The straight line

January is the month that 1099’s are prepared and distributed. As a cooperative, the form 1099 PATR is used to report information to your patrons. The following are items typically associated with cooperatives and should be reported as described:

In the early days of cooperatives, the normal practice was to operate at break-even, and if you made a profit, the member business portion of that profit was allocated back to members. Little, if any, was retained. But if you ask a banker today, he’ll say, “you can never have enough retained savings.” There has to be a happy medium.

Beginning in fiscal year ending June 30, 2011, governments are required to separately identify amounts that are non-spendable. All other amounts will be classified according to resource constraints. The new classifications are as follows:

With the quick build-up over the past few years of retained earnings, we anticipate seeing more time spent in the board room or board retreats addressing the member’s equity mix of the cooperative’s balance sheet.

Build, build, build! Many clients spent substantial dollars for fixed asset additions, primarily grain and liquid fertilizer storage facilities. It appears these additions have been good investments.

For the past 46 years, Dan Gardiner has managed his own firm, and we have all truly benefited from his leadership. But 46 years is quite a while, so Dan has decided to start keeping limited office hours. He recently announced that effective January 1, 2011, he is stepping down in his role as managing partner of Gardiner Thomsen.