Important Changes to RI Legislation Will Make Clubs More Flexible

Posted by Garth Gordon on Jul 31, 2016
 
Update on 2016 Council on Legislation Changes
 
2016 Council on Legislation.  In April the 2016 Council on Legislation, “COL”, made several changes to Rotary International’s legislation including the Standard Rotary Club Constitution.  The changes are summarized in the Essential Changes for Clubs and Districts published by RI. 
 
Some of the key changes affecting clubs include:
 
  1. the ability to change meeting schedules,
  2. to change attendance rules and for members to attend regular meetings by online participation.  Clubs are still expected to forward attendance reports to the Governor. 
  3. The Club Treasurer is now a permanent member of the club board. 
  4. There is now a requirement that Directors should provide written minutes for all board meetings and those minutes should be available to all members within sixty days of the meeting.
 
Zone information.  In a Zone webinar on July 27th (https://vimeo.com/176698028) Zone officials advised District Leadership that RI has published the English language 2016 Standard Rotary Club Constitution, RI Constitution and RI By-laws.  These are available online at the RI website*.  The officials said Zone goals include having clubs update their constitutions by September and their By-laws by December this year.  RI has not yet published its 2016 Recommended Rotary Club By-laws nor much resource material about the new “flexibility rules”; those RI resources are works in progress.
 
Unincorporated clubs - required action.  Effective July 1, 2016, the 2016 COL amendments automatically changed the constitutions of clubs that are NOT incorporated.  Unincorporated clubs do not have to take any action regarding their constitutions except to use the 2016 Standard Rotary Club Constitution.  It is available at the above RI website.  Unincorporated clubs will have to review their By-laws in due course.  The District assistance materials for By-laws mentioned below may be helpful.
 
Incorporated clubs - required action.  Incorporated clubs will have to review and amend their club constitutions and by-laws following the procedures required by their statutes of incorporation.
 
District assistance for required club constitution and by-law reviews.  The District prepared, and obtained RI approval of a set of 2016 COL-compliant templates for both a corporate constitution and By-laws.  The set was used by a club incorporating in Nova Scotia; its incorporating documents are now before the Nova Scotia Companies Office for approval.  As a result of the Zone Webinar, the District submitted a proposed amendment to the approved By-laws which, if accepted by RI, will greatly reduce the administrative burden for clubs implementing “flexibility options”. 
 
On receipt of both the Nova Scotia Companies Office’s approval of the incorporating documents and RI’s response to the amendment request, the District Secretary will make the templates available to clubs who wish to refer to them when reviewing their constitutions and by-laws.
 
Further District initiatives.  Following discussions with some clubs about record keeping issues caused by the annual turnover in club leadership, the District is working on resources for clubs that should help them identify the records they need to keep and suggest methods clubs might find helpful for establishing continuity in their record keeping.  The District is also undertaking a review of the District’s corporate documents and record keeping practices.  The goal of this review is to ensure the District corporation is COL 2016 compliant and that it has an appropriate record keeping regime.  
 
Garth Gordon  (garthgord@hotmail.com)
District Secretary 2016-2017
July 31, 2016