Representative meeting

(1) At cooperatives with more than 1,500 members, the statutes may determine that the general meeting consists of representatives of the members (representative meeting). The statutes may also determine that particular resolutions remain reserved to the general meeting. The point in time decisive for ascertaining the number of members is, for each business year, the end of the preceding business year.
(2) Any natural person with unlimited capacity to contract who is a member of the cooperative and does not belong to the management board or the supervisory board may be elected as a representative. Where a member of the cooperative is a legal person or a partnership, a natural person entitled to represent it may be elected as a representative.
(3) The representative meeting consists of at least 50 representatives elected by the members of the cooperative. The representatives may not be represented by proxy holders. Plural voting rights may not be granted to them.
(4) The representatives are elected in a general, direct, equal and secret election; plural voting rights remain unaffected. For the representation of members at the election, section 43(4) and (5) applies correspondingly. No representative may be elected for longer than until the conclusion of the representative meeting that resolves on the discharge of the members of the management board and the supervisory board for the fourth business year after the beginning of the term of office. The business year in which the term of office begins is not counted. The statutes must determine 1. the number of members per representative; 2. the term of office of the representatives. A number of 150 members always suffices to submit a nomination proposal. Further provisions on the electoral procedure, including the ascertainment of the election result, may be laid down in electoral rules issued by the management board and the supervisory board on the basis of concurring resolutions. These require the consent of the general meeting.
(5) Where a representative falls away before expiry of the term of office, a substitute representative must take his or her place. His or her term of office lapses at the latest on expiry of the term of office of the representative who fell away. The provisions applicable to the representative apply to the election of the substitute representative.
(6) A list with the names and the addresses, telephone numbers or email addresses of the elected representatives and substitute representatives must be laid out for inspection by the members for at least two weeks in the business premises of the cooperative and its branch offices, or made accessible on the cooperative's website until the end of the term of office of the representatives. The laying out or the accessibility on the internet is to be published in a public gazette. The period for the laying out or making accessible begins with the publication. Every member may at any time demand a copy of the list of representatives and substitute representatives; the publication under the second sentence must draw attention to this.
(7) The general meeting must be convened without delay to resolve on the abolition of the representative meeting, where this is applied for in text form by at least one-tenth of the members, or by the lesser part determined for this purpose in the statutes. Section 45(3) applies correspondingly.