Constitution of the ANZMRC
As approved at the inaugural general meeting, 14 June 1992 with amendments approved at the 3rd biennial general meeting, 15 October 1996; at the 8th biennial general meeting 8 October 2006; and at the 11th biennial general meeting 16 November 2012
Name
1 The name of the organisation shall be the Australian and New Zealand Masonic Research Council, hereinafter referred to as the council.
Aims
2 The aims of the council shall be:
2.1 To promote Masonic research and education within Freemasonry on an inter-jurisdictional basis.
2.2 To act as a liaison body between its affiliated Masonic research lodges and chapters.
2.3 To organise any research lodge conference, which its affiliates may sanction.
2.4 To organise and coordinate any national tour by a Masonic speaker as its affiliates may require.
2.5 To publish the proceedings of its conferences, and any Masonic research publication its committee may approve.
Membership
3 Membership shall be open to any regular research lodge, research chapter or research body warranted or sanctioned by a recognised Grand Lodge, Grand Chapter or Grand body within Australia or New Zealand, hereinafter referred to as affiliates. The committee shall determine what constitutes a body engaged in Masonic research.
4 The committee may admit overseas research lodges or chapters to associate (non-voting) membership on such terms as it may resolve, hereinafter referred to as associates. It may also admit other regular lodges, chapters or Masonic bodies, not engaged in Masonic research, to associate membership, whether Australian or New Zealand or foreign.
Meetings
5 The council shall convene or caused to be convened conferences of affiliates and associates every two years (or at no greater interval than three years), and at each such conference a general meeting of affiliates shall be held.
6 6.1 Each such general meeting shall elect a committee to hold office until the following meeting, shall set the level of annual subscription payable by affiliates and associates until the following meeting, and deal with any other matters placed before it.
6.2 At each such conference, Masonic research papers shall be presented, designated Kellerman Lectures. The authors of such papers who deliver them at the conference shall be designated Kellerman Lecturers.
6.2.1 Affiliates and Associates may nominate Kellerman Lecturers for each such conference. The committee shall determine the rules, if any, under which the Kellerman Lecturers are appointed. Subject to any rules promulgated by the committee, the process of selection within each jurisdiction shall be the responsibility of the affiliates within that jurisdiction, with final selection by the ANZMRC Committee.
6.2.2 The committee elected pursuant to clause 9 may make such regulations, as it deems necessary concerning submission, designation, publication and delivery of Kellerman Lectures, and shall have the power to delegate decisions on such matters.
6.2.3 If no Kellerman Lecturer is designated for a particular Masonic jurisdiction, or a proposed Kellerman Lecture is disallowed in accordance with the regulations, so that no such lecture is delivered at the conference, the rights of the affiliates or associates concerned shall not be affected in relation to any subsequent conference. The Committee may, at its discretion, allocate any Kellerman Lecture to another Jurisdiction.
7 Any question arising between meetings may at the discretion of the committee, or on the request of three affiliates, be put to a postal ballot of affiliates. In the case of a postal ballot, every affiliate shall be entitled to one vote.
Committee
8 The committee elected at each general meeting shall, subject to the decisions of any general meeting, manage the affairs of the council until the next ensuing such meeting.
9 The committee shall consist of:
9.1 President
9.2 Immediate Past President
9.3 Three Vice-Presidents, one of who must reside in New Zealand
9.4 Secretary
9.5 Assistant Secretary
9.6 Treasurer
9.7 Convener (for the next ensuing conference).
9.8 Such officers as may be appointed pursuant to clause 11.
10 10.1 Eligibility for election or appointment to the committee shall be limited by the following:
10.1.1 if appropriate nominations are forthcoming, each jurisdiction (but not necessarily each affiliate) shall provide at least one member of the committee, with New Zealand entitled to two.
10.1.2 no more than three members shall be elected and/or appointed from a single jurisdiction, nor more than two from a single affiliate.
10.2 The committee may make such regulations, as it deems necessary concerning submission and delivery of such nominations and may make recommendations to the general meeting with regard to nominations and the filling of particular offices.
11 A general meeting may when appropriate, appoint such other officers as may be required from time to time.
12 In the event of a casual vacancy on the Committee, the affiliate of which the former committeeman was a member shall nominate a replacement to serve in the vacated office until the next general meeting. In the event of the said affiliate declining to act under this clause by notice in writing to the Secretary or President, then the President (or, in his absence, the Secretary) shall appoint a member of any affiliate to serve.
Financial Reviewer
13 A financial reviewer, who shall be a member of an affiliate, shall be appointed at each general meeting and serve until the subsequent general meeting.
Voting
14 Each affiliate shall be entitled to four votes at any general meeting.
15 Any affiliate may appoint, by notice in writing to the council secretary, any of its members attending a general meeting to exercise any or all of its voting entitlement. In the event of none of its members being so present, it may apportion by proxy any or all of its voting entitlement to any other Freemason attending the said general meeting. A register of those appointed by affiliates to exercise their voting entitlements shall be prepared by the Secretary prior to the commencement of a general meeting.
16 The chairman of a general meeting shall exercise a casting vote in cases of an equality of voting.
Quorum
17 The quorum at general meetings shall be seven members of affiliates holding voting rights, representing not less than three affiliates.
Finance
18 18.1 The financial year of the association shall be 1 July until 30 June.
18.2 At every general meeting the annual membership fees of the council for the ensuing two years, for both affiliates and associates, shall be set by resolution.
19 The Treasurer shall operate a bank account in the name of the council, and cheques drawn upon the account shall require the signatures of any two of the following: President, Secretary, Assistant Secretary and Treasurer.
20 Immediately prior to each general meeting, the Secretary and Treasurer shall prepare a comprehensive statement of the financial affairs of the council since the previous such meeting.
21 Such financial statements for the period elapsed since the previous general meeting shall be duly audited and presented to each general meeting.
22 The income and property of the council, however, derived, shall be applied solely to the promotion of the aims of the council, and no portion thereof shall be paid or transferred either directly or indirectly to any affiliate, or any individual member of an affiliate.
23 The council shall not pay to any affiliate, or individual member of an affiliate, any remuneration in money or in kind, other than as reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses on behalf of, or authorised by, the committee.
24 Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this constitution shall prevent the payment in good faith of a servant or member of an affiliate of the council, of remuneration in return for services actually rendered to the council by the servant or member of an affiliate, or for any goods supplied to the council by the servant or member of an affiliate in the ordinary course of business.
Alteration to the Constitution
25 Alteration to this constitution shall be possible only at a general meeting of the council, and shall only be considered after four months notice has been circulated to all affiliates, and shall require a two-thirds majority of votes at a general meeting to be successful.
Dissolution
26 The council may be dissolved if:
26.1 a resolution to that effect has been carried by a two-thirds majority vote of a general meeting, provided that four months notice of motion has been circulated to all affiliates; or
26.2 two successive duly convened general meetings have failed to achieve a quorum.
27 In the event of dissolution, all records, property, funds and other assets shall, after meeting all obligations of the council, be transferred to another non-profit body or bodies operating in Australia or New Zealand in the field of Masonic research and education.