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Building Societies Act 1965

Management and administration - Meetings and resolutions

78: Persons entitled to notice of meetings

You could also call this:

"Who gets told about society meetings and how"

If a society plans to propose a special resolution at a meeting, they must send a written notice to every member who can vote on it. This notice needs to say that they intend to propose a special resolution.

For other meetings, the society must send a written notice to all members. But there are some exceptions to this rule. You don't need to get a notice if you have less than $200 worth of shares in the society. Also, for some meetings about loans or investments in terminating societies, they can just put an advertisement instead of sending notices. Sometimes, they can publish the notice in big newspapers where members live, if they follow certain rules.

If you didn't have $200 worth of shares when the notices were sent out, you might not get one. For new societies, they look at how many shares you have when they send the notices. For older societies, they look at how many shares you had at the end of the last financial year.

Don't worry if you don't get a notice by accident or if it gets lost in the mail. This won't make the meeting invalid. The meeting can still go ahead and make decisions even if some people didn't get their notice.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM372009.

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Part 7Management and administration
Meetings and resolutions

78Persons entitled to notice of meetings

  1. Written notice of any meeting of a society which specifies the intention to propose a resolution as a special resolution at the meeting shall be sent to every member qualified to vote on a special resolution at the meeting.

  2. Subject to subsection (1), written notice of any meeting of a society shall be sent to every member of the society: provided that, subject as aforesaid and to the society's rules, notice of a meeting is not required by virtue of this subsection to be sent to a member—

  3. if at the relevant time the member did not, or, as the case may be, does not, hold shares in the society to a value of $200 or more; or
    1. in the case of a meeting called by a terminating society for the purpose of conducting appropriations or ballots for loans or other investments, if the meeting is called by advertisement; or
      1. if, subject to such conditions or requirements as may be prescribed, the notice is published in major daily newspapers circulating generally in those parts of New Zealand where the members reside.

        1. For the purposes of paragraph (a) of the proviso to subsection (2), the relevant time—

        2. if the society was established in the financial year in which the notices are being sent, is the time at which the notices are sent; and
          1. in any other case, is the end of the financial year preceding that in which the notices are sent.

            1. An accidental omission to give notice of a meeting to, or the non-receipt of notice of a meeting by, any person entitled to receive notice of the meeting shall not invalidate the proceedings at that meeting.

            Compare
            • Building Societies Act 1962 s 66 (UK)
            Notes
            • Section 78(2) proviso paragraph (a): amended, on , by section 15 of the Building Societies Amendment Act 1987 (1987 No 175).
            • Section 78(2) proviso paragraph (b): amended, on , by section 38 of the Building Societies Amendment Act 1987 (1987 No 175).
            • Section 78(2) proviso paragraph (b): amended, on , by section 15(1) of the Building Societies Amendment Act 1980 (1980 No 92).
            • Section 78(2) proviso paragraph (c): inserted, on , by section 15(2) of the Building Societies Amendment Act 1980 (1980 No 92).