We wish to advise all members of Apiculture New Zealand that a Special Meeting is being called to amend the Constitution to enable the Association to apply for not-for-profit (NFP) tax status.

The meeting will take place at 3pm on Thursday, October 13, 2016 at the Hamilton Airport Conference Centre.

This will be during the open section of the Apiculture NZ Board meeting.

A quorum of 40 members physically present at the meeting is required for the vote to take place.

Proxy, postal and email voting will be allowed. Postal votes should be sent to PO Box 10792, Wellington 6143. Email votes should be sent to info@apinz.org.nz. Both postal and email votes are to be received by 3pm Tuesday, October 11. Hard copy proxies can be brought to the meeting.

Under Clause 12 of the Constitution, changes have been made to the way Members’ votes are counted to ensure the investment by commercial beekeepers in their industry is protected. Each Member retains one vote for AGM and Special Meetings, however that vote is weighted according to the Sector in which they are voting. Non-Commercial Beekeepers’ votes carry 10% weight, while the Commercial Beekeeping and Market sectors carry 45% weight each.

The Special Meeting concerns the fact that ApiNZ currently does not have NFP status.  This is an historical anomaly that dates back to the mid-2000s.  The NBA did not have NFP status because the necessary paperwork was not filed with IRD at that time.  Because the NBA didn’t have it, ApiNZ does not have it.

IRD has advised that specific changes are required to the Constitution in order for the not-for-profit status to be granted.

Those changes require the inclusion of the following paragraph into the ‘Alteration to Rules’ section of the Constitution:

“No addition to or alteration of the non-profit aims, personal benefit clause or the winding up clause shall be made which affect the tax exempt status. The provisions and effect of this clause shall not be removed from this document and shall be included and implied into any document replacing this document.”

The resolution voted on will be whether you are for or against this amendment to the Constitution.

We look forward to seeing you at the Special Meeting or receiving your postal/email vote in due course.

Kind regards

Daniel Paul
CEO


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