N.Y. Ben. Ord. Law § 7
May unite in forming a corporation, providing they do not hold membership in a similar organization, for the purpose of acquiring, constructing, maintaining and managing a hall, temple or other building, or a home for the aged and indigent members of such order and their dependent surviving spouses and orphans, of acquiring, constructing, maintaining and managing an asylum, home or school for the free education of the orphans and children of the worthy, aged and indigent members of the bodies so uniting and of creating, collecting and maintaining a library for the use of the bodies uniting to form such corporation, or for any of such purposes, but the membership of any such lodge, chapter, commandery, consistory, council, temple, grotto, post, tent, nest, camp, encampment, or canton will be dependent upon its continued allegiance to the governing body by whom it was chartered, installed, and under whose general rules and regulations it exists, and such governing body, if its consent to such incorporation is necessary, and it is a domestic corporation, shall have the right of visitation to such home, asylum or school for the aged and indigent members of such order or society, and their dependent surviving spouses and orphans, for the purpose of controlling and arresting abuses, and to enforce a due observance of the general laws, rules and regulations of such order or society, governing its care, control and maintenance of aged and indigent members, their dependent surviving spouses and orphans, in so far as the same shall not be contrary to any law or statute.
Each body hereafter uniting to form such corporation shall at a regular meeting thereof, held in accordance with its constitution and general rules and regulations or by-laws, elect one or more members thereof for a term of either one, two or three years, as the rules, regulations and by-laws of the body may prescribe, to represent it in such corporation. If the bodies uniting to form such corporation, do not exceed thirty in number, then each representative so elected shall be a trustee of said corporation, and shall make and file in the office of the clerk of the county where such building is, or is to be located, a certificate of such election signed and acknowledged by the highest two officers of the body electing him, stating the time and place of the election, its regularity, the name of the trustee, and the name of the body from which he was elected. If the bodies uniting to form such corporation shall exceed thirty in number then the representatives elected as hereinbefore provided, shall assemble annually at a time and place fixed by the constitution, by-laws, rules and regulations of the corporation, and shall elect from amongst themselves a president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer, each of whom shall be ex-officio trustees of the corporation, and not less than nine nor more than twenty-four other trustees. Each of the bodies uniting to form such corporation shall elect not more than three representatives, who shall be elected in the manner above prescribed and whose certificate of election shall be made and filed in the manner and form above prescribed. The trustees so elected shall make, acknowledge and file with the secretary of state a certificate stating the name of the corporation to be formed, and indorsed thereon the written consent of the grand body to which it is subordinate, if so required by the general rules and regulations of such superior body, its purposes and objects, the names and places of residence of the trustees, the names of the bodies which they respectively represent, the names of the bodies uniting to form the corporation and their location, and the name of the town, village or city and the county where such building is, or is to be located; and there upon the several bodies so uniting shall be a corporation for the purposes specified in such certificate.
N.Y. Ben. Ord. Law § 7