Mississippi Code 1972 (2023) › Title 79 - CORPORATIONS, ASSOCIATIONS, AND PARTNERSHIPS (§§ 79-1-1 — 79-37-604) › Chapter 11 - NONPROFIT, NONSHARE CORPORATIONS AND RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES (§§ 79-11-1 — 79-11-NEW) › MISSISSIPPI NONPROFIT CORPORATION ACT (§§ 79-11-101 — 79-11-405) › Section 79-11-127 - Definitions

Unless the context otherwise requires in Section
79-11-101
et seq., the following terms shall have the meaning ascribed herein:
(a)
"Approved by (or approval by) the members" means approved or ratified by the affirmative vote of a majority of the votes represented and voting at a duly held meeting at which a quorum is present (which affirmative votes also constitute a majority of the required quorum) or by a written ballot or written consent in conformity with Section
79-11-101
et seq. or by the affirmative vote, written ballot or written consent of such greater proportion, including the votes of all the members of any class, unit or grouping as may be provided in the articles, bylaws or Section
79-11-101
et seq. for any specified member action.
(b)
"Articles of incorporation" or "articles" include amended and restated articles of incorporation and articles of merger.
(c)
"Board" or "board of directors" means the board of directors except that no person or group of persons are the board of directors because of powers delegated to that person or group pursuant to Section
79-11-231
.
(d)
"Bylaws" means the code or codes of rules (other than the articles) adopted pursuant to Section
79-11-101
et seq. for the regulation or management of the affairs of the corporation irrespective of the name or names by which such rules are designated.
(e)
"Class" means a group of memberships which have the same rights with respect to voting, dissolution, redemption and transfer. For the purposes of this section, rights shall be considered the same if they are determined by a formula applied uniformly.
(f)
"Conspicuous" means so written, displayed, or presented that a reasonable person against whom the record is to operate should have noticed it. For example, text in italics, boldface, contrasting color or capitals, or that is underlined, is conspicuous.
(g)
"Corporation" means a nonprofit corporation subject to the provisions of Section
79-11-101
et seq., except a foreign corporation.
(h)
"Delegates" means those persons elected or appointed to vote in a representative assembly for the election of a director or directors or on other matters.
(i)
"Deliver" or "delivery" means any method of delivery used in conventional commercial practice, including delivery by hand, mail, commercial delivery and electronic transmission, except that delivery to the Secretary of State means actual receipt by the Secretary of State.
(j)
"Directors" means individuals, designated in the articles or bylaws or elected by the incorporators, and their successors and individuals elected or appointed by any other name or title to act as members of the board.
(k)
"Distribution" means the payment of a dividend or any part of the income or profit of a corporation to its members, directors or officers. Payment of reasonable compensation, fees, or expenses incurred in the performance of duties on behalf of the corporation is not a distribution.
(l)
"Domestic corporation" means a corporation.
(m)
"Effective date of notice" is defined in Section
79-11-129
.
(n)
"Electronic" means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities.
(o)
"Electronic transmission" or "electronically transmitted" means any process of communication not directly involving the physical transfer of paper that is suitable for the retention, retrieval and reproduction of information by the recipient.
(p)
"Employee" includes an officer but not a director. A director may accept duties that make the director an employee.
(q)
"Entity" includes corporation and foreign corporation; business corporation and foreign business corporation; profit and nonprofit unincorporated association; corporation sole; business trust, estate, partnership, trust and two (2) or more persons having a joint or common economic interest; and state, United States and foreign government.
(r)
"File," "filed" or "filing" means filed in the Office of the Secretary of State.
(s)
"Foreign corporation" means a corporation organized under a law other than the law of this state which would be a nonprofit corporation if formed under the laws of this state.
(t)
"Governmental subdivision" includes authority, county, district and municipality.
(u)
"Includes" denotes a partial definition.
(v)
"Individual" includes the estate of an incompetent individual.
(w)
"Means" denotes a complete definition.
(x)
"Member" means (without regard to what a person is called in the articles or bylaws) any person or persons who on more than one (1) occasion, pursuant to a provision of a corporation's articles or bylaws, have the right to vote for the election of a director or directors.
A person is not a member by virtue of any of the following:
(i)
Any rights such person has as a delegate;
(ii)
Any rights such person has to designate a director or directors; or
(iii)
Any rights such person has as a director.
(y)
"Membership" refers to the rights and obligations a member or members have pursuant to a corporation's articles, bylaws and Section
79-11-101
et seq.
(z)
"Nonprofit corporation" means a corporation, no part of the assets, income or profit of which is distributed to or enures to the benefit of its members, directors or officers, except as otherwise provided under this chapter. In a corporation all of whose members are nonprofit corporations, distribution to members does not deprive it of the status of a nonprofit corporation.
(aa)
"Notice" is defined in Section
79-11-129
.
(bb)
"Person" includes any individual or entity.
(cc)
"Principal office" means the office (in or out of this state) where the principal executive offices of a domestic or foreign corporation are located.
(dd)
"Proceeding" includes civil suit and criminal, administrative and investigatory action.
(ee)
"Record" means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.
(ff)
"Record date" means the date established under Section
79-11-209
on which a corporation determines the identity of its members for the purposes of Section
79-11-101
et seq.
(gg)
"Religious corporation" means a corporation organized and operating primarily or exclusively for religious purposes.
(hh)
"Secretary" means the corporate officer to whom the board of directors has delegated responsibility under Section
79-11-273
for custody of the minutes of the directors' and members' meetings and for authenticating the records of the corporation.
(ii)
"Sign" means with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record:
(i)
To execute or adopt a tangible symbol; or
(ii)
To attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic sound, symbol, or process as defined under Mississippi law.
(jj)
"State," when referring to a part of the United States, includes a state and commonwealth (and their agencies and governmental subdivisions) and a territory, and insular possession (and their agencies and governmental subdivisions) of the United States.
(kk)
"United States" includes any district, authority, bureau, commission, department and any other agency of the United States.
(ll)
"Vote" includes authorization by written ballot and written consent.
(mm)
"Voting power" means the total number of votes entitled to be cast for the election of directors at the time the determination of voting power is made, excluding a vote which is contingent upon the happening of a condition or event that has not occurred at the time. Where a class is entitled to vote as a class for directors, the determination of voting power of the class shall be based on the percentage of the number of directors the class is entitled to elect out of the total number of authorized directors.
Laws, 1987, ch. 485, § 14; Laws, 1997, ch. 418, § 47; Laws, 2011, ch. 440, § 2, eff. 1/1/2012.