Q.Who is the Chief Promoter of a proposed co-operative society? Explain the functions he performs during the promotion stage.

The Chief Promoter is the person who actually drives the formation of the society through to registration, acting for the whole group before the Registrar.

The Chief Promoter is the leading figure in the promotion or preliminary stage of forming a co-operative society. When a group of prospective members holds its first meeting to resolve to form a society, it elects one of its members as the Chief Promoter and passes a resolution authorising him to carry out all the formalities of registration on the group's behalf. Until the society is actually registered and its managing committee elected, the Chief Promoter is effectively the representative of the whole group before the Registrar and the outside world. His role is therefore both one of leadership and of responsibility, since the eventual registration depends on the accuracy and honesty of the work he does.

His functions during this stage are practical and quite specific. First, he reserves the proposed name of the society with the Registrar, so that the society can go forward under a name that is not already taken by, or deceptively similar to, an existing society. Second, he opens a bank account in the name of the proposed society and collects from the prospective members their share money and entrance fees, depositing these amounts in that account. This is important because it gives the society a genuine capital base from the outset and provides the bank certificate the Registrar will require as proof that the capital has actually been collected. Third, he arranges for the drafting of the society's bye-laws, usually by adopting and adapting the model bye-laws approved for that class of society, so that the rulebook submitted for registration is both suitable and lawful. …