In short and in plain language
A club can hold its general meeting in a hybrid way. Hybrid means: members come to the hall or join over the internet.
The board can decide this on its own. It is only ruled out if the club rules say so.
The invitation must say how members take part online. That means how they join, how they speak and how they vote.
The website shows the date, the place and the plan. Each member gets the link and the papers individually, not on the public page.
We build club websites with a clear page for the meeting.
Suppose the board is in the clubhouse planning the annual general meeting: the treasurer often travels for work, two long-standing members have moved closer to their children, and the youth coach works shifts. All three want a say, and without a way to join from afar, all three would miss it. Since March 21, 2023, the German Civil Code has given clubs an explicit route for this (Federal Ministry of Justice): when the meeting is convened, it can be provided that members may also take part without being present at the venue, by means of electronic communication, and exercise their other membership rights (Section 32(2) BGB). The law calls this a hybrid meeting. What it does not regulate is how to get there: where do members find the date, how do they receive their access details, where are the annual report and the financial report, and what do they do if the sound drops out? A well-built club website answers exactly these questions. In March 2026, 628,992 associations were entered in the register of associations (ZiviZ im Stifterverband), and under the law the general meeting decides the club’s affairs to the extent that they are not handled by the board or another body of the club (Section 32(1) BGB). This article shows which details belong in the invitation, what may appear publicly on the website, what goes to members only and how voting and minutes work in two rooms at once.
Key takeaways
- Since March 21, 2023, the board can convene a hybrid general meeting without the articles of association having to authorize it (Federal Ministry of Justice). If the articles rule it out, they take precedence (Section 40 BGB).
- For a hybrid meeting, the invitation must state how members exercise their rights electronically (Section 32(2) BGB): how to join, how to ask to speak, how to vote and whom to call about the technology.
- The club website shows the date, venue and procedure publicly, with two equal routes: the hall and online. Access details and documents containing personal data go to members individually (Art. 5 GDPR).
- The hall still matters: in 2025, 10 percent of 65- to 74-year-olds had never used the internet (Destatis). Documents by post and a seat in the hall therefore belong in the planning of a hybrid meeting.
- Unless the articles say otherwise, amending them takes three quarters of the votes cast (Section 33 BGB) and only takes effect on registration (Section 71 BGB). Votes from the hall and the online room are added up.
- After the meeting, the board files changes with the register of associations. The public certification this requires may also be done by video communication (Section 77 BGB).
What the law allows and where the articles have a say
A hybrid meeting is no longer a special case. According to the press release of the Federal Ministry of Justice dated March 20, 2023, the amendment to the law on associations entered into force on March 21, 2023 (Federal Ministry of Justice). Since then, the convening body, usually the board, can decide that the general meeting is held as a hybrid meeting, and no authorization by the articles of association or by the members is required for this (Federal Ministry of Justice). Members then choose for themselves whether to come to the hall or to join remotely. Both routes are equal: whoever joins online takes part in the meeting and exercises their membership rights (Section 32(2) BGB), such as the right to speak, to propose motions and to vote.
A purely virtual meeting without a hall is a different matter. For that, the members must first resolve that future meetings may also be convened as virtual meetings (Section 32(2) BGB). During the pandemic there was a special rule for meetings held by means of electronic communication, which expired on August 31, 2022 (Federal Ministry of Justice). Anyone still using an invitation template from that time should therefore rewrite it: it may rely on a provision that no longer applies.
The catch lies in the articles of association. Section 32 BGB is one of the non-mandatory provisions and does not apply to the extent that the articles provide otherwise (Section 40 BGB). If your articles expressly require a meeting with physical attendance only, or regulate electronic participation differently, that rule takes precedence. Before planning, read the section on the general meeting: form and notice period of the invitation, quorum and election procedure. The articles are supposed to specify anyway under which conditions the meeting is to be convened, in which form and how resolutions are recorded (Section 58 BGB). If you are just founding a club, you can plan for electronic participation right away; the other steps of the founding phase are covered in New association: plan the website from day one. How a club website is set up on a small budget is described in Affordable websites for clubs.
| Feature | Hybrid meeting | Virtual meeting |
|---|---|---|
| Who decides | The convening body, usually the board, when convening | The convening body, after the members have authorized it |
| Participation | In the hall or electronically, as each member prefers | Electronically only |
| Venue | Remains in place | Not needed |
| Required detail in the invitation | How members exercise their rights electronically | How members exercise their rights electronically |
| Legal basis | Section 32(2), sentence 1 BGB | Section 32(2), sentence 2 BGB |
The invitation: what the electronic route must state
Two sentences of the law apply to the invitation at the same time. For a resolution to be valid, its subject must be specified when the meeting is convened (Section 32(1) BGB), so the agenda has to list every item that will be voted on. And when a hybrid or virtual meeting is convened, the invitation must also state how members can exercise their rights by means of electronic communication (Section 32(2) BGB). The ministry adds that the convening body also decides on the electronic communication channels through which participation without presence at the venue is to be made possible (Federal Ministry of Justice). A sentence like “Online participation is possible” is not enough. The invitation should state specifically:
- Date, time and venue in the hall, plus the complete agenda with all motions to be voted on.
