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Venue
When the date and time arrives to hold the meeting, the venue should be set-up properly. Sufficient chairs should be provided for everyone to be seated. A table should be provided for the Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer. There is nothing in the Act to say that meetings have to be held sitting down but it is common practice. If absolutely necessary a meeting could be held standing up in a corridor but this could be held to be unreasonable by a Court.
Visitors and observers
Visitors cannot normally be prevented from attending a meeting unless they are totally disconnected from the meeting process, for example a law firm attending an important meeting might try to bring in law students to give them first-hand experience. They should ask the Chairperson if the students can attend. If anyone objects they should then leave.
However, for example many owners will often feel daunted by the process of attending a difficult meeting and may ask a relative or friend to attend as support. If they are prepared to nominate their relative or friend as their proxy, they can then attend the meeting together with the owner and cannot be prevented from attending.
Calling the meeting open if a quorum is present
The first thing the Chairperson should do at any meeting at the notified date and time is to determine if a quorum is present.
The rules for a quorum are fairly simple and have been described in the notice of meeting, put simply they are as follows:
* The Chairperson needs to determine how many people are required to form a quorum. The Act states that either ¼ of the people entitled to vote be present in person or by proxy or alternately ¼ of the u.e.
• Eg, if the scheme has 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 lots then the Act requires that the quorum is not less than 2 people.
As soon as a quorum is present the Chairperson should call the meeting open.
Note that the quorum rules change for a deferred meeting.
Defer meeting if no quorum
If a quorum is not present, the Chairperson should wait 30 minutes for a quorum to be present and then adjourn the meeting. If a quorum is not present after 30 minutes the Chairperson should nominate a time and date for the deferred meeting (the same notice period applies).
The Secretary should then issue a new notice of meeting showing the new date. The notice should state that it is a deferred meeting.
Deferred meeting (if applicable)
The quorum requirements for a deferred meeting change.
At the appointed date and time for the meeting the Chairperson should determine if a quorum is present. If a quorum is not present (remembering that the quorum for strata plans with less than 8 lots is 2 persons) then the Chairperson must wait for 30 minutes.
If a quorum is not present after 30 minutes then the Act states that even if only one (1) person is present, then the meeting can go ahead.
In exceptional circumstances, those present may call other lot owners during the waiting period to remind them to attend or quickly fax in a proxy but this is entirely optional. It does however show good intentions if an attempt is made to contact other lot owners if there is difficulty reaching a quorum.
Open the meeting
The first act of the Chairperson every meeting is to declare the meeting open as soon as there is a quorum. The Chairperson should then do the following:
• Record the date and time
• Record the names of those present
• Record proxies received
• Determine if anyone present has given their proxy to others
If the meeting is difficult, and in extreme situations (where there has been a complete break down of communications) fights have been known to start as to who should be Chairperson etc. The following guidance will help in this situation:
• If the Chairperson nominated at the past AGM is present they should be Chairperson for the meeting.
• If a new Chairperson is elected, it is normal for their appointment to commence at the following meeting.
• If there is no agreement, a vote should be taken on a poll as to who should be Chairperson for the meeting (see section on voting).
Confirm the minutes of the last meeting
The next job of the Chairperson at any meeting is to confirm the Minutes of the last meeting of the same “class”, for example:
• If the meeting is a meeting of the executive committee, then the Chairperson should confirm the minutes of the last executive committee meeting; or
• If the meeting is a general meeting or AGM, then the Chairperson should confirm the minutes of the general meeting or AGM.
If an error is identified in the minutes of the previous meeting, then the Chairperson should clarify the item against his notes of the meeting, if there is no agreement then those present should vote on the agenda item again.
Consider motions
Each motion on the agenda should then be considered in order. It is not uncommon to consider the “easy” motions first and change the order of the agenda but this is at the discretion of the Chairperson.
The procedure to properly consider a motion is as follows:
• The Chairperson should read the motion to all present.
• The motion should be discussed, perhaps amendments proposed, when the wording is agreed a vote occurs.
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Voting for each motion
Voting can occur in one of two ways in a strata meeting, either a normal vote via a show of hands or else a “poll” which means that the vote is determined on units of entitlement.
It only takes one person to have a meeting on a poll, many large strata schemes have every vote on a poll.
The act also requires that a quorum be present for every motion, so for example if someone leaves the meeting part-way through the agenda, it may be possible that the meeting has to end. For example if the strata plan has less than eight lots, and only two owners attend the meeting, if one of those owners leaves the meeting then the meeting must be closed due to the lack of a quorum.
The Chairperson should also record the vote for each meeting, it is not necessary to record names but many strata management companies do this as a matter of course.
Some other important rules are as follows:
• If the owner of a Lot (or other person entitled to vote) has not paid their levies, they cannot vote in any vote except a vote requiring a unanimous resolution (which are very rare).
• An owner (or other person etc) is not recorded on the strata roll, they cannot vote either. It is clearly important to make sure that a new owner ensures that their details are accurately recorded by the strata manager.
• If there are joint owners (eg husband and wife) then only one of them should vote, both can attend the meeting but only one can vote and they must vote with the consent of the other person present. If only one person attends the meeting the other joint owner is deemed to have given their proxy to the person who attends the meeting. If the joint owners disagree, the person named first on the strata roll can vote and the wishes of the other joint owner are ignored.
It is also possible for a mortgagee or covenant chargee to exercise a priority vote and special rules also exist for estates and trustees
quorum
When the meeting is held, the Act details how a quorum is determined, voting procedures and minutes. These rules can be quite complex and are explained in detail in the chapter on meetings.
A meeting can only be held if a quorum is present. The rules for a quorum must be provided with the notice of meeting. If a quorum is not present the meeting must be adjourned and the same rule for notice period applies again. However at the adjourned meeting only one person has to attend for the meeting to be allowed to legally go-ahead. Never miss an adjourned meeting!
When the Chairperson has declared a quorum present, and the meeting is ready to consider and vote on each motion on the agenda, the Chairperson must control the meeting. The Act does not restrict the general manner in which the Chairperson can run a meeting but some conventions apply which are explained in detail in the chapter on meetings.
Some of the aspects of running a meeting which are specified in the Act are as follows:
• The quorum must be calculated for each motion on the agenda, If for example one (or more) of the owners leave the meeting part-way through the agenda, the meeting might have to be adjourned if there is no longer a quorum present;
• Some motions must be on the agenda for various types of meeting (especially initial AGM’s and ongoing AGM’s);
• Each meeting should approve the minutes of the previous meeting of the same class, eg each meeting of the executive committee should approve the motions of the previous meeting of the executive committee etc;
• Each meeting should be formally opened, closed, proxies counted and recorded and minutes taken.
The Chairperson has great discretion to consider motions in any order, allow discussion and allow amendments to motions to be considered and voted on etc. The Chairperson is in charge of the protocol of the meeting, some excellent text sites explain these processes in great detail. Much of this detail is covered in the chapter on meetings.
It is important to know that if any of these procedures are disregarded any decision made at the meeting could be rescinded by an adjudicator or by the Tribunal and considered null and void if challenged later by a disgruntled owner.
Closing the meeting
After all motions have been considered the Chairperson should declare the meeting closed.
Essentially this requirement exists to prevent frivolous
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