Bye-Laws of the Royal National Life-boat Institution
I. THE Annual General Meeting prescribed by the Charter shall be held on the 4th day of March, or as soon after as may be convenient,, and the same and all other General Meetings shall be held at such time and place as the Committee of Management shall appoint.
U. A Special General Meeting of the Governors of the Institution may, at any time, be called by the Committee of Management.
III. Notice of every Annual Meeting, and of every Special General Meeting, shall be given by advertisement in three of the daily newspapers published in London ten days at least before the day for holding the same. And in case of a Special General Meeting, the object of it shall be stated in the Notice.
IV. Every Annual and every Special General Meeting hall have power to adjourn to a future day.
V. A statement of the receipts and disbursements of the Society for the preceding year shall be made out by the Committee of Management, and signed by the Secretary and by the Auditor, and shall be left in the Office for the inspection of the Governors for six days prior to the day appointed for the Annual General Meeting, and such account shall be submitted by the Committee of Management to the Meeting.
VI. At every Annual Meeting an election of the President, Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, and Committee of Management, and of an Auditor, shall take place; but the President, Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, Committee of Management, and Auditor, shall be considered as in office, not only until the Meeting shall break up or adjourn, but until others shall be respectively elected in their place.
VII. No other business shall be transacted at a Special General Meeting than the business for which it shall have been expressly called, and no other business shall be transacted at any adjourned Meeting than the business left unfinished at the Meeting from which such adjournment took place VIII. At the Annual General Meetings, the order of business shall be as follows:— 1. The Chair shall be taken by the President, if he shall be present, and if not, then by some other person to be chosen by the Committee.
2. The President, or Chairman shall then state the names of the persons proposed to fill the offices of President, Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, Committee of Management, and Auditor for the year ensuing, and if no other persons shall have been named, the persons so proposed shall be deemed and declared to be elected.
3. The election shall be determined by a show of hands, unless a ballot shall be demanded by any ten Governors present; in which case the same shall take place immediately, and the President, Vice-Presideiit, or Chairman shall appoint two or more scrutineers among the Governors present to superintend the ballot during its progress, and to report the result to the Meeting.
4. No ballot shall be kept open for more than two hours.
5. Immediately after the elections have taken place, or the ballot shall have commenced, the report of the receipts and disbursements of the Society, as signed by the Auditor, shall be read, and submitted to the Meeting for approval.
6. The Committee of Management shall then present a report of their proceedings for the past year, and particularly (in all cases in which they may have voted a reward) 'a statement of the number of persons who may have been saved from shipwreck, with the names of the vessels to which they belonged; also a list of the persons to whom medals or rewards may have been voted, with the particulars of the services they rendered; also the particulars of the cases, if any, in which the Committee may have voted assistance to the wives or families of persons who may have perished in an attempt to save the lives of others. Also a return of all the Life-boats belonging to, or established by, or in connection with the Institution, their actual state and condition, and that of the Boat-houses, Carriages, and Stores appertaining to them.
7. Any business which the Committee of Management shall think proper to introduce shall then be entered upon and discussed, and the opinion of the Meeting shall, if necessary, be taken thereon.
8. After all business introduced by the Committee of Management shall have been disposed of, it shall be competent for any. Governor to make any proposition which may legally be entertained at such Meeting, and to give any notice he may think fit of a proposition to be considered at a future Meeting.
9. In case' the Meeting shall be adjourned, the business to be transacted at the adjourned Meeting shall be specified previously to the adjournment taking place, and shall be entered on the Minutes, and no business shall be transacted at the adjourned Meeting which shall not have been so specified and entered.
10. In all cases of dispute, or doubt, or difficulty, an appeal shall be made to the President, or Chairman, and his decision thereon shall be final and conclusive.
IX. At the Special .General Meetings, the order of the proceedings shall be as follows:— 1. The Chair shall be taken as directed for the Annual General Meetings.
2. The object for which the Meeting has been called shall then be stated by the President, or Chairman.3. The business to be transacted shall be taken in the order stated in the Notice calling the Meeting.
4. AH elections, ballots, and debates, shall be conducted in the same manner as at the Annual General Meetings.
X. At all adjourned Meetings the business to be transacted shall be taken in the order in which it shall have been entered on the Minutes of the Meeting from which the adjournment took place.
XI. No motion by any Governor for the repeal or alteration of any existing bye-law, or for the enactment of any new bye-law, shall be entertained at any General Meeting, unless the same shall have been previously approved by the Committee of Management, or unless notice in writing of such motion shall have'been given at some previous General Meeting by the Governor intending to move the same; or unless notice in writing containing the substance of the intended alteration shall have been given to the Committee of Management, by the Governor intending to move the same twenty-one days at least before the day on which such General Meeting shall be held.
