What is a General Meeting?
Clubs hold General Meetings to make decisions about the Club that go beyond the authority of the Club Executives. This includes:
- changing the constitution
- removing an Executive
- removing members of the Club
- anything else that a Club's constitution says can only be done (or must be done) at a general meeting (often elections).
Arc has some requirements of General Meetings that should be kept in mind, otherwise your Club's affiliation may be suspended, or your Club could have their affiliation ceased entirely. This section refers to Arc's minimum requirements and may vary slightly from your Club Constitution (which may set different requirements), so make sure you check your Constitution for any differences.
Note: While you may amend your Club's constitution (including changing the requirements for General meetings), Arc does have minimum standards for constitutions, which must be followed in order to maintain a Club's affiliation. Read more in Clubs Handbook Section 7.
You can find plenty of information in the Clubs Handbook regarding running Annual General Meetings (Section 9.1), Extraordinary General Meetings (Section 9.2) or Inaugural General Meetings (Section 3.1). We have a range of templates available on the Clubs Files & Forms page.
Arc’s role at General Meetings
Arc may send one or more representatives to observe a General Meeting of your Club. These representatives must be allowed access to observe the meeting in its entirety, and cannot be charged a fee to attend. Arc representatives will identify themselves to a Club Executive before the start of the meeting. Unless otherwise agreed to in advance, their responsibilities are only to be an independent observer of the meeting and report their observations to Arc. They are not responsible for running the meeting, ensuring the meeting is valid or intervening in any way. They may in some instances be able to provide advice to Executives when requested, however the Executives are responsible for preparing for the meeting and being aware of what is required rather than relying on having someone to ask.
Your Club Executives, member/s or other parties can request that an Arc representative be an observer at their General Meeting, especially if there are contentious disagreements within the Club that about how the meeting or elections are run, or that might result in differing account of events at the meeting. Whether Arc can provide this will depend on factors including the availability of staff members, so if you think this will be required for your General Meeting, please let the Arc Clubs team know as early as possible!
Where can I find out more information?
Related Documents
Section 4 - Existing Clubs Applying for Reaffiliation
Section 7 – Club Constitutions
Section 10 – Guidelines for Elections
