12 September 2026
Editorial · Secretariat
Secretariat communication record
TURKPOL has prepared an amendment to its statute. It is a proposal and it is not in force. Under the statute currently registered with the National Court Register (KRS), only the General Meeting of Members can amend the statute (§21 point 6 and §34), by a two-thirds majority with at least half of the members entitled to vote present. Until a General Meeting adopts the change and the KRS enters it, the registered statute is what binds TURKPOL. We are publishing the proposed text now, in full, so that members can read it before they are asked to vote on it.
The full proposed text is at /about/statute, in Polish and English.
What would change
The statute would grow from 34 paragraphs in six chapters to 54 paragraphs in eight. Two chapters would be entirely new: one on public-benefit activity, one on data protection, ethics and transparency. About thirty provisions would be added and roughly six modified.
What would not change
The name, the registered office, the objectives, and the three-part governance structure — General Meeting, Board, Audit Committee — would be carried over unchanged. So would the three categories of membership, the three-year terms, the appeal procedure in membership matters, and the two-thirds majority required to amend the statute or dissolve the association. This is an amendment, not a new constitution.
Why now — three reasons
Public-benefit status, and a deadline. TURKPOL intends to apply for status as a public-benefit organisation (organizacja pożytku publicznego). That status requires specific wording in the statute: political and religious independence, a prohibition on lending the association's assets to its own officers or their relatives, an independent supervisory body whose members are not related to or subordinate to the board, and a rule that assets on dissolution pass to another public-benefit organisation. Several of these clauses do not exist in the registered text. To receive designations from the 2026 tax year, an organisation has to be on the NIW-CRSO register by 30 November 2026, and a statute change has to be adopted by the General Meeting and registered before that — which is why the proposal is being put forward now.
To be clear about what that does and does not mean today: the 1.5% mechanism lets a taxpayer in Poland direct part of tax already owed to a public-benefit organisation, at no cost to themselves. TURKPOL cannot receive it yet and is not asking anyone for it. We will say so plainly if and when the status is granted.
European project funding. Programmes the association is positioning for — CERV, AMIF, Erasmus+, the European Solidarity Corps, the EEA Active Citizens Fund — expect provisions our statute simply does not contain: the ability to pass sub-grants to partner organisations, a distinction between paid and unpaid public-benefit activity, separate accounting, external audit, and a formal basis for hosting volunteers. Applications are marked down or rejected for their absence. The amendment would add each of them.
Governance that has caught up with the association. Several changes would simply write down how the association already works, or fix gaps a mature organisation should not have. Meetings and votes could be held remotely or in hybrid form, with remote participants counting towards the quorum — which matters for a membership split between two countries. The Board would gain a Vice-President, a quorum rule, a casting vote and a succession rule. There would be financial thresholds on who may commit the association to what: the President alone up to 20,000 złoty, two board members jointly above that, a board resolution above 100,000, and a General Meeting resolution above 300,000 or for anything involving real property. The President could not serve more than two consecutive terms. Local chapters and thematic clubs — which already exist in Warsaw, Kraków and Wrocław — would have a statutory basis.
The expulsion procedure would be stricter
Worth singling out, because it protects members rather than the organisation. The registered statute says little about how a member can be sanctioned. The proposal sets a ladder of sanctions — warning, written reprimand, suspension of the right to stand for office, expulsion — each requiring a two-thirds majority of the Board and written reasons. Expulsion on objective grounds would require prior written notice and a 30-day period to put things right. The member would have the right to be heard, and could appeal to the General Meeting within one month, during which the sanction would not be enforceable. Proceedings could not be opened more than 24 months after the conduct complained of.
Two changes members should know about specifically
The proposal would permit the Board to be remunerated, up to one times the average monthly salary in the enterprise sector, and only under a separate General Meeting resolution. No such resolution exists and the Board is not paid. The clause is proposed because EU project work can require it; the practice of serving unpaid could continue indefinitely.
The association could conduct economic activity, but only as secondary to its public-benefit work and with separate accounting. All income would go to statutory objectives. The proposal states explicitly that the association is non-profit and distributes nothing to its members.
What happens next
To take effect, the proposal has to be adopted by the General Meeting of Members, by a two-thirds majority with at least half of the members entitled to vote present. Members will be told how and when that vote takes place. If it is adopted, TURKPOL files the change with the KRS, and the amended statute takes effect once the court enters it; the public-benefit application follows. After that come the internal regulations the new statute calls for — membership fees, board and audit committee working rules, chapters and sections, volunteering, sub-granting, procurement, anti-corruption and whistleblowing.
Questions about any of this go to the secretariat.
Corrected on 13 September 2026: an earlier version of this article said the amendment had been filed with the KRS and was awaiting registration. It is a proposal that the General Meeting of Members has not yet voted on.