N.Y. Religious Corporations Law § 64: Changing system of trustees

§ 64. Changing system of trustees. 1. If the trustees of an

incorporated Presbyterian church in connection with the Presbyterian

Church (U.S.A.) shall at any time be elective as trustees and not

trustees by virtue of being spiritual officers, the church may, at an

annual corporate meeting if notice thereof be given with the notice of

such meeting, determine that the board of deacons thereof, or the

session with the board of deacons thereof, or the session thereof shall

thereafter constitute the trustees thereof, and thereupon the presiding

officer of such meeting and at least two other persons present thereat

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

stating the fact of such determination, the names of the officers

determined upon to be the ex officio trustees thereof and thereon the

terms of office of such elective trustees shall cease, and the officers

determined upon by such corporate meeting and their successors in office

shall, by virtue of their respective offices, be the trustees of such

church.

2. If, at any time, the spiritual officers of an incorporated

Presbyterian church in connection with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),

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 as such trustees, they shall cause a special

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

provided in section sixty-five of this chapter, and such corporate

meeting shall determine whether the trustees of such church shall

thereafter be elective in pursuance of this article and also whether the

number of such trustees shall be three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen,

eighteen, twenty-one, or twenty-four and the date of the annual

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

such trustees shall thereafter be elective as such trustees, the number

of such trustees and the date of the first annual corporate meeting of

the church, 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; thereafter the trustees of such

church shall be elective in pursuance of this article. 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, 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 the trustees of such church and their successors shall be

elective as such trustees as in this article provided. 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. The nomination and election of trustees shall be conducted

as provided in the constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).