The organization grants provisional and absolute charters to legally establish educational corporations including schools, libraries, historical societies, and museums.
Such things as statement of purpose, the organizational meeting, the constitution and bylaws, incorporation, corporate title, requirements, reviewing, recommendations, and petitioning are all elements of the highly involved creation of charting a historical society.
The period of development starts with a provisional charter, which is a form of incorporation granted for a probationary three to five years to historical societies that have expectations of meeting Regents standards.
This encourages the society to progress, and at the end of the provisional period, there is a choice to petition for extension or have the charter made absolute.
When the organization has a record of financial stability, programmatic accomplishment, and a reputation for excellence, it is often successful in meeting the registration requirements.