The duties and commitments required of co-operative members vary from co-operative to co-operative, but they include exercising voting rights, participating in meetings, using the co-operative's services, providing capital and, in some cases, where members' liabilities are not limited by law or design, sharing losses if necessary.

Membership responsibilities require constant emphasis, but they should be borne by members freely and willingly. For example, an agricultural co-operative may require that members enter into exclusive use contracts in which members are obliged to market crops, to buy inputs from the co-operative and to use its farming machinery. These user responsibilities strengthen competitiveness of co-operatives by generating market power. Co-operatives will be required to comply with national anti-trust and competition laws but such laws which restrict the competitiveness of co-operatives can themselves distort the freedom of markets. (2)

Some co-operatives have experience of members who want to be members and share the benefits of membership when market conditions are bad, but who are not willing to accept the responsibilities of participating as members when the market for their goods and services is good.3 Such members may reasonably be excluded or expelled from membership because, by their actions, they have shown that they are not willing to accept the responsibilities of membership.