Newsletter 27: Friday 3 July 2026

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Our Society’s Constitution.

Forming a society provides a formal legal structure for a community group, which plans to operate socially over a long term.

The main reasons to form a society include:

• Legal Protection: It creates a distinct legal identity. This means individual members and committee officers are generally not personally liable for the society's debts, contracts, or financial obligations.
• Asset Security: Any property  ( the Anthroposophical Centre), funds, library or equipment belong to the society as a whole, not to any single individual.
• Independent Existence (Continuity): The organization continues to operate smoothly even if members, volunteers, or committee leaders change over time.
• Financial and Operational Freedom: As a standalone entity, the society can easily open its own bank account, hold leases, hire staff, apply for funding grants, and enter into contracts.
• Credibility: It builds trust with funding agencies, donors, and the broader community by demonstrating structured, transparent governance.

For us here in Hawke's Bay, the Anthroposophical Society is threefold:

Global: General Anthroposophical Society (GAS) [Allgemeine Anthroposophische Gesellschaft] is based at the Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland and is run by a Vorstand.

Country or national: Anthroposophical Society of New Zealand (ASNZ) run by a Council with a Representative who regularly visits centres around NZ and also attends meetings at the Goetheanum on our behalf.

Local: Anthroposophy Hawke's Bay (AHB) owns the Centre at 401 Whitehead Road and is run by a Committee (responsible for maintaining its assets to a good standard for use by members) and Trustees.

There are two legal forms for Societies in New Zealand:  Incorporated and Charitable.  Our society was originally formed in 1990 as a Charitable Trust, which it still is.  We report annually to the recently reformed Charities Commission, which has an overseeing role that is carried out by Charities Services (Ngā Ratonga Kaupapa Atawhai), a business unit within the Department of Internal Affairs.  Its primary function is to regulate the charitable sector and promote public trust and confidence through transparency and accountability.

The Commission has asked all charitable organisations to review their Rules or Constitution to ensure that they are fit for purpose.  The ASNZ has totally rewritten its Constitution, which was adopted, after regional consultation meetings, on 13 June.

It is now time for us, AHB, to improve our local constitution, which was written in 2008.  Our AGM is scheduled for Saturday 25 July, about 5 weeks away.  Revising the Constitution is on the Agenda. 

As this process is complex, the Committee will have a Consultation Meeting on Saturday 4 July from 3 pm to 4:30 pm at the Centre. 

Some of the issues are:

• How membership is determined and managed;
• How financial support is handled;
• The roles and responsibilities of Trustees and Committee members.

The aim is to reform the current Constitution into a form that can be simply adopted as a whole (as was done by the ASNZ) at our AGM.  You can read Proposals for change so far along with a commentary on them.

We call on all those who have an interest in these matters to join us on Saturday 4 July at 3pm.

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