ARTICLE X

Financial Transactions

SECTION 1. Contracts
Except as otherwise provided in these Bylaws, the Board may authorize any officer or officers, agent or agents to enter into any contract or execute and deliver any instrument in the name and on behalf of the Cooperative, and such authority may be general or confined to specific instances. However, the highest amount of indebt-edness to which the Cooperative shall at any time be subject is $460,000,000.00.

SECTION 2. Checks, Drafts, etc.
All checks, drafts or other orders for the payment of money, and all notes, bonds or other evidences of indebtedness issued in the name of the Cooperative, shall be signed by such officer or officers, agent or agents, employee or employees, of the Coop-erative and in such manner as shall from time to time be determined by resolution of the Board. Facsimile signatures may, upon authorization by the Board, be utilized.

SECTION 3. Fiscal Year
The fiscal year of the Cooperative shall begin on the first day of January of each year and end on the thirty-first day of December of the same year.