Ah ... hmmmn .. you noticed that did you ... w-e-l-l
...
I'm assuming everyone noticed that, and that's why you haven't
received any applications for membership. Everyone assumed we couldn't
join because of the bank account issue.
Company law rather precludes us making membership of
the non-profit
Company conditional upon anything else, although there was an early
decision of the Directors that we might well conclude that someone who was
not a member of the Chapter (ie supporting member) was not a fit person to
be a member of the Company. Generally it was felt to be in the best
interests of the organisation as a whole that anyone active on the Company
side (including being a member) should also be a supporting (Chapter)
member although it cannot be a 'compulsory' issue.
So, the best option would seem to be to ignore the informal
requirement for chapter membership and allow people to join the
company for free (which can be done at any time), then we can hold an
AGM with no problems. After that, once we have a bank account set up,
people can become supporting members as well. What we do about people
that choose not to become supporting members, I don't know - the same
issue applies to people that don't renew their chapter membership
after a year. Can the board revoke someone's company membership for
something like that, or would that be a seriously questionable
justification? (If memory serves, the articles require a cause to
revoke membership.)