XII. If the repeal or alteration of any existing bye-laws, or the enactment of any new bye-law, shall be proposed by the Committee of Management, such repeal or alteration, or such new byelaw, if carried at the Meeting at which it shall have been proposed, shall be binding without confirmation ; but if proposed by any Governor, the same shall not be binding unless it shall be confirmed at a subsequent General Meeting, to be held for the purpose, at a distance of not less than three weeks from the preceding General Meeting, which Meeting shall appoint the time for holding the second Meeting.
XIII. Notice of any motion for the repeal or alteration of any existing bye-law, or the enactment of any new bye-law, whether originating with the Committee of Management or otherwise, shall be given by advertisement in three of the daily newspapers published in London ten days at least before the Meeting at which such motion is intended to be made; and if it shall be necessary to confirm such repeal or alteration, or such new bye-law, a similar notice thereof shall be given.
XIV. Minutes of the proceedings at every General Meeting shall be entered in a book, to be provided for that purpose, and signed by the person in the Chair.
XV. In case any irregularity shall occur in the convening or holding of any General Meeting, or in any election or other proceedings at any such Meeting, and the same shall not be publicly noticed and objected to at such Meeting, all proceedings of such Meeting shall be of the same force and validity as if no such irregularity had occurred; but if any irregularity shall be publicly noticed and objected to, the. Meeting shall decide thereon, and such decision shall be final and conclusive.
XVI. The President, Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, and Committee of Management, shall be chosen from among the Governors of the Institution.
The Auditor shall be a professional Accountant, and his remuneration shall be fixed by the Committee of Management.
XVII. The Committee of Management shall consist of forty Members, but shall be competent to act until reduced by any means below the number of fifteen.
XVIII. The President, Vice-President*, Treasurer, Committee of Management, and Auditor going out of office on the day of the Annual Meeting, shall be immediately re-eligible.
XIX. The name of every person intended to be proposed by any Governor as President or Vice- President of the Institution, or Treasurer, or as a Member of the Committee of Management, or Auditor shall be transmitted in writing to the Secretary seven days at least before the day of election, and a list of the persons so proposed, together with the name of the Governor proposing each such person, shall be fixed up in the Office of the Institution six days before the Meeting, and no person shall be capable of being elected President or Vice-President of the Society, or Treasurer, or a Member of the Committee of Management, or Auditor, whose name shall not have been so transmitted.
XX. The Committee of Management may make such regulations, not inconsistent with the charter or bye-laws, as may appear to them expedient for conducting the proceedings of their own Meetings.
XXI. The Committee of Management shall pay to the Secretary, Inspector of Life-boats, and all other officers, clerks, attendants, and servants of the Institution, such salaries End wages, or make them such recompense as they shall from time to time think proper.
XXII. The Committee of Management shall have the custody of the common seal of the Society.
The funded property of the Institution shall be invested, either in the name of the Institution, in its corporate capacity, or in the names of three Trustees to be appointed by the Committee of Management, as the Committee of Management shall, from time to time, think fit; and if the in- estment shall be made in the names of Trustees, the order of the Committee of Management shall be their sufficient discharge in all cases.
XXIII. Minutes of the proceedings of every Meeting of the Committee of Management shall be taken by the Secretary, or in case of his absence by some other person whom the President, Vice-President, or Chairman shall appoint for the occasion, which Minutes shall afterwards be copied fairly into a minute-book, to be kept for that purpose, and, after having been read, shall be signed by the President, Vice-President, or Chairman of that or the next succeeding Meeting.
XXIV. If any vacancy shall occur in the office of Auditor by death or resignation, or by any other cause than that of going out of office on the day of the Annual Meeting, such vacancy shall be filled up by the election of a new Auditor at a Special General Meeting, to be called for that purpose by the Committee of Management within the space of three calendar months next after such vacancy shall occur, unless the Annual Meeting shall be held within that period, and in that case the new Auditor shall be appointed by the Committee of Management.
XXV. The Governors of the Institution shall consist of the persons who shall have subscribed to the funds either in one sum of ten guineas or upwards, or by an annual payment of one guinea or upwards, and of such other persons as shall be elected to be Governors by a General Meeting, as having rendered essential service to the Institution.
XXVI. Donors of ten guineas and Annual Subscribers of one guinea, to be entitled at all General Meetings to one vote each.
Donors of twenty guineas and Annual Subscribers of two guineas, to two votes each.
Donors of thirty guineas and Annual Subscribers of three guineas, to three Totes each.
Donors of fifty guineas and Annual Subscribers of five guineas, to four votes each.
Donors of a hundred guineas and upwards and Annual Subscribers of ten guineas and upwards, to six votes each.
Governors selected in respect of essential services to the Institution shall be entitled to one vote each.
XX.VII. No person, claiming to be a Governor, in respect of an annual subscription, shall be entitled to vote at any General Meeting unless he shall have paid his subscription for the current year.