Structure of Cooperatives
A cooperative is based on democracy . All cooperative members are its owners; but not all of them can administer a cooperative. Therefore, they have to elect, among themselves, a board of directors to carry on the administration on their behalf. According to the Cooperatives Act, B.E. 2542, a board of directors comprises not more than 15 directors, being authorized to execute all the affairs and representing the cooperative for the affairs related to the third parties.
In order for a cooperative to carry on its affairs extensively and serve all or most of all its members, the board of directors employs a manager to carry out businesses of the cooperative. The manager, in turn, employs and supervises the cooperative employees to perform the day-to-day operations of the cooperative on the basis of an appropriate volume of businesses and economy.