Talk:General meetings

Help text from Constitution Builder

Procedures for all general meetings (mandatory section)

The Act requires a society's constitution to set out the procedures for calling and holding general meetings. This includes:

• the intervals between annual general meetings,
• the information that must be presented at general meetings,
• when minutes are required to be kept,
• the manner of calling general meetings,
• how much notice will be given to members,
• the information to be given to members at a general meeting, and
• the quorum and procedures (including voting procedures).

Some other points of note:

• A meeting without a quorum (the minimum number of members required to be present during a meeting) cannot legally make decisions, so you should specify the minimum number of members required to form a quorum in the constitution. If it is not spelt out, the quorum will be deemed to be a majority (more than half) of the society's members.
• A member represented by a proxy is not included when counting the number required to form a quorum, unless the constitution specifically states that proxies are included when calculating whether a quorum is present.

You can choose to include under this rule —

• a provision intended to make it easier for societies with members in remote locations to involve themselves in general meetings,
• a provision stating who should chair a general meeting in different circumstances, and
• a provision setting out useful powers for the chairperson of a general meeting to have.

The last 2 options distinguish between a 'committee motion' and a 'member's motion', with potentially different notice periods for each.

Minutes (mandatory section)

The Act specifically requires societies to keep minutes of annual general meetings, but minutes of all General Meetings should be kept.

It should also be noted that a society is required by the Act to provide on a member's written request "the minutes of the most recent general meeting of the society."