§ 1 Name and seat of the Association

The Association shall bear the name “Gay Homeland Foundation”. The seat of the Association is Cologne, Germany. The association shall be chartered.

§ 2 Purpose of the Association

(1) The purpose of the Association is the foundation of one or more self-administrated settlements („colonies“) for homosexuals of both genders and transgendered individuals (in the following: „GLBT-community“), as well as the promotion of the economic, cultural and political development of such colonies.

(2) Furthermore, the purpose of the Association is to examine the possibility of the foundation of a free, independent, and democratic state for the GLBT-community. The intent shall be to explore methods by which a habitable tract of land in a suitable region of the world could be legally purchased or erected through technical means towards this purpose.

(3) Furthermore, the declared intent of the Association shall be, by encouraging of migration to the mentioned colonies or to the still-to-be created state, to offer a means by which persecuted homosexuals and transgendered individuals may escape discrimination and threats, and establish a life in a free and protected surrounding.

(4) The Association shall dedicate itself to the promotion of the cultural, economic and political development of the GLBT-community, and shall aim to strengthen the common identity as people, as well as to improve the reputation and protection of its nationals in the world.

(5) The association further avows the world-wide protection of human dignity and the individual’s right to personal liberty (inclusive of sexual self-determination) as one of its core tasks.

(6) Financial means of the Association shall be used only for purposes of the Association in accordance with these statutes. Association's members as such do not receive any payments from the means of the Association.

(7) No person may be favored by inappropriately high payments or by spending not related to the purposes of the Association.

(8) Reimbursement of legitimate expenses is possible. The decision shall be made by the Executive Committee in accordance with Financial Rules of Procedure.

§ 3 Business year and accounting

(1) The business year is the calendar year. The first business year ends on December 31 of the foundation year.

(2) The Executive Committee shall set up the financial report on the past business year until March 31 of the current year.

(3) The revision of the financial report is performed by a revisor entrusted with this task by the General Assembly.

§ 4 Record keeping

(1) All records and minutes of the Association as well as internal correspondence shall be kept in English.

(2) Copies in German shall be made of all resolutions of the Executive Committee and of the General Assembly, of the financial reports as well of each current version of the Statutes, Financial and Operational Rules of Procedure. This may be carried out through any linguistically qualified Association member in good standing, as long as the Executive Committee confirms the correctness of the translation in writing.

(3) Where possible, all important resolutions, documents and internet web pages shall be made available in additional languages.

§ 5 Membership

(1) Any natural person, who declares his/her readiness to assist in the work of the Association and does acknowledge the Statutes, may become a member. The decision to admit shall be made by the Executive Committee. In the case the application was rejected, the candidate is allowed to appeal to the General Assembly for a hearing.

(2) Members have the right to vote, to elect and to be elected.

(3) The membership terminates by resignation, expulsion or death.

(4) Any member may terminate his/her membership in writing without declaring any reasons for doing so. Such withdrawal shall become effective upon the date of receipt by the Association of the member’s written notification.

(5) A member may be expelled in the event of serious infractions of his/her duties or obligations to the Association or in the event of any behavior deemed harmful to the Association to a high extent. A serious infraction is deemed to have occurred if a member has not paid his/her dues to the Association for a period of one year; or, if an Executive Committee member discloses confidential information from a member’s file to unauthorized parties; or, in the event that an Executive Committee member in bad faith fails to prevent any individual member or the Association as a whole from coming to harm by failing to warn the Association of any impending danger. A behavior harmful to the Association to a high extent shall be deemed to have occurred if, among other things, a member has embezzled the assets of the Association or has undertaken any activity unambiguously contrary to the purposes of the Association.

(6) The decision to expel a member shall be made by the Executive Committee. The member shall be granted the right to provide an explanatory statement within a four week period, and this statement should be taken into consideration. The concerned member may appeal to the internal Court of Arbitration against the decision within a one month period. Until the Court of Arbitration has made an adjudication, the membership is suspended.

§ 6 Corporative Members

(1) Groups, associations and legal entities may join the Association as corporative members. For corporative membership § 5 (1), (3)-(6) apply accordingly.

(2) Corporative members have the right to introduce a motion on the General Assembly, to vote and to elect, but not to be elected.

§ 7 Patronage Members

(1) Any natural person or legal entity can become a patronage member of the Association. For patronage membership § 5 (1), (3)-(6) apply accordingly.

(2) Patronage members may not vote, elect or be elected.

§ 8 Membership Dues

(1) Membership dues shall be levied. The period and amount of payments are regulated by the Financial Rules of Procedure.

(2) Financial Rules of Procedure shall be determined by a resolution of the General Assembly.

(3) The Court of Arbitration may suspend membership dues for a particular member who is not able to pay his/her contributions because of sickness, unusual hardship or poverty.

§ 9 General Assembly

(1) The General Assembly shall be summoned at least once in a year, in a form determined by the Executive Committee. A teleconference as a form of the assembly is expressly allowed, if the identity of participants can be ascertained. The General Assembly appoints the financial controller, elects the Executive Committee and decides on motions introduced by members or by the Executive Committee.

(2) A vote is to be arranged stringently upon motions of the Executive Committee or its members, upon motions of corporative members and upon motions petitioned by at least 10 percent of the general membership entitled to vote.

(3) Membership of the Association shall be informed by the Executive Committee about the forthcoming General Assembly with indication of the subject. Proper announcement of the forthcoming General Assembly implies that the Executive Committee undertakes a good-faith effort to notify all members in a timely manner of the date, submitted motions and the form in which the General Assembly will take place. The notification shall be sent at least twice by mail or e-mail and announced on the Association's website.

(4) Any resolution of the General Assembly is considered valid, if

a) all members of the Association participated on the vote, or
b) at least 6 weeks elapsed after the proper announcement and before the commencement of the Assembly.

(5) Votes concerning a change in the purpose of the Association or the dissolution of the Association shall require a written ballot. In such cases, the result shall be considered valid if at least a 3/4 majority of the votes received at the Association seat within six weeks following the dispatch of such ballots is in favor of such a change in the purpose of the Association or the dissolution of the Association. The notification shall be considered as delivered, if it was sent to the last address known to the Association.

§ 10 Executive Committee

(1) The Executive Committee consists of at least three members, among them the treasurer. The Executive Committee shall establish Rules of Procedure for its operations, elect its presiding member and specify the responsibilities of Committee's members.

(2) The Executive Committee represents the Association in and out of court and is authorized to enter into contracts and to use the property of the Association in a statutory manner. Two members of the Executive Committee may countersign together. The General Assembly may restrict Committee's power of disposition of assets by a resolution passed through a 2/3 majority. Such restriction shall be notified at the responsible local court (at the seat of the Association) to become effective towards third parties.

(3) Minutes of meetings of the Executive Committee shall be kept and must be signed by at least two members of the Committee.

(4) The composition of the Executive Committee shall be determined by Association members by means of apart vote on each position (cf. § 9), whereby the first order of business shall be to determine the number of Executive Committee members.

(5) Members of the Executive Committee shall be appointed for a period of two years. Re-election is possible. Members of the Executive Committee shall remain in charge until a new Executive Committee is elected.

(6) In the case that any position on the Executive Committee becomes vacantly, the Executive Committee shall appoint a member to this position. The appointment requires a confirmation by the next General Assembly.

(7) Voting out individual members of the Executive Committee shall only be possible in the case of a behavior harmful to the Association or in the case of an obvious incapacity to perform business according to the rules.

(8) Members of Association shall be notified of any personnel changes of the Executive Committee within a seven-day period.

(9) The Executive Committee may constitute commissions as work groups to support the Committee in its labor.

(10) The Executive Committee may appoint proxies to represent the interests of the Association in particular areas or tasks.

§ 11 Court of Arbitration

(1) For resolution of disputes within the Association an internal Court of Arbitration shall be established.

(2) The arbitration duty may be executed by one or more persons together. The appointment for the office of an arbitrator shall last until recalled. The appointment as well as voting out of office of an arbitrator shall be only possible by a 2/3 majority on the General Assembly.

(3) An individual may not contemporaneously belong to the Court of Arbitration and to the Executive Committee.

(4) In case if the Court of Arbitration consists of more than one person, the judgments of the Court shall be made by simple majority of votes.

(5) The judgments of the internal Court of Arbitration shall be binding upon members.

§ 12 Dissolution of the Association

In case of dissolution the property of the Association shall be transferred to the "International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA)" (Belgium). If at the time of dissolution ILGA does not exist, the property of the Association shall be transferred to an organization with the most closely related purposes.

§ 13 Additional Clauses

(1) Members are obligated not to disclose their security authorization and access codes for the teleconference and the membership forum to any third party. In case of infraction of this clause by any member, the Association is indemnified and cannot be held liable.

(2) Insight into the complete membership roster shall be granted only to members of the Executive Committee. Insight into the membership roster may be provided to employees of the Association only in the case this is necessary for implementation of their work and only upon signing a covenant to abide data privacy protection rules. It is strictly prohibited to disclose confidential information from a member’s file to unauthorized parties. Lawyers representing interests of the Association in and out of court may be regarded as employees, if the access to the membership files is necessary for implementation of their work.

(3) In case one or multiple provisions included in these statutes shall be declared not valid by a legal court, the remaining provisions maintain their unimpaired validity. The invalid provisions shall be rewritten to conform with the requirements of the law while reflecting the initial sense of those provisions.

(4) Only law of Germany applies.

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