Terms Used In Vermont Statutes > Title 11B > Chapter 7 - Members, Meetings and Voting

• Accepted silvicultural practices: means the accepted silvicultural practices defined by the Commissioner of Forests, Parks and Recreation, including the Acceptable Management Practices for Maintaining Water Quality on Logging Jobs in Vermont adopted by the Commissioner of Forests, Parks and Recreation. See
• Agency: means the Agency of Natural Resources. See
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Annual meeting: when applied to towns shall mean the annual town meeting in March or an adjournment thereof. See
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• articles: include amended and restated articles of incorporation and articles of merger. See
• Attorney-in-fact: A person who, acting as an agent, is given written authorization by another person to transact business for him (her) out of court.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Board: means the Natural Resources Board defined by subdivision 6001(1) of this title. See
• Bona fide educational or scientific institution: means an institution that establishes through documentation that it is a tax-exempt institution under the Internal Revenue Service's educational or scientific tax exemption. See
• Bylaws: means the code or codes of rules (other than the articles) adopted pursuant to this title for the regulation or management of the affairs of the corporation, stored or depicted in any tangible or electronic medium, and irrespective of the name or names by which such rules are designated. See
• Class: refers to a group of memberships which have the same rights with respect to voting, dissolution, redemption, and transfer. See
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of Fish and Wildlife. See
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Corporation: means public benefit and mutual benefit corporation. See
• Covered animal: means any species of:

• Covered animal part or product: means any item that contains, or is wholly or partially made from, a covered animal, including the meat or flesh of a covered animal sold as food. See
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Delegates: means those persons elected or appointed to vote in a representative assembly for the election of a director or directors or on other matters. See
• delivery: means any method of delivery used in conventional commercial practice, including delivery by hand, mail, commercial delivery, and electronic transmission. See
• Destroy or adversely impact: means , with respect to critical habitat, a direct or indirect activity that negatively affects the value of critical habitat for the survival, conservation, or recovery of a listed threatened or endangered species. See
• Directors: means individuals, designated in the articles or bylaws or elected by the incorporators, and their successors and individuals elected or appointed by any other name or title to act as members of the board. See
• Endangered species: means a species listed as endangered under this chapter or under the federal Endangered Species Act. See
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• Entity: includes corporation and foreign corporation; business corporation and foreign business corporation; profit and nonprofit unincorporated association; business trust, estate, partnership, trust, and two or more persons having a joint or common economic interest; and state, United States; and foreign government. See
• Environmental Division: means the Environmental Division of the Superior Court established by 4 V. See
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• federal Endangered Species Act: means the Endangered Species Act of 1973, Public Law 93-205, as amended. See
• Fees: shall mean earnings due for official services, aside from salaries or per diem compensation. See
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• filing: means filed in the Office of the Secretary of State. See
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• following: when used by way of reference to a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. See
• Forestry operations: include the primary processing of forest products of commercial value on a parcel where the timber harvest occurs. See
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Habitat: means the physical and biological environment in which a particular species of plant or animal lives. See
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Meeting: means any structured communications conducted by participants in person or through the use of an electronic or telecommunications medium permitting simultaneous or sequentially structured communications. See
• Member: means (without regard to what a person is called in the articles or bylaws) any person or persons who on more than one occasion, pursuant to a provision of a corporation's articles or bylaws, have the right to vote for the election of a director or directors. See
• Membership: refers to the rights and obligations a member or members have pursuant to a corporation's articles, bylaws, and this title. See
• Municipality: shall include a city, town, town school district, incorporated school or fire district or incorporated village, and all other governmental incorporated units. See
• Mutual benefit corporation: means a domestic corporation which is required to be a mutual benefit corporation pursuant to section 17. See
• Person: means any individual, partnership, company, corporation, association, unincorporated association, joint venture, trust, municipality, the State of Vermont or any agency, department, or subdivision of the State, federal agency, or any other legal or commercial entity. See
• Person: includes any individual or entity. See
• Person: shall include any natural person, corporation, municipality, the State of Vermont or any department, agency, or subdivision of the State, and any partnership, unincorporated association, or other legal entity. See
• Plant: means any member of the plant kingdom, including seeds, roots, and other parts thereof. See
• Possession: means holding, controlling, exporting, importing, processing, selling, offering to sell, delivering, carrying, transporting, or shipping by any means a member of a species. See
• President pro tempore: A constitutionally recognized officer of the Senate who presides over the chamber in the absence of the Vice President. The President Pro Tempore (or, "president for a time") is elected by the Senate and is, by custom, the Senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service.
• Principal office: means the office (in or outside this State) so designated in the biennial report filed pursuant to section 16. See
• Proxy voting: The practice of allowing a legislator to cast a vote in committee for an absent legislator.
• Public benefit corporation: means a domestic corporation which is required to be a public benefit corporation pursuant to section 17. See
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Record date: means the date established under chapter 6 or 7 of this title on which a corporation determines the identity of its members for the purposes of this title. See
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Secretary: means the corporate officer to whom the board of directors has delegated responsibility under subsection 8. See
• Secretary: means the Secretary of Natural Resources. See
• Secretary: means the Secretary of Natural Resources or the Secretary's duly authorized representative. See
• Secretary: means the Secretary of Natural Resources. See
• sell: means any act of selling, trading, or bartering for monetary or nonmonetary consideration and includes any transfer of ownership that occurs in the course of a commercial transaction. See
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• signature: includes any manual, facsimile, conformed, or electronic signature. See
• Species: means wildlife or wild plants and any subspecies or other group of wildlife or wild plants of the same species, the members of which may interbreed when mature. See
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States may apply to the District of Columbia and any territory and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• taking:

• Threatened species: means a species listed as a threatened species under this chapter or determined to be a "threatened species" under the federal Endangered Species Act. See
• Town: shall include city and wards or precincts therein; "selectboard members" and "board of civil authority" shall extend to and include the mayor and aldermen of cities; "trustees" shall extend to and include bailiffs of incorporated villages; and the laws applicable to the inhabitants and officers of towns shall be applicable to the inhabitants and similar officers of all municipal corporations. See
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Village: shall mean an incorporated village. See
• Violation: means noncompliance with one or more of the statutes specified in section 8003 of this title or any related rules, permits, assurances, or orders. See
• Vote: includes authorization by written ballot and written consent. See
• Voting power: means the total number of votes entitled to be cast for the election of directors at the time the determination of voting power is made, excluding a vote which is contingent upon the happening of a condition or event that has not occurred at the time. See
• Wildlife: means any member of a nondomesticated species of the animal kingdom, whether reared in captivity or not, including any mammal, fish, bird, amphibian, reptile, mollusk, crustacean, arthropod, or other invertebrate and also including any part, product, egg, offspring, dead body, or part of the dead body of any such wildlife. See