Committee Members Guide to Meetings
Archers the Strata Professionals were invited to present at the Strata Community Australia (QLD) (SCA) annual conference held last week to provide professional development training to the attending SCA Strata Manager members.
The presentation focussed on the topic of Committee meetings and started with some of the basics to assist Strata Managers identify what Committee meetings are for and their role.
How to adequately prepare was also covered in detail with the presentation finishing off with various technical aspects and best practice specifically requested by SCA which included:
- Requesting attendees to leave a meeting
- Conflicts of interest
- Use of proxies
- Getting to the decision
- Recording accurate minutes
A copy of the presentation can be found here.
If you would like an further information on any of the areas covered in the presentation, please add your comment to this article and presenting Partner Grant Mifsud will respond.
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interested how to rmove a nuisance from a meeting
Hi Valerie,
The legislation allows for the Committee to ask an observer to leave the meeting when they speak without authorization. If they are being a nuisance in some other way other than speaking without authorization, the matter is outside the bounds of the legislation and a legal opinion should be sought for advice.
Hi Can a non committee member of the Body Corporate ( Lot Owner) wishing to attend and listen to a committee meeting, be removed from the meeting to discuss introductions, discusssions of future procedures or sensitive information, ( No Breaches present about the Lot Owner.)
Accomodation Module
Thankyou Anna
Hi Anna,
The legislation specifies instances where an owner must leave and may be asked to leave a Committee meeting. The instances you have described would need to be analyzed further to determine if any fit into the specific instances requiring the owner to leave, particularly the “sensitive information” which is very broad. The slides from the presentation references the legislative sections if you need to review these in further detail.
I Hope this helps.
Small complexes particularly need good professional managers who can wisely guide committees that may want to remain ignorant of their CMS, the by-laws, the legislation, and meeting procedure. It would be very useful if a role for a well trained manager was to “in-service all new committee members. My experience as an owner tells me that such a notion as “best practice” is beyond the understanding of a majority of committee members, and “making it up” