Statutes Frauenheldinnen e.V.

§ 1 Name, registered office and financial year

• The name of the orga­ni­za­tion is Frauen­heldin­nen e.V..
• It has its reg­is­tered office in 41061 Mönchenglad­bach.
• After con­fir­ma­tion of the non-prof­it sta­tus, it uses the addi­tion non-prof­it.
• The fis­cal year is the cal­en­dar year.

§ 2 Purpose of the association, non-profit status

• The Asso­ci­a­tion, which has its reg­is­tered office in Mönchenglad­bach, exclu­sive­ly and direct­ly pur­sues char­i­ta­ble pur­pos­es with­in the mean­ing of the sec­tion “Tax-priv­i­leged pur­pos­es” of the Ger­man Tax Code.
• The pur­pose of Frauen­heldin­nen e.V. is to pro­mote equal rights for women and men and to pro­mote the pro­tec­tion of mar­riage and fam­i­ly.
• The pur­pose of the asso­ci­a­tion is real­ized in par­tic­u­lar by:

1. Edu­cat­ing the pub­lic and stu­dents, women, moth­ers, and les­bian women about their rights, pro­tec­tive rights, con­strict­ing gen­der role stereo­types, and cur­rent threats to their rights;
2. the pro­vi­sion of dona­tions in cash and in kind to ini­tia­tives and com­mit­ted indi­vid­ual women who are them­selves nei­ther a non-prof­it asso­ci­a­tion nor a polit­i­cal par­ty, but who real­ize con­cerns cor­re­spond­ing to the pur­pose of the asso­ci­a­tion;
3. Lec­tures and events in accor­dance with the pur­pose of the asso­ci­a­tion;
4. Edu­ca­tion and lob­by­ing of social and polit­i­cal deci­sion-mak­ers;
5. the issuance of free and paid infor­ma­tion mate­ri­als (pub­li­ca­tions, books and web­sites);
6. Indi­vid­ual case assis­tance and legal aid.

• For the ful­fill­ment of these statu­to­ry pur­pos­es, appro­pri­ate funds shall be raised and used through con­tri­bu­tions, appor­tion­ments, dona­tions, grants and oth­er con­tri­bu­tions.
• The asso­ci­a­tion is self­less­ly active; it does not pri­mar­i­ly pur­sue its own eco­nom­ic pur­pos­es. The Association’s funds may only be used for pur­pos­es in accor­dance with the Arti­cles of Asso­ci­a­tion. Mem­bers shall not receive any ben­e­fits from the funds of the Asso­ci­a­tion in their capac­i­ty as mem­bers. Remu­ner­a­tion is per­mis­si­ble with­in the scope of Sec­tion 3 No. 26 of the Ger­man Income Tax Act (EStG). No per­son may ben­e­fit from expens­es that are alien to the pur­pose of the asso­ci­a­tion or from dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly high remu­ner­a­tion.

§ 3 Acquisition of membership

• Any nat­ur­al per­son or legal enti­ty that rec­og­nizes and sup­ports the pur­pose of the Asso­ci­a­tion may become an ordi­nary mem­ber of the Asso­ci­a­tion.
• Admis­sion to the Asso­ci­a­tion must be applied for in writ­ing to the Board of Direc­tors. In the case of minors, the appli­ca­tion for mem­ber­ship must be sub­mit­ted by their legal rep­re­sen­ta­tives. The Board of Direc­tors decides on the appli­ca­tion for mem­ber­ship at its own dis­cre­tion. He/she does not have to give rea­sons for refusal of the appli­ca­tion to the per­son mak­ing the appli­ca­tion.
• Upon pro­pos­al of the Exec­u­tive Board, the Gen­er­al Assem­bly may appoint mem­bers or oth­er per­sons who have ren­dered out­stand­ing ser­vices to the Asso­ci­a­tion as hon­orary mem­bers for life.

