Some friends and I are thinking of forming a SVO CO-OP. Any advice on how to form one and make it fair to everyone is appreciated.

I formed a large dentralized wvo fuel coop.
As with all large coops the majority of work fell on a few due to human nature. This eventually caused major managemtn problems...adn the majority of work fell upon me.

Then we decentralized. I developed small, simple, chep prefiltering units so it could be easily mounte don a trailer and moved from member to member. Each member either formed an agreement with one to three other memebers (they collect and one prefilters for all)..or used the units for a week or two each month..and passed it on in a small circle of one or two others doing their own collection AND prefilteirng/dewatering.

This works wonderfully and is much more efficient than a centralized prefiltering "fuel station".

We "meet" as a group only online now. And the meetings generlaly go on in a private forum on a conintuous and low intesity basis. When new concerns are raised all are quickly aware of them and can easily make suggestions on how to slove the "problem". No dues...just cooperation. Occasionally there are problems with newbies predating on wvo sources already "spoken for"..and the response so far is to gently direct them to areas as yet "untapped".

A new wvo based business has been formed by a former member that apears to be attempting to collect ALL of the available wvo in the area. There is always one A*****e who is only in it for the profit. This is our current "main concern" under discussion by the co-op.

We will probably just have to outbid him for what we would have been able to have for free for at least a few years more. <sigh> Some members have had more ...ummm..."physical" solution suggestions.

A loose..decentralized co-op seems to work much better for us. Kinda like most "farmers unions". We tend to pretty independent folks.

The organizational resemblence to the French resistance is merely coincidental. But most members are pretty paranoid about the Govt. "discovering us" and shutting us down.

So a dispersed and mobile infrastructure is probably best if that attempt is ever actaully made. The larger a coops facility is the more attention it draws..and the easier it is to consider it a "commercial" enterprise.

As far as I am concerned we are a group of "hobbyists".

Thanks for the info Dana.