2019 Documents - Special Meeting of the Society

7:00 p.m., Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Falmouth Heritage Museum
60 Woods Road, Falmouth

The Falmouth Historical Society held a special meeting of the membership.

Only two weeks after the annual meeting?  Why?!?!

During the business portion of the annual meeting, the members heard that the Society's tax-exempt status had been suspended by the Internal Revenue Service pending submission of paperwork by the Society.  We submitted that paperwork last May.  Three days after the annual meeting, we heard from the IRS.  The wording of the Society's Articles of Incorporation (approved when the Society was established in 1981) did not contain the precise language required by the Internal Revenue Code.  The IRS helpfully provided the correct wording.  They also gave us 30 days to fix our Articles of Incorporation or they would cancel reinstatement of our tax-exempt status which is essential to keep the Society running.

State law requires that amendments to a nonprofit's Articles of Incorporation be approved by the membership.  That's why we called a special meeting: to approve the changes to the Articles.  Just in case we didn't complete the forms correctly, we also asked the membership to let us fix any mistakes while the forms wended their way through the State House and IRS without calling another special meeting.

The agenda, along with the forms we submitted, are below.  If the agenda sounds lawyer-like, that's because we're doing our best to comply with all applicable laws, regulations and our own bylaws.

There was one change to the package just prior to the vote: Carol Kauffman, past president of the Society, volunteered to serve as the Noncommercial Registered Agent and the forms were updated accordingly.

The resolution passed unanimously at the special meeting Tuesday night.  The stack of forms (Parts 1-5 below) were promptly forwarded to the State House in Augusta.  The amended Articles of Incorporation were accepted and are now in effect.

David Farnham
President

FHS Special Meeting10-29-2019.pdf

Agenda and Documents

Special Meeting Agenda-1910.pdf

FHS Articles Change Part 1.pdf

FHS Articles Change Part 2.pdf

FHS Articles Change Part 3.pdf

FHS Articles Change Part 4.pdf

FHS Articles Change Part 5.pdf

FHS Articles of Incorporation 1981.pdf

Member Proxy Form.pdf