§ 4 End of membership

• Mem­ber­ship in the asso­ci­a­tion ends with death (in the case of legal enti­ties with their extinc­tion), res­ig­na­tion or exclu­sion.
• The res­ig­na­tion must be declared in writ­ing to the Exec­u­tive Board. Res­ig­na­tion can only be declared with a notice peri­od of three months to the end of the fis­cal year.
• An ordi­nary mem­ber may be expelled from the asso­ci­a­tion by a major­i­ty deci­sion of the board of direc­tors if he or she a) cul­pa­bly dam­ages the rep­u­ta­tion or the inter­ests of the asso­ci­a­tion in a seri­ous man­ner or b) is more than three months in arrears with the pay­ment of its mem­ber­ship fees and has not paid the arrears despite a writ­ten reminder under threat of exclu­sion. The deci­sion must be com­mu­ni­cat­ed to the mem­ber in writ­ing and rea­sons must be giv­en.
• The gen­er­al meet­ing will be informed about the exclu­sion. An appeal against the deci­sion of the Board is pos­si­ble to the Gen­er­al Assem­bly if it is sub­mit­ted in writ­ing to the Board no lat­er than one month after the deci­sion. The rights of the per­son to be exclud­ed shall be sus­pend­ed until the next ordi­nary gen­er­al meet­ing. The mem­ber shall be giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to com­ment on the rea­sons for the exclu­sion at the gen­er­al meet­ing. The Gen­er­al Meet­ing shall then decide on the exclu­sion by sim­ple major­i­ty.

§ 5 Rights and duties of ordinary members

• Every full mem­ber has equal vot­ing and elec­tion rights in the gen­er­al meet­ing.
• Every full mem­ber has the duty to pro­mote the inter­ests of the asso­ci­a­tion, in par­tic­u­lar to pay his mem­ber­ship fees reg­u­lar­ly and, as far as he is able, to sup­port the life of the asso­ci­a­tion through his coop­er­a­tion.

§ 6 Admission fee and membership fees

• Every full mem­ber has to pay a mem­ber­ship fee accord­ing to the mem­ber­ship fee reg­u­la­tions.
• The amount of the mem­ber­ship fees is deter­mined by the gen­er­al meet­ing in a mem­ber­ship fee reg­u­la­tion.
• Hon­orary mem­bers are exempt from mem­ber­ship fees.

§ 7 Sustaining membership/extraordinary members

• Any nat­ur­al or legal per­son who rec­og­nizes the pur­pose of the Asso­ci­a­tion and who is will­ing to sup­port the Asso­ci­a­tion ide­al­ly and/or finan­cial­ly in accor­dance with the con­tri­bu­tion rules may become an extra­or­di­nary sus­tain­ing mem­ber.
• Asso­ciate mem­bers, unlike reg­u­lar mem­bers, do not have vot­ing rights at gen­er­al meet­ings and can­not be elect­ed to the Board of Direc­tors.
• The board of direc­tors decides on the writ­ten appli­ca­tion for mem­ber­ship. The rejec­tion of an appli­ca­tion for admis­sion does not require any jus­ti­fi­ca­tion and is final. The sus­tain­ing mem­ber­ship does not give rise to any claims on the part of the asso­ci­a­tion against the sus­tain­ing mem­ber.
• The spon­sor­ing mem­ber­ship ends by death, res­ig­na­tion or exclu­sion by the board of direc­tors. Expul­sion is pos­si­ble if the sus­tain­ing mem­ber caus­es last­ing dam­age to the inter­ests and pub­lic rep­u­ta­tion of the Asso­ci­a­tion, or is more than three months in arrears with the sus­tain­ing fees and has not paid the arrears despite a writ­ten reminder under threat of expul­sion.

§ 8 Bodies of the association

The organs of the asso­ci­a­tion are the board of direc­tors, the gen­er­al meet­ing and the advi­so­ry board.

§ 9 Executive Board

• The board of direc­tors con­sists at least of the chair­woman and her deputy. It can have up to 5 mem­bers in total.
• The chair­per­son and her deputy each rep­re­sent the asso­ci­a­tion alone.
• The mem­bers of the Board of Man­age­ment may be paid an appro­pri­ate remu­ner­a­tion. Its amount is deter­mined by the finan­cial reg­u­la­tions, which are decid­ed by the gen­er­al meet­ing.
• The Chair­woman of the Board is an adult female. The major­i­ty of the mem­bers of the Board of Man­age­ment shall be female.

