The object of this corporation is to diffuse moral and religious knowledge and instruction, by means of publishing houses for such purpose, publications therefrom, and the further means of missionaries, missionary agencies, and all other instrumentalities and methods appropriate and available for, and tending to, the advancement of the ends and aims above specified.GCB July 1, 1896, page 741.23

ARTICLE IV.—LIMIT OF REAL ESTATE

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This corporation may own real estate not exceeding in value five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000).GCB July 1, 1896, page 741.24

ARTICLE V.—LIMIT OF PERSONAL PROPERTY

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This corporation may own personal property not exceeding in value five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000).GCB July 1, 1896, page 741.25

This corporation may receive and apply to the ends, aims, and objects herein before specified, all such loans, gifts, and advances, and accept and execute all such trusts in aid thereof, as may be offered for that purpose: Provided, that the value of the property at any time owned by the corporation shall not exceed the limits in real and personal property herein before specified.GCB July 1, 1896, page 741.26

This corporation expressly takes to itself the powers by said Act conferred by Section 4; to wit, that it, said corporation, for the uses and purposes contemplated by said Act and specified in these Articles, may acquire, possess, hold, and convey real and personal property in any foreign state or country, to an amount not forbidden by the constitution or laws of such foreign state or country.GCB July 1, 1896, page 741.27

ARTICLE VI.—NUMBER OF TRUSTEES

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The number of trustees of this corporation is twenty-one. Their names and residences are as follows:—GCB July 1, 1896, page 741.28

Ole Andrus Olsen, 61 Howland St., Battle Creek, Mich.
Noah Wilson Allee, box 989, Minneapolis, Minn.
Charles Lucas Boyd, 324 Cleveland Ave., Nashville, Tenn.
Almon Jared Breed, 1436 Linden St., Oakland, Cal.
Robert Sloan Donnell, College Place, Walla Walla Co., Wash.
Irwin Henry Evans, Ovid, Clinton Co., Mich.
John Ingram Gibson, 13 Howland St., Battle Creek, Mich.
Archibald Robins Henry, 62 North Washington St., Battle Creek, Mich.
William Spencer Hyatt, 821 West Fifth St., Topeka, Kans.
George Alexander Irwin, Graysville, Rhea Co., Tenn.
Charles Harriman Jones, 718 Twelfth St., Oakland, Cal.
Robert Meek Kilgore, Graysville, Rhea Co., Tenn.
Thomas Allen Kilgore, 39 Bond St., New York City, N. Y.
Sands Harvey Lane, 438 East Sixty-second St., Chicago, Ill.
Harmon Lindsay, 82 Manchester St., Battle Creek, Mich.
John Nathan Loughborough, 815 West Fifth St., Topeka, Kans.
Allen Moon, 118 D St., Northeast, Washington, D. C.
James Harvey Morrison, College View, Lancaster Co., Nebr.
Ross Celester Porter, South Lancaster, Mass.
William Warren Prescott, 50 Manchester St., Battle Creek, Mich.
William Byington White, College View, Lancaster Co., Nebr.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.1

ARTICLE VII.—DENOMINATION

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The name and denomination of the religious body with which the trustees who sign these articles are connected, are as follows:—GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.2

NAME. — General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventists, which is an unincorporated body.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.3

DENOMINATION. — Seventh-day Adventists.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.4

ARTICLE VIII.—DURATION

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The duration of this corporation is until the eighteenth day of January, A. D. 1916.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.5

ARTICLE IX.—DUTIES OF TRUSTEES

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SECTION 1. The Trustees of this corporation shall have full and exclusive power and authority to enact all of the By-laws of the corporation.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.6

SEC. 2. The Trustees shall have full power to appoint such officers, ministers, missionaries, delegates, agents, employees, and servants as they shall think proper, and prescribe their powers, duties, and obligations, fix their compensations, and make regulations for their change and removal.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.7

SEC. 3. The Trustees shall have the ordering and conduct the affairs of the corporation, the management and disposal of its property, and the execution of all the trusts confided to it.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.8

SEC. 4. In case of a vacancy occurring in the Board of Trustees for any term, the remaining trustees shall immediately fill it by appointment under their hands, and such appointee shall hold during the remainder of the term, and until the election of a successor and his appearance to assume office.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.9

SEC. 5. The purposes and essence of this corporation being purely benevolent, charitable, and philanthropic, it is hereby expressly declared that this is a corporation not for gain, and that no dividends shall be paid on any funds, but that all its property, real and personal, may be used and expended in carrying into effect the legitimate ends and aims of its being.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.10

BY-LAWS

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ARTICLE I.—TRUSTEES

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SECTION 1. The Trustees shall elect annually, from their numbers, a President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Auditor, and an Executive Committee of five, who shall hold their respective offices one year, and until others are chosen in their stead and appear to enter upon their duties.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.11

SEC. 2. The duties of said officers shall be such as usually pertain to said offices. The Executive Committee shall have full administrative power during the intervals between the sessions of the board, but shall not unnecessarily originate any business of an extraordinary character on which the opinion of the board is unknown, but shall confine their labors chiefly to the well-defined policy of the board, as set forth in its regular sessions.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.12

SEC. 3. The President and Treasurer (or the Secretary in lieu of either absentee), shall sign all instruments and obligations of the corporation: Provided, however, that subject to the provisions of Section 7 of this Article, any seven of the Trustees within the legal quorum, as specified in Section 6 of this Article, duly convened, may authorize a named agent to sign the name of the corporation, and bind it to a named obligation or class of obligations.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.13

SEC. 4. At each session of the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventists, the Board of Trustees shall make to said Conference, or a duly appointed committee thereof, a complete statement of the affairs and business of this corporation.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.14

SEC. 5. The Board of Trustees shall meet on Thursday, the fifteenth day of December, A. D. 1887, at 10 A. M., at the office of the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association in the city of Battle Creek, Calhoun county, Mich., and said board shall always be in session.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.15

SEC. 6. A quorum for the transaction of business shall consist of not less than nine trustees, of whom the President and Treasurer (or Secretary in lieu of either absentee) shall be two, and the concurrence of at least seven of said trustees shall be necessary to pass any measure coming before said board.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.16

SEC. 7. Whenever more than thirteen trustees are present at any meeting, the concurrence of a majority of the trustees actually present shall be necessary to pass any measure coming before said board.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.17

SEC. 8. The presiding officer shall always have one, and but one, vote on the question before the board.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.18

ARTICLE II.—SEAL

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The Board of Trustees shall provide a seal of the ordinary size, inscribed as follows:—GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.19

“General Conference Association of the Seventh-day Adventists” (the same to form an outer circle, enclosing the word “seal”).GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.20

ARTICLE III.—AMENDMENTS

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These By-laws may be added to, amended, or repealed by the vote of any fourteen trustees actually convened.GCB July 1, 1896, page 742.21

GENERAL CONFERENCE CONSTITUTION

STATE CONFERENCE CONSTITUTION