- Which conferencing system is used for online participation and whether a browser is enough or an installation is required.
- How and by when members register for online participation and how they will receive their personal access details.
- How requests to speak work, in the hall and online, and who manages the order of speakers.
- How voting works: openly by raising a hand on camera, via a voting function or through a separate procedure for secret ballots.
- Who can be reached about technical questions, with a phone number, and when the tech check takes place.
The website does not replace the invitation required by the articles. If the articles say that members are invited in writing or by email, that is the route that applies. The club website is the second track: it repeats the date and the procedure, holds the instructions for joining online and stays up to date until the meeting if a room or a contact person changes. Because members usually receive the invitation by email, the sender deserves a look: an own domain with a club address looks more trustworthy than a private mailbox, and with properly configured SPF, DKIM and DMARC the invitation lands in the spam folder less often. For members without an email address the letter remains, and in that case the website gives a phone number where someone can have the instructions read out to them.
The meeting page: two routes of equal size
In the weeks before the date, the home page carries a narrow banner: annual general meeting, date, venue and a link to the details page. This details page is the heart of it. It opens with two boxes of equal size side by side, stacked on a phone: “Join in the hall” and “Join online”. Neither route is the norm with the other as the exception, and that is exactly how the page should look. Below follow the instructions for joining online, the registration form and a note on how members get the documents. Whether this needs a separate subpage or a section on a one-page website is enough depends on the size of the club website; the trade-offs are described in One page or several pages: what a starter website needs.
Join in the hall
Address of the venue, directions, a note on step-free access, the time doors open and what happens at the entrance, such as handing out voting cards against a signature on the attendance list.
Join online
Name of the conferencing system, whether a browser is enough, the registration deadline and the fact that personal access details arrive by email. The dial-in link itself does not belong on the public page.
Tech check
A slot a few days before the meeting where members try out sound, camera and a test vote. Those who took part find their way into the room more easily on the evening.
Contact person
Name and phone number of someone who does not chair the meeting on the evening but answers technical questions and relays requests to speak from the online room to the hall.
The figures of the Federal Statistical Office show why both routes have to stay visible. In 2025, 87 percent of 65- to 74-year-olds had used the internet in the last three months (Destatis). At the same time, 10 percent of this age group were offline, having never used the internet (Destatis). Across all age groups from 16 to 74, the share was just over 3 percent (Destatis). A meeting held only online would therefore shut out some of the long-standing members a club can least afford to lose. Conversely, the internet has long been part of everyday volunteering: as early as 2019, 57.0 percent of volunteers said they used the internet for their voluntary work (Freiwilligensurvey 2019). What websites need to offer older visitors is covered in Reaching customers over 65 online.
On this page, accessibility does not start with the technology but with the instructions. Write up online participation in short, numbered steps, in a readable font with clear contrast, and offer the instructions as a printout too. Think about sound: according to the World Health Organization, over 25 percent of people older than 60 worldwide are affected by disabling hearing loss (WHO). A room microphone that only reaches the board table makes it hard for exactly these members to follow the meeting online. A handheld microphone for contributions from the hall and, where the conferencing system offers it, on-screen captions help. What makes a website accessible in general is summarized in Accessible website: does the BFSG apply to small businesses?.
What is public and what members only receive
A club website is public. Everything on it is read by neighbors, the press and search engines alike. For the meeting, this means that the date, venue, procedure and instructions for joining online belong on the page. Access details, a financial report with individual items, motions with names and the list of attendees do not. The General Data Protection Regulation requires personal data to be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for the purposes of processing (Art. 5 GDPR). An agenda without names can be published if the club wishes; there is no obligation to do so.
| Content | Public on the club website | Sent personally to members only |
|---|---|---|
| Date, venue and start time | Yes, on the home page and meeting page | Also in the invitation |
| Agenda | Possible, without names of those proposing motions | Complete, with all motions |
| Instructions for joining online | Yes, step by step | Short version in the invitation |
| Personal access details | not included | Yes, individually for each member |
| Annual and financial report | At most a summary | In full, before the meeting |
| Attendance and voting list | not included | Only for the chair and the minutes |
There are two good routes for the documents. The simplest: they go out with the invitation by email to every member, and by post to members without an email address. The second: a protected members’ area on the website where each member uses their own login to download the annual report, the financial report and the motions. It pays off for clubs that distribute documents regularly, but it is technology that needs looking after: creating accounts, blocking access after someone leaves, resetting passwords. At Webstart, a members’ area is a special case that we calculate individually; we name the fixed amount before you commission anything, as described on the Pricing page. What does not exist is a third route via a document that is simply not linked anywhere.
A hidden link is not protection
If the club uses a rented conferencing service for online participation, that service usually processes members’ names, images and voices on the club’s behalf. In that case the club may only use processors providing sufficient guarantees for appropriate technical and organizational measures (Art. 28 GDPR), and processing is governed by a contract that sets out its subject matter, duration, nature and purpose (Art. 28 GDPR). A section in the website’s privacy policy explaining which data arise during online participation is part of this. The basics are summarized in GDPR basics for a small website.
