New York § 64 - 64Changing system of trustees

§ 64. 64Changing 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.).