2023 South Carolina Code of Laws › Title 33 - Corporations, Partnerships and Associations › Chapter 31 - South Carolina Nonprofit Corporation Act › Section 33-31-140. Definitions.

Unless the context otherwise requires;
(1) "Approved by the members" or "approval by the members" means approved or ratified by the members entitled to vote on the issue through either:
(a) the affirmative vote of a majority of the votes of the members represented and voting at a duly held meeting at which a quorum is present or the affirmative vote of the greater proportion including the votes of any required proportion of the members of any class as the articles, bylaws, or this chapter may provide for specified types of member action; or
(b) a written ballot or written consent in conformity with this chapter.
(2) "Articles of incorporation" or "articles" include amended and restated articles of incorporation and articles of merger.
(3) "Board" or "board of directors" means the individual or individuals vested with overall management of the affairs of the domestic or foreign corporation, irrespective of the name by which the individual or individuals are designated, except that no individual or group of individuals is the board of directors because of powers delegated to that individual or group pursuant to Section 33-31-801(c).
(4) "Bylaws" means the code or codes of rules, other than the articles, adopted pursuant to this chapter for the regulation or management of the affairs of the corporation irrespective of the name or names by which the rules are designated.
(5) "Class" refers to a group of memberships which have the same rights with respect to voting, dissolution, redemption, and transfer. For the purpose of this section, rights are considered the same if they are determined by a formula applied uniformly.
(6) "Conspicuous" means so written that a reasonable person against whom the writing is to operate should have noticed it. For example, printing in italics or boldface or contrasting color or typing in capitals or underlined is conspicuous.
(7) "Corporation" means public benefit, mutual benefit, and religious corporation.
(8) "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.
(9) "Deliver" includes mail.
(10) "Directors" means natural persons, designated in the charter or bylaws or elected by the incorporators, and their successors and natural persons elected or appointed to act as members of the board, irrespective of the names or titles by which these persons are described.
(11) "Distribution" means the direct or indirect transfer of assets or any part of the income or profit of a corporation to its members, directors, or officers. The term does not include:
(a) the payment of compensation in a reasonable amount to its members, directors, or officers for services rendered;
(b) conferring benefits on its members in conformity with its purposes; or
(c) repayment of debt obligations in the normal and ordinary course of conducting activities.
(12) "Domestic corporation" means a corporation.
(13) "Effective date of notice" is defined in Section 33-31-141.
(14) "Employee" includes an officer but not a director. A director may accept duties that make him also an employee.
(15) "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 or more persons having a joint or common economic interest; and state, United States, and foreign government.
(16) "File", "filed", or "filing" means filed in the office of the Secretary of State.
(17) "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.
(18) "Governmental subdivision" includes authority, county, district, and municipality.
(19) "Includes" denotes a partial definition.
(20) "Individual" includes the estate of an incompetent individual.
(21) "Internal Revenue Code" means the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or any future federal tax code or succeeding statute of like tenor and effect, and any reference to a section of the Internal Revenue Code also shall mean the corresponding section of any future federal tax code.
(22) "Means" denotes a complete definition.
(23)(a) "Member" means a person entitled, pursuant to a domestic or foreign corporation's articles or bylaws, without regard to what a person is called in the articles or bylaws, to vote on more than one occasion for the election of a director or directors or any other matter which under the terms of this chapter requires approval by the members.
(b) A person is not a member by virtue of any of the following:
(A) any rights the person has as a delegate;
(B) any rights the person has to designate or appoint a director or directors; or
(C) any rights the person has as a director.
(24) "Membership" refers to the rights and obligations a member has pursuant to a corporation's articles, bylaws, and this chapter.
(25) "Mutual benefit corporation" means a domestic corporation which either is formed as a mutual benefit corporation pursuant to Sections 33-31-201 through 33-31-207, is designated a mutual benefit corporation by a statute, or does not come within the definition of public benefit or religious corporation.
(26) "Notice" is defined in Section 33-31-141.
(27) "Person" includes any individual or entity.
(28) "Principal office" means the office, in or out of this State, so designated in the articles of incorporation, application for certificate of authority, or in a notice of change of principal office filed pursuant to either Section 33-31-505 or 33-31-1515 where the principal office of a domestic or foreign corporation is located.
(29) "Proceeding" includes civil suit and criminal, administrative, and investigatory action.
(30) "Public benefit corporation" means a domestic corporation which is formed as a public benefit corporation pursuant to Sections 33-31-201 through 33-31-207 or is required to be a public benefit corporation pursuant to Section 33-31-1707.
(31) "Record date" means the date established under Sections 33-31-601 through 33-31-640 or Sections 33-31-701 through 33-31-730 on which a corporation determines the identity of its members and their membership rights for the purposes of this chapter. The determinations must be made as of the time of close of transactions on the record date unless another time for doing so is specified at the time the record date is fixed.
(32) "Religious corporation" means a domestic corporation which is formed as a religious corporation pursuant to Sections 33-31-201 through 33-31-207 or is required to be a religious corporation pursuant to Section 33-31-1707.
(33) "Secretary" means the corporate officer to whom the board of directors has delegated responsibility under Section 33-31-840(b) for custody of the minutes of the directors' and members' meetings and for authenticating the records of the corporation.
(34) "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.
(35) "United States" includes district, authority, bureau, commission, department, and any other agency of the United States.
(36) "Vote" includes authorization by written ballot and written consent.
(37) "Voting power" means the total number of votes entitled to be cast on the issue at the time the determination of voting power is made, excluding a vote which is contingent upon the happening of a condition or event which 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 must be based on the percentage of the number of directors the class is entitled to elect out of the total number of authorized directors.
HISTORY: Former Section 33-31-140 [1962 Code Section 12-762; 1952 Code Section 12-762; 1942 Code Section 8165; 1932 Code Section 8165; Civ. C. '22 Section 4351; Civ. C. '12 Section 2869; Civ. C. '02 Section 1909; 1900 (23) 390]; 1994 Act No. 384, Section 1.