N.Y. Religious Corporations Law § 116: Evangelical Lutheran church, changing system of electing trustees

§ 116. Evangelical Lutheran church, changing system of electing

trustees. If the trustees of an incorporated Evangelical Lutheran church

shall at any time be elective in pursuance of article ten of this

chapter, the church may, at an annual corporate meeting, if notice

thereof be given with the notice of such meeting determine that the

minister or ministers and elders and deacons thereof shall thereafter

constitute the trustees thereof, and thereon the trustees of such church

shall sign, acknowledge and cause to be filed and recorded, a

certificate stating the fact of such determination, and the name of the

minister or ministers, if any, and of the elders and deacons of such

church; and thereon the terms of office of such elective trustees shall

cease, and the minister or ministers and the elders and deacons of such

church, and their successors in office shall, by virtue of their

respective offices, be the trustees of such church. If, at any time, the

officers of an incorporated Evangelical Lutheran church which officers

by virtue of their offices constitute the trustees thereof shall

determine to submit to a meeting of such church corporation, the

question whether the trustees of such church shall be thereafter

elective in pursuance of article ten of this chapter, they shall cause a

corporate meeting of such church to be called and held in the manner

provided in sections one hundred and ninety-four and one hundred and

ninety-five of this chapter, and such corporate meeting shall determine

whether the trustees of such church shall thereafter be elective in

pursuance of article ten of this chapter, and also whether the number of

such trustees shall be three, six or nine, and the date of the annual

corporate meeting of the church. If such meeting shall determine that

such trustees shall thereafter be elective, the presiding officer

thereof and at least two other persons present and voting thereat, shall

sign, acknowledge and cause to be filed and recorded in the office of

the clerk of the county in which the certificate of incorporation of

such church is filed, a certificate of such determination of such

meeting; and thereafter the trustees of such church shall be elective in

pursuance of article ten of this chapter. At the next annual corporate

meeting after the filing of such certificate, one-third of the number of

trustees so determined on shall be elected to hold office for one year,

one-third for two years, and one-third for three years, and the officers

of such church who by virtue of their offices have been trustees of such

church, shall then cease to be such trustees, and thereafter article ten

of this chapter shall apply to such church. At each subsequent annual

corporate meeting of such church, one-third of the number of trustees so

determined on shall be elected to hold office for three years.