Beautiful Plains Credit Union established a Member Equity Plan in 1995 to provide members with an opportunity to share in the earnings of the credit union. Patronage allocations are determined at the end of each year by the board of directors based on the earnings of Beautiful Plains Credit Union during the past year and then distributed to the members based on the amount of qualifying business done with the credit union. Since the Member Equity Plan started in 1995, more than $1,500,000 has been distributed to our members. Our 2003 patronage allocation was set at $140,000 and distributed to members in April 2004 in the form of surplus shares.