People meeting the age and citizenship requirement may organize a cooperative, but the articles must be filed, approved, and paid for before filing and effectiveness steps occur.
1. Any two or more persons of full age, a majority of whom are citizens of the state, may organize themselves for the following or similar purposes: Ownership of residential, business property on a cooperative basis. A corporation or limited liability company is a person within the meaning of this chapter. The organizers shall adopt, and sign and acknowledge the articles of incorporation, stating the name by which the cooperative shall be known, the location of its principal place of business, its business or objects, the number of directors to conduct the cooperative’s business or objects, the names of the directors for the first year, the time of the cooperative’s annual meeting, the time of the annual meeting of its directors, and the manner in which the articles may be amended. The articles of incorporation shall be filed with the secretary of state who shall, if the secretary approves the articles, endorse the secretary of state’s approval on the articles, record the articles, and forward the articles to the county recorder of the county where the principal place of business is to be located, and there the articles shall be recorded, and upon recording be returned to the cooperative. The articles shall not be filed by the secretary of state until a filing fee of five dollars together with a recording fee of fifty cents per page is paid, and upon the payment of the fees and the approval of the articles by the secretary of state, the secretary shall issue to the cooperative a certificate of incorporation as a cooperative not for pecuniary profit. The county recorder shall collect recording fees pursuant to section 331.604 for articles forwarded for recording under this section. 2. Amendments to the articles shall be filed and receive approval as provided in this chapter for articles, and the fee for amendments shall be five dollars in each instance. An amendment is not effective until the amendment is approved and the fee is paid. [C50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499A.1] 91 Acts, ch 30, §1; 2009 Acts, ch 27, §27; 2014 Acts, ch 1095, §1, 6