2023 New York Laws › RCO - Religious Corporations › Article 3 - Protestant Episcopal Parishes or Churches › 45 - Changing Date of Annual Election, Number and Terms of Office of Vestrymen and Terms of Office of Churchwardens in Protestant Episcopal Churches Hereto

§  45. Changing date of annual election, number and terms of office of
  vestrymen and terms of office of churchwardens in  Protestant  Episcopal
  churches   heretofore  incorporated.  If  the  vestry  of  a  Protestant
  Episcopal  parish,  heretofore  incorporated,   shall   by   resolution,
  recommend  that  the  date  of the annual election be changed to another
  day, either a Sunday or a secular day, or that the number  of  vestrymen
  be changed to three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen, eighteen, twenty-one or
  twenty-four,  and  that  the  terms  of  office  of the churchwardens be
  changed so that one warden shall be elected  annually,  notice  of  such
  recommendation  shall  be  included  in  the  notice  of the next annual
  election of such parish, or in the notice of a  special  meeting  to  be
  held not less than six months before the time fixed for holding the next
  annual  election  thereafter, and be submitted to such annual or special
  meeting. If  such  recommendation  be  ratified  by  such  meeting,  the
  presiding  officer  thereof  and  at  least two qualified voters present
  thereat, shall execute and acknowledge a certificate setting forth  such
  resolution  of  the  vestry; the fact that notice thereof had been given
  with the notice of the annual  election,  or  with  the  notice  of  the
  special  meeting, as the case may be; that such meeting had ratified the
  same; the date determined upon for the annual election  of  the  parish;
  the  number  of  vestrymen  so decided on; and the fact that the meeting
  determined to thereafter elect churchwardens, so that the  term  of  one
  warden  shall  expire  annually.  Such certificate shall be filed in the
  office of the clerk of the county in which the original  certificate  of
  incorporation  is filed and recorded. If the meeting determine to change
  the date of the annual election, the next annual election shall be  held
  on the day determined on at such meeting, and the terms of the vestrymen
  and  churchwardens  which,  pursuant  to  law,  would expire at the next
  annual election shall expire and their successors shall  be  elected  on
  such day. If the meeting determine to change the number of vestrymen and
  manner  of electing wardens and vestrymen, there shall be elected at the
  first annual election thereafter, one-third of the number  of  vestrymen
  so  determined  on, to hold office for three years; one-third thereof to
  hold office for two years; and one-third thereof to hold office for  one
  year;  and one churchwarden to hold office for one year, and one to hold
  for two years; and thereafter at the  annual  election  there  shall  be
  elected  one-third  of  the  number  of  vestrymen determined on at such
  meeting  and  one  churchwarden.  Any   Protestant   Episcopal   parish,
  heretofore  incorporated,  which has changed the number of its vestrymen
  and the manner  of  electing  wardens  and  vestrymen  pursuant  to  the
  provisions  of  this  section, may make further changes in the number of
  its vestrymen in the manner  provided  in  section  forty-four  of  this
  chapter.