The Dairy Queen Operators' Cooperative (DQOC) is a for profit company. The DQOC is a membership cooperative, and membership is achieved by paying dues annually to become a member of the DQOA. The membership basis is the calendar year.

All Dairy Queen franchisees are eligible purchasers of the DQOC products and will qualify for patronage dividends, if the franchisee joins the DQOA before a certain date (September 1) of that year. They then qualify for purchaser patronage dividends for that year. Further qualification requires only product purchases of DQOC endorsed or privately labeled products from DQOC authorized warehouses.

DQOC endorsed products are IDQ approved products and have met the standards and specifications set forth by ADQ. These products provide the franchisee with an alternate source and provide a competitive price market, which ultimately favorably affects your bottom line. Purchases of DQOC products enable the competitive edge to exist.

Patronage dividends are created from earnings from DQOC manufacturers for sales, marketing or volumetric allowances. These are paid to the DQOC quarterly or annually as the case may be. All proceeds are pooled by product, i.e. "topping", and manufacturer, i.e. "Lyons-Magnus". An administrative charge to the pools will be assessed by our Directors against all pools for operating expenses and the remainder paid to each participating "member" or "sponsor" based upon their individual store dollar purchases against that product pool.

Example: Member "A" purchases CROWN SELECT Toppings and French Fries. That store will share the earnings from the Toppings and French Fry pool, but will not receive anything from other product pools (i.e., hamburgers, etc.).

Each "member" or "sponsor" will receive 1) an audited statement of the DQOC; 2) a statement of their individual account; 3) a check for any dollars earned in the preceding year. These will be prepared and delivered by mail prior to April 15 of each year.

Member patronage dividends are a small reward to DQOA membership. The most important benefit is the opportunity to have competitive pricing in the market place as well as a voice of many franchisees over issues that concern the DQ operators.