The Harvard Cooperative Society will give its members a chance to vote on by-law revisions designed to democratize the Coop's election procedures. The Coop's directors will mail the proposed changes to all current members for approval next month.

The amendments include:

Giving students half of the stockholder and board of director posts;

Eliminating the annual membership meeting in favor of a general election by mail with proportional representation;

Permitting a member to run for the board of directors if he can muster a petion with 100 members' signatures.

15,000 Needed

If a majority of at least one quarter-about 15,000-of the Coop's members support the changes, a new election system will go into effect in mid-November. Coop president Milton P. Brown '40, Lincoln Filene Professor of Retailing, said yesterday.

Brown said the changes had been suggested after last year's annual October membership meeting when, for the first time, members made a serious attempt to defeat a slate of directors nominated by the Coop's stockholders. The bid to elect an alternate slate failed to draw the necessary quorum of five per cent of the 60,000 student and faculty members at Harvard, M. I. T. and the Episcopal Theological School to the meeting at Rindge Tech.

'Disturbed'

After the meeting Brown appointed a committee to study election procedures. We were disturbed not only that as small a group as 1.25 per cent of the Coop's 60,000 members could conceivably assume control of the company, but also that under the present 'winner-take-all' system over a thousand members had gotten no representation." Brown said.

The By-laws Revision Committee studied the problem for a year. Last Monday the Committee submitted its proposal to the stockholders, who approved it. Normally the stockholders ten men who nominally hold the Coop stock in trust-have the power to change the by-laws themselves, but any amendment which alters the relationship between management and the members must also be ap-proval by a favorable majority of at least 25 per cent of the members.

The Details

The following is a detailed outline of the proposed amendments:

Changing the make-up of the stockholders from ten officers or alumni to five students and five non-students(alumni, officers, and employees). The stockholders would continue to be self-replenishing. The non-student stockholders would continue to serve two-year terms and to select replacements when vacancies arise.

The five student stockholders would be composed of one Harvard undergraduate, two Harvard grad students, one M. I. T. undergraduate, and one M. I. T. grad student. They would serve for no set term, and would step down when they no longer held the same student status. The remaining students would fill the vacancies after consulting deans and student leaders.

A realignment of the Board of Directors to provide more student representation. The 23-man board now consists of nine students and 13 non-students. The new board would include 11 students and 11 non-students, with the general manager continuing as the twenty-third director in an essentially ex officio capacity.

New Mechanism

The stockholders will continue to make the initial nominations for the directors, but a mechanism for additional nominations will be provided. If the stockholders' nominations go uncontested, their slate would automatically take office. However, if a student wished to run for the board, he simply would have to collect the signatures of 100 members on a petition to have his name appear on the ballot.

Extending voting eligibility to all 60,000 members rather than to the 30,000 current student and officer members. Under the amendment students would vote solely for the eleven student slots and non-students for the other eleven. The student election could be contested while the non-student slate might not. For purposes of election students would be defined as any member presently enrolled as a degree candidate of the member institutions.