§ 10 Tasks of the Management Board

The Exec­u­tive Board of the Asso­ci­a­tion is respon­si­ble for rep­re­sent­ing the Asso­ci­a­tion in accor­dance with § 26 of the Ger­man Civ­il Code (BGB) and for man­ag­ing its busi­ness. § Sec­tion 181 of the Ger­man Civ­il Code (Insichgeschäfte) shall not apply. The Board of Direc­tors has the fol­low­ing duties in par­tic­u­lar:

1. the con­ven­ing and prepa­ra­tion of gen­er­al meet­ings, includ­ing the draw­ing up of the agen­da,
2. the exe­cu­tion of res­o­lu­tions of the gen­er­al meet­ing,
3. the man­age­ment of the association’s assets and the prepa­ra­tion of the annu­al report,
4. the admis­sion of new mem­bers and sup­port­ing mem­bers,
5. the exclu­sion of sup­port­ing mem­bers from the asso­ci­a­tion,
6. the appoint­ment of the office.

§ 11 Appointment of the Management Board

• The mem­bers of the Board of Direc­tors are elect­ed indi­vid­u­al­ly by the Gen­er­al Meet­ing for a peri­od of three years. Only mem­bers of the Asso­ci­a­tion may be mem­bers of the Board; mem­ber­ship in the Asso­ci­a­tion also ends mem­ber­ship in the Board. The re-elec­tion or ear­ly dis­missal of a mem­ber by the gen­er­al meet­ing is per­mis­si­ble. A mem­ber shall remain in office after the expi­ra­tion of the reg­u­lar term until the elec­tion of his suc­ces­sor.
• If a mem­ber leaves the board pre­ma­ture­ly, the remain­ing mem­bers of the board are enti­tled to elect a mem­ber of the asso­ci­a­tion to the board until the suc­ces­sor is elect­ed by the gen­er­al meet­ing.

§ Section 12 Consultation and Resolutions of the Board of Management

• The Board of Direc­tors shall meet as required. The meet­ings shall be con­vened by the Chair­woman of the Board of Man­age­ment or, if she is unable to do so, by her deputy. A notice peri­od of one week shall be observed. The Board of Direc­tors has a quo­rum if at least two mem­bers are present. The major­i­ty of the valid votes cast shall be deci­sive in the pass­ing of res­o­lu­tions. In the event of a tie, the Chair­per­son shall have the cast­ing vote, or, if the Chair­per­son is unable to attend, the Vice Chair­per­son shall have the cast­ing vote.
• The res­o­lu­tions of the Board of Direc­tors shall be record­ed in the min­utes. The min­utes shall be signed by the keep­er of the min­utes and by the Chair­per­son, or in her absence by her deputy or anoth­er mem­ber of the Exec­u­tive Board.

§ 13 Tasks of the General Meeting

The Gen­er­al Meet­ing is respon­si­ble for deci­sions in the fol­low­ing mat­ters:

1. Amend­ments to the Arti­cles of Asso­ci­a­tion,
2. the deter­mi­na­tion of the con­tri­bu­tion reg­u­la­tions and the finan­cial reg­u­la­tions,
3. the appoint­ment of hon­orary mem­bers as well as the exclu­sion of ordi­nary mem­bers from the asso­ci­a­tion,
4. the elec­tion and dis­missal of the mem­bers of the Exec­u­tive Board and the cash audi­tor,
5. the accep­tance of the annu­al report and the dis­charge of the Exec­u­tive Board,
6. the dis­so­lu­tion of the asso­ci­a­tion.

§ 14 Convening of the General Meeting

• At least once a year, if pos­si­ble in the first quar­ter, an ordi­nary gen­er­al meet­ing is to be con­vened by the board of direc­tors. The meet­ing shall be con­vened in writ­ing, giv­ing four weeks’ notice and stat­ing the agen­da.
• The agen­da is set by the Exec­u­tive Board. Each mem­ber of the asso­ci­a­tion can request an addi­tion to the agen­da in writ­ing to the board of direc­tors at least one week before the gen­er­al meet­ing. The Board of Direc­tors decides on the appli­ca­tion. The Gen­er­al Meet­ing shall decide on motions on the agen­da which have not been includ­ed by the Exec­u­tive Board or which are put for­ward for the first time at the Gen­er­al Meet­ing by a major­i­ty of the votes of the mem­bers present; this shall not apply to motions which have as their object an amend­ment to the Arti­cles of Asso­ci­a­tion, changes in mem­ber­ship fees or the dis­so­lu­tion of the Asso­ci­a­tion.
• The Exec­u­tive Board shall con­vene an extra­or­di­nary Gen­er­al Meet­ing if the inter­ests of the Asso­ci­a­tion so require or if at least one tenth of the mem­bers request this in writ­ing, stat­ing the pur­pose and the rea­sons.

