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Charitable Trusts Act 1957

Schemes in respect of charitable funds raised by voluntary contribution

45: Proceedings at meetings

You could also call this:

“How charity meetings work and how decisions are made”

When you have a meeting about a charity fund, here’s how it works:

You’ll have a group of three people to decide who can vote. One person sets up the meeting, and the other two are chosen by the people at the meeting who say they’ve given money to the fund.

If you can’t come to the meeting, you can still vote by sending a letter to the person who set it up.

The group will make a list of everyone who can vote. They might add more names to the list during the meeting if more people show they’ve given money.

You’ll choose someone to be in charge of the meeting. This person gets to vote twice if there’s a tie.

If someone wants to suggest a different idea for the charity fund, they need to tell everyone before the meeting. When it’s time to vote, you’ll vote on all the ideas at once. The idea with the most votes wins.

You can also suggest combining different ideas at the meeting. Everyone can vote on these mixed ideas too.

If someone has a brand new idea that no one knew about before, you can’t vote on it right away. Instead, you might decide to have another meeting in at least 10 days.

If you do have another meeting, the person with the new idea needs to tell everyone about it at least 3 days before. They do this by putting an ad in the same newspaper as before.

At the second meeting, you’ll vote on all the ideas that everyone knows about. The one that gets the most votes is the winner.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM309976.

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44: Subsequent advertisement or notice of other newly proposed purpose, or

"Telling people about new ideas for using charity money before a meeting"

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46: Scheme committee, or

"Contributors choose a group to create a plan for the trust's new purpose"

Part 4 Schemes in respect of charitable funds raised by voluntary contribution

45Proceedings at meetings

  1. The proceedings at the meeting held pursuant to the advertisement or notice shall be conducted in the following manner, that is to say:

  2. the convener, together with any 2 other persons present claiming to be contributors then and there chosen by a majority of the persons present and claiming to be contributors, shall form a claim committee for determining the claims of persons to vote as contributors:
    1. contributors who by letter addressed to the convener establish their claim to the satisfaction of the claim committee may vote by proxy:
      1. the claims to vote at the meeting having been determined, a list shall be made by the claim committee of the voting contributors, to which may be added by that committee the names of any persons who establish their claims before the conclusion of the proceedings:
        1. the contributors shall choose a chairman, who shall have an original and a casting vote:
          1. if any contributor has, by advertisement or notice published or given under section 44, intimated that he will propose a purpose or proposal different from that contained in the advertisement or notice of the convener, the vote of the meeting shall be taken on all the purposes or proposals at once, and that purpose or proposal shall be declared to be adopted for which the greatest number of votes is given:
            1. any contributor may propose at the meeting that the purpose to which the money shall be applied and the proposal for extending or varying the powers of the trustees or of prescribing or varying the mode of administering the trust shall be one combined of all or any of the following, namely, the existing purpose and the purposes and proposals notified or advertised or any portions thereof, and the meeting may take the same into consideration and vote thereupon at the same time as upon the notified or advertised purposes and proposals:
              1. if any contributor present at the meeting proposes some other purpose or proposal which has not been duly advertised or notified and to which paragraph (f) does not apply, that purpose or proposal shall not be voted on at the meeting, but the meeting may, if it thinks fit, abstain from voting on the advertised or notified or proposed purposes and proposals and adjourn to a future day not less than 10 days thereafter:
                1. the proposer of the other purpose or proposal referred to in paragraph (g) shall, not less than 3 days before the day to which the meeting is adjourned, by advertisement published in the newspaper or newspapers in which the original advertisement was published or by like notice, intimate the specific character of the purpose or proposal which he intends to propose at the resumed meeting:
                  1. at the resumed meeting all the purposes and proposals which have been duly notified or advertised or proposed shall be put together to the vote, and that purpose or proposal shall be declared to be adopted for which the greatest number of votes is then given.

                    Compare
                    • 1908 No 164 s 37