Re: AGM / comments on the translation of bylaws

[Philipp Hug <debian@hug.cx>]

Hi Daniel,

One of the reasons I went looking for the regulations on this is that
many organisations, and even some countries, have a higher threshold for
passing changes to bylaws than for any other type of change.  E.g. a
normal motion may only need 1 week's notice by email and a 50% majority
to pass, whereas a change to bylaws may need 3 weeks notice by
registered mail and a 66% majority.

The Swiss law lets you define most of those requirements in the bylaws. In our case we have the requirement to send the invitation 2 weeks before the AGM but we don't have any special majorty requirements for bylaw changes.

The law says:

"Art 67 2: Die Vereinsbeschlüsse werden mit Mehrheit der Stimmen der anwesenden Mitglieder gefasst."

A simple majority is required for decisions/bylaw changes and as we don't override this in our bylaws, this also applies to our AGM.

"Art. 67 ³ Über Gegenstände, die nicht gehörig angekündigt sind, darf ein Beschluss nur dann gefasst werden, wenn die Statuten es ausdrücklich gestatten."

Which means we can only decide at the AGM about changes to the bylaws, which were properly announced.

In our case, we announced the change of the bylaws to English. So, if there are requests to make any editorial changes to the proposed bylaws, this is fine, but we couldn't change other things like introducing membership fees at this AGM.

Philipp