West River Cooperative Telephone Company

Company Information
History of WRCTC
History of SD Plains
History of WestNet DSL
What is a Cooperative?
Employment Opportunities
Directors / Employees

What is a Cooperative?

There are two types of cooperatives, consumer and product. Product cooperatives sells goods or services from its producer to consumers. Thus they operate for their own benefit. Consumer cooperative businesses are special because they are owned by the consumers they serve. West River Cooperative Telephone Company (WRCTC) is a consumer Cooperative.

In general a "cooperative" is a voluntary, contractual organization of people having a mutual ownership interest in providing themselves a service on a not-for-profit basis. WRCTC is a not-for-profit cooperative, owned by its members. To assure that the cooperative has adequate monies to operate on an ongoing basis, money paid by the members that is not needed to pay expenses is retained by the cooperative as operating capital for a period of time. At the end of each year, the cooperative Board of Directors and staff reviews the amount of money left after expenses and allocates that money back to every member. This allocation is based on how much each member spent with the cooperative during the year. A separate account is kept for each member which lists the capital credits that have been allocated to them. As the financial condition of the cooperative allows, a check is sent to each member paying them part of their capital credits.

WRCTC Members

Any person, firm, association, corporation or subdivision will become a member of WRCTC before they receive telecommunication service. All members have to be accepted by the Board of Directors. A written application for membership agreeing to purchase telecommunication services from the cooperative must be signed prior to receiving services.

A husband and wife may apply for a joint membership. Although this is a joint membership, only one vote at Special Meetings and the Annual Meeting is allowed per membership. So, either the husband or wife can do the voting, both do not have to be present and both are not allowed to vote. As a member, your vote at the Annual Meeting will determine the election of directors, approve reports for the previous fiscal year and transact any other business that may come before the meeting.