—Nov. 30–Dec. 11
- Placing in a designated lock box at a FC or West Central location by Dec. 17 at 5 pm
- Or, attending the special meeting on Dec. 18, obtaining a new ballot, and voting.
The FC and West Central® Cooperative boards of directors on Nov. 3 voted unanimously to take a merger recommendation to a membership vote. For a merger, Iowa law requires 50 percent plus one of each membership to vote, with two-thirds of those votes cast to favor the proposal.
The votes will be counted at a special meeting slated for Dec. 18, 2015.
