Legislation

Search OpenLegislation Statutes

This entry was published on 2014-09-22
The selection dates indicate all change milestones for the entire volume, not just the location being viewed. Specifying a milestone date will retrieve the most recent version of the location before that date.
SECTION 1410
Boards of trade and chambers of commerce
Not-for-Profit Corporation (NPC) CHAPTER 35, ARTICLE 14
§ 1410. Boards of trade and chambers of commerce.

(a) Definitions.

(1) A board of trade is a corporation formed for the purpose of
fostering trade and commerce, or the interests of those having a common
trade, business, financial or professional interest, to reform abuses
relative thereto, to secure freedom from unjust or unlawful exactions,
to diffuse accurate and reliable information as to the standing of
merchants and other matters, to procure uniformity and certainty in the
customs and usages of trade and commerce, and of those having a common
trade, business, financial or professional interest; to settle and
adjust differences between its members and others and to promote a more
enlarged and friendly intercourse among business people; to advance the
civic, commercial, industrial and agricultural interests of the
territory where the corporation is situate; to promote the general
welfare and prosperity of such territory and to stimulate public
sentiment to these ends; and to provide such civic, commercial,
industrial, agricultural and social features as will promote these
purposes.

(2) A chamber of commerce is a corporation, the members of which are
in diverse lines of business, membership in which is not restricted to,
nor in practice consists primarily of, persons, partnerships or
corporations engaged in or carrying on the same, allied or
interdependent lines of business, and which is formed for the purpose of
fostering trade and commerce, or the interests of those carrying on such
trade and commerce; to promote the general welfare and prosperity of the
state, territory or community in which such corporation is situate; to
reform abuses involving business, professional or financial interests,
to secure freedom from unjust or unlawful exactions, to diffuse accurate
and reliable information as to the standing of merchants and other
matters, to procure uniformity and certainty in the customs and usages
of trade and commerce; to settle and adjust differences between its
members and others, and to promote a more enlarged and friendly
intercourse among businessmen; to advance the civic, commercial,
industrial and agricultural interests of the territory where the
corporation is situate; to provide such features as will promote these
purposes, and to stimulate public sentiment to these ends. A corporation
formed before the first day of January, eighteen hundred seventy-five,
the purposes and activities of which are those of a chamber of commerce
as herein defined, shall be a chamber of commerce regardless of its
name, and shall not be required to change its existing name by reason of
this subparagraph.

(b) Type of corporation.

A board of trade or a chamber of commerce is a non-charitable
corporation under this chapter.

(c) Special powers.

(1) A board of trade or a chamber of commerce organized for the
purposes set forth in paragraph (a), shall have the power to be
appointed and to act under the order or appointment of any court of
competent jurisdiction as receiver or trustee of the property or estate
of any person or corporation in insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings,
and to act as assignee or trustee for the benefit of creditors in any
case in which a member or members of such board of trade or a chamber of
commerce are creditors of such insolvent or bankrupt estate; or of such
assignor for the benefit of creditors; or in any other instance where
the purposes of the corporation might reasonably be involved.

(2) A board of trade or chamber of commerce organized for the purposes
set forth in paragraph (a) may make loans to its members, directors or
officers, or to any other corporation, firm, association or other entity
in which one or more of its members, directors or officers are directors
or officers or hold a financial interest, in any case where its board of
directors finds that the making of such loan will be in furtherance of
its corporate purposes and for a lawful public or quasi-public
objective.

(3) A board of trade organized for the purposes set forth in paragraph
(a) of this section may make distributions of cash or property to, or
confer other benefits upon, its members, or former members, prior to
dissolution or final liquidation in any case where the board of
directors of such corporation finds that such cash, property or other
benefit is not required for the conduct of its corporate purposes;
provided, however, that no such action shall be taken when the
corporation is currently insolvent or would thereby be made insolvent or
rendered unable to carry on its corporate purposes, or when the fair
value of the corporation's assets remaining after the taking of such
action would be insufficient to meet its liabilities.

(4) A board of trade organized for the purposes set forth in paragraph
(a) of this section may provide in its certificate of incorporation or
by-laws that the members or any class of members shall, with respect to
any matter on which the members of such class are entitled to vote, have
more than, or less than, one vote.