Information about legal compliance Societies Act for non-profits in British Columbia.
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Is it active ?
Yes
Does your non-profit describe each member class and define its rights in its bylaws?
Classes are groups of members that have different sets of rights. For example, some non-profits have voting and non-voting classes of members.
If you aren’t sure whether your non-profit has member classes, check its bylaws. If a non-profit has more than one class of members, it is required to describe the class and list its respective rights in the bylaws.
Note that this does not refer to different categories of members (e.g. family and individual memberships; gold and silver memberships) unless there are different rights associated with that category.
Does your non-profit know Robert's Rules of Order well enough to run a meeting?
Robert’s Rules of Order can get pretty technical. Your non-profit doesn’t need to know Robert’s Rules cover-to-cover to effectively run a meeting. Your non-profit can likely run a meeting without issues if it can handle:
Do your non-profit’s financial statements disclose how much it pays under its contracts for service?
A contract for services is when there is an oral or written agreement for your non-profit to pay a person or company for performing a service (e.g. employment agreements, professional services, cleaning contractors, etc).
Does your non-profit have any contracts for service?
A contract for services is when there is an oral or written agreement for your non-profit to pay a person or company for performing a service (e.g. employment agreements, professional services, cleaning contractors, etc).
Does your non-profit remunerate its directors?
Remuneration is when a non-profit gives money to its directors for being a director (e.g. wages, honoraria).
Remuneration does not include gifts (i.e. small, irregular tokens of appreciation).
Remuneration does not include reimbursing a director for expenses caused by being a director (e.g. travel to a meeting).
Accounting Records
Accounting records is a broad category which includes details on individual financial transactions such as the date and amount of deposits or withdrawals, cheque numbers, bank account numbers, daily balances, etc. Normally it is called the general ledger.
Accounting records and financial statements are not the same thing.
Financial Statements
Financial Statements are a broad overview of the non-profit’s financial position, presented for member approval at each AGM.
Financial statements generally include four documents:
Does your non-profit understand what officers do?
Officers (also known as board roles or portfolio positions) are directors who have special tasks or responsibilities.
The board roles are usually President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer.
If your non-profit adopted one of the sample bylaws provided by the Yukon government, you will have these positions in your non-profit’s bylaws.
Model Bylaws
Model bylaws are example rules for governing the internal affairs of a non-profit. A non-profit can either adopt model bylaws as is or modify them to fit its needs. Model bylaws allow a non-profit to avoid having to create bylaws from scratch.