§ 15 Adoption of resolutions by the General Meeting

• The Gen­er­al Meet­ing shall be chaired by the Chair­woman of the Board, or, if she is unable to do so, by her deputy, and, if she is unable to do so, by a chair­man of the meet­ing to be elect­ed by the Gen­er­al Meet­ing.
• The quo­rum of the Gen­er­al Assem­bly shall be the num­ber of mem­bers present.
• The gen­er­al meet­ing decides by open vote with the major­i­ty of the votes of the mem­bers present. If, in the case of elec­tions, no can­di­date can obtain the major­i­ty of the votes of the mem­bers present, the per­son who has obtained the major­i­ty of the valid votes cast shall be elect­ed; a run-off elec­tion shall be held between sev­er­al can­di­dates. Res­o­lu­tions to amend the Arti­cles of Asso­ci­a­tion shall require a major­i­ty of three quar­ters, and res­o­lu­tions to amend the pur­pose or dis­solve the Asso­ci­a­tion shall require the approval of nine tenths of the mem­bers present.
• Min­utes shall be tak­en of the pro­ceed­ings of the Gen­er­al Meet­ing and the res­o­lu­tions adopt­ed, and shall be signed by the keep­er of the min­utes and the chair­man of the meet­ing.

§ 16 The Funding Advisory Board

• The Asso­ci­a­tion may appoint a Sup­port Advi­so­ry Board, which shall serve in an advi­so­ry capac­i­ty to the Board of Direc­tors. Its rec­om­men­da­tions on the allo­ca­tion of funds serve as a deci­sion-mak­ing aid for the Board of Man­age­ment.
• Its appoint­ment, the dura­tion of its appoint­ment and the nature of its activ­i­ties shall be gov­erned by the Advi­so­ry Board Rules.
• The mem­bers of the advi­so­ry board have the right to par­tic­i­pate — with­out the right to vote — in the gen­er­al meet­ings of the asso­ci­a­tion, unless they are already mem­bers of the asso­ci­a­tion.

§ 17 The office

• The Asso­ci­a­tion may estab­lish an office with salaried employ­ees to ful­fill its tasks. This takes over orga­ni­za­tion­al and admin­is­tra­tive tasks for the asso­ci­a­tion. This includes admin­is­tra­tion and account­ing; data pro­cess­ing in accor­dance with the DSGVO; mem­ber man­age­ment and sup­port of the work­ing groups.
• The Board of Direc­tors is respon­si­ble for select­ing and hir­ing employ­ees. They are respon­si­ble to the Board of Direc­tors.
• The remu­ner­a­tion of the office staff is gov­erned by the Finan­cial Reg­u­la­tions.

§ 18 The cash audit

• The gen­er­al meet­ing elects a cash audi­tor. The term of office is three years. Re-elec­tion is per­mit­ted. The cash audi­tor may nei­ther be a mem­ber of the exec­u­tive board nor pur­sue a paid activ­i­ty with­in the asso­ci­a­tion. In the event of a res­ig­na­tion, by-elec­tions may be held at an ordi­nary gen­er­al meet­ing for the remain­der of the term of office.
• The cash audi­tor has the task of check­ing the man­age­ment to ensure that income and expen­di­ture are doc­u­ment­ed and that eco­nom­ic and eco­nom­i­cal pro­ce­dures have been fol­lowed. He or she shall report the results of the audit in writ­ing to the Gen­er­al Meet­ing.

§ 19 Dissolution of the Association, termination for other reasons, discontinuation of tax-privileged purposes

• In the event of the dis­so­lu­tion of the Asso­ci­a­tion, the Chair­per­son of the Board and her deputy shall be joint­ly autho­rized liq­uida­tors, unless the Gen­er­al Meet­ing appoints oth­er per­sons.
• In the event of the dis­so­lu­tion or annul­ment of the Asso­ci­a­tion or in the event of the dis­con­tin­u­a­tion of tax-priv­i­leged pur­pos­es, the assets of the Asso­ci­a­tion shall fall to Sis­ters e.V..
• The above pro­vi­sions shall apply mutatis mutan­dis if the asso­ci­a­tion has been deprived of its legal capac­i­ty.

Mönchenglad­bach, 15.3.2023