Co-operatives are member owned societies. A consumer co-operative like the Silverdale Society had the ordinary people who shopped at the society as its members. Initially these members would have been the one who founded the society - usually a group of people in a local factory or industry with a common purpose.
New members were allowed to join on the same basis as the original members and had the same rights and privileges. To be a member they had to deposit £1 into their share account. (this is still true today but clearly £1 was a lot more money in the mid-victorian era). As many of these societies were founded in very poor areas this 'shae account' became often their only bank account.
The big difference between a co-operative and a traditional 'company' way of running a business was that each member only had one vote regardless of how much they had in their share account. They also encouraged women as well as men to become active in their society.
In the early days members would elect a 'managing committee' to run their co-operative. The committe would be elected regularly at a meeting of the members. From the elected officials they would then select various officers to run the society. Again in the early days these would be volunteers, often with little or no experience of running a shop or business of any kind. Many societies, despite this, became remarkably successful. These men and women were the equivalent of today's entrepreneurs!
As the society became larger they often started to appoint full time staff to run their society. This created two types of 'managers'. Elected officers (Chair of the board etc) and Officers (paid officials)
The Board or Managing Committee
These varied in size but were often between 10 and twenty committee members. they would have a number of sub committees. The most important was the Education Committee This was responsible for educating members, their partners and their children, especially in the co-operative ideal. The chair of the board was often known as the President. he or She was the most important person in the society. Training board members didn't start until much later in the movement's history when their own college was established, the Co-operative College.
Officers
The main officer was the Chief Executive or manger in smaller societies. She or he was responsible for the day to day running of the society. Other officers included the Secretary (equivalent to a company secretary) or finance officer. The silverdale society had a join Managing Secretary which combined both roles.
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