Register, take the floor, vote
The law does not require registration for online participation, but it makes the evening easier to plan. It shows how many people will join remotely, whether the technology is sufficient and who should receive personal access details. A form on the meeting page needs only a few fields for this: name, email address and an open field for questions. The shorter it is, the more likely people are to fill it in; Contact form: more inquiries with fewer fields explains why. Whether someone is a member is checked by the board against its own membership list, not through additional required fields.
The hybrid format does not change the majorities. Resolutions are decided by a majority of the votes cast (Section 32(1) BGB), and votes from the hall and from the online room count equally. A resolution amending the articles of association requires a majority of three quarters of the votes cast (Section 33 BGB). Changing the club’s purpose requires the consent of all members, and members who did not attend must give their consent in text form (Section 33 BGB). Here too, the articles can provide otherwise (Section 40 BGB). The same sequence is recommended for every vote:
- Establish who is entitled to vote: the number in the hall from the voting cards handed out, the number online from registered and actually connected members.
- Read out the motion and show it on the shared screen so that the hall and the online room see the same wording.
- Call on speakers from both rooms in turn; the contact person for the technology relays requests to speak from the online room.
- Vote: in the hall by voting card, online via the voting function or by name with a raised hand on camera.
- Add up the results from both rooms, announce them aloud and enter them in the minutes with yes votes, no votes and abstentions.
Secret ballots are more difficult. If the articles require them or the meeting decides on one, the online route must also keep the vote secret, and a raised hand on camera cannot do that. Clarify before sending the invitation which procedure you will use, and describe it in the invitation so that it surprises nobody on the evening. Small clubs also have the option of a resolution without a meeting: it is valid if all members declare their consent to the resolution in text form (Section 32(3) BGB). For an election with several candidates this is rarely practical, but for a single, uncontroversial question it sometimes is.
One chair, two rooms
Tech check and plan B
A hybrid meeting can stall in the hall before the network even comes into play: the microphone only reaches the podium, the camera shows a wall, the screen with the remote members stands behind the chair. A rehearsal in the clubhouse with the same equipment that will run on the evening reveals this. For members, the meeting page offers a trial slot a few days beforehand: dial in, check the sound, run a test vote. Those who took part need less help on the evening, and the contact person can look after those joining for the first time.
In case the connection drops, the plan is set out in the invitation or in rules of procedure adopted beforehand: a pause, a second way to dial in by phone and the question of whether an agenda item is postponed if remote members can no longer take part. How such outages are to be assessed legally depends on the individual case and on the articles; before contentious resolutions, legal advice is worthwhile. The website helps in a very practical way here: a short note on the meeting page that the meeting is paused and when it will resume reaches everyone who is not connected at that moment. For that to work, the person with access to the website needs to be reachable on the evening.
After the meeting: minutes, register, website
How resolutions are recorded is to be specified in the articles (Section 58 BGB). For the minutes of a hybrid meeting, it is worth recording the form of participation: how many members entitled to vote were in the hall, how many online, and for every vote the result from both rooms. If the meeting elected a new board, every change to the board must be filed for registration by the board, together with a copy of the document recording the change (Section 67 BGB). An amendment to the articles requires registration in the register of associations to take effect (Section 71 BGB). Filings must be made by publicly certified declaration (Section 77 BGB), and public certification by video communication is permitted (Section 77 BGB). So this step, too, can be done without traveling.
Three steps follow on the website. First, the banner on the home page turns into a short review, without the names of speakers and without voting lists. Second, the board page and the legal notice are updated as soon as the new board is in office; what has to appear there is described in Legal notice requirements for your website. Third, amended articles are published as a new version only after registration, with the date of registration. Until then the previous version stays online, otherwise the page shows articles that do not yet apply.
From the board decision to the review
- Read the articles: form of invitation, notice period, election procedure and any rules on electronic participation. If anything is unclear, get legal advice before sending the invitation.
- Decide in the board that the meeting will be hybrid and choose the conferencing system together with the voting method.
- Set up the meeting page: date, venue, two routes, instructions, registration form and contact person. The banner on the home page links to it.
- Send the invitation as the articles require, with the agenda and the statement of how members exercise their rights electronically.
- Provide the documents by email, by post or in the members’ area, and hold the tech check.
- On the evening, keep chairing the meeting and looking after the online room separate, and minute the results from both rooms.
- Afterward, post the review on the website, update the board page and legal notice and file changes with the register of associations.
At Webstart, a meeting page like this is part of what a club website should do: dates, news and a contact or registration form that sends inquiries straight to the club mailbox. The board maintains dates and notices itself after a short introduction. The banner on the home page, the details page with two routes and the form are built within the fixed-price packages. If nobody on the board has time for changes, they can be handed over to the optional website maintenance. The club chooses the conferencing system and the voting method itself; the meeting page then explains how members take part with them.
The next step
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