That’s kind of what I’m thinking. As for deposits, I think there would need to be an agreement that part of membership dues goes toward maintenance and schedulable repairs like replacing wear parts, as well as a pool for mitigating catastrophic damage to equipment. I’m not sure how I would determine “fault” for a piece that broke in someone’s field, that seems like getting into insurance territory and I really don’t want to model a coop off an insurance company. But I’m stumped as to what the alternative is.

The thing about dangerous equipment certification is, and this is something I grit my teeth at, that it really does need to have some kind of large institutional if not government oversight. I take safety… pretty seriously, and I don’t trust me to make the call on whether or not someone can safely operate a machine. That’s why I don’t let other people operate my tractor. I don’t really know how that works in larger ag communities, but in my experience it’s just farmers letting farmers borrow tools off the books, and any damages are handled case-by-case. I know deaths and injuries happen because of this but I’ve never dealt with them firsthand, thankfully. I would love to have the means of producing accurate, helpful safety training material. Based on the farmers I’ve met, we could use it, though I don’t know if most of us would. A lot of farmers take pride in their risk-taking, which I do sympathize with, though I think most farmers are pretty bad at some kinds of risk assessment and a lot of the living ones are coasting on luck.