Section 157B:11 - Net savings; apportionmentAt least once a year the board of every cooperative corporation shall, after first setting aside an adequate portion of the net savings in a reserve fund for the general operation of the business, apportion the remainder of the net savings in one or more of the following ways:
(1) as a dividend not to exceed ten per cent, noncumulative, upon one or more classes of stock;(2) as an equitable distribution or refund to all patrons in proportion to their individual patronage except that (a) in the case of a subscriber patron, the distribution or refund may be credited to the subscriber's account until the subscription has been fully paid, and (b) in the case of a nonmember patron, the amount otherwise distributable may be retained by the cooperative corporation;(3) this section does not prevent a cooperative corporation from disposing of the net savings by reducing the cost of goods, facilities or services or by applying such net savings otherwise for the common benefit of members;(4) this section does not prevent a cooperative corporation from adopting a system by which the payment of net savings are deferred for a fixed period of time, nor from adopting a system in which the net savings distributed are partly in cash and partly in stock.Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 157B, § 11