Most groups treat the constitution as a registration formality and copy one from another organisation. Then a dispute arises, they read it properly for the first time, and discover it does not describe them.
What a constitution is for
It answers, in advance and in writing, questions that are impossible to settle fairly in the middle of an argument. Who has authority. How that authority is granted and removed. What happens to the money. What happens if the organisation ends.
The clauses that matter
Name and address. Exactly as it will be registered.
Vision, mission and objectives. Specific enough to guide decisions. Objectives so broad that any activity fits provide no guidance at all, and registrars increasingly query them.
Area of operation. The parish, sub-county or district. This determines where you register.
Membership. Who may join, how, what it costs, what rights members have, and how membership ends. Include how someone is expelled and their right to be heard first.
Governance structure. The general assembly, the executive committee, and any subcommittees, with the powers of each. Be explicit about what the committee may decide alone and what requires the whole membership.
Officers. Each position, its duties, the term, the maximum number of consecutive terms, how elections are conducted, and how an officer is removed before the end of a term.
Meetings. How often, notice required, quorum, and how decisions are taken when there is no agreement.
Finance. The financial year, the requirement for an account in the organisation's name, at least two signatories from different households, spending limits requiring committee approval, and who keeps the books.
Conflict of interest. That members declare any personal interest in a decision and take no part in it. Registrars look for this and communities need it.
Dispute resolution. The internal steps before any external body is involved.
Amendment. What majority is needed, and at what kind of meeting.
Dissolution. How the organisation is wound up and where remaining assets go, which must be another non-profit with similar objectives and never to members.
The three clauses groups regret omitting
- Removal of officers. Without it, a chairperson who stops functioning cannot be replaced without a crisis.
- Conflict of interest. Without it, awarding a contract to a member's business looks like corruption even when it was the cheapest option.
- Dissolution. Without it, assets are fought over by former members.
Write it for the people who will use it
Use plain language and short sentences. If members cannot read it, it cannot govern them. Where the community's main language is not English, prepare a translation and read it aloud at the founding meeting.
Number the clauses. In a dispute, people need to point at a number.
Adopting it
- Circulate the draft before the meeting.
- Read it aloud, clause by clause, at the founding meeting.
- Take amendments and vote.
- Record the adoption in the minutes, with the date.
- Have officers sign, and keep signed copies with the records and with the district office.
Should we copy another organisation's constitution?
Use one as a structural guide, not as a template to fill in. A copied constitution typically carries an area of operation, a governance structure and a membership model that do not match your group, and the mismatch surfaces at the worst moment. Read every clause and ask whether it describes you.
Review it
Read it once a year at an annual general meeting. Organisations change; constitutions should be amended deliberately rather than quietly ignored, because a constitution that everyone knows is not followed provides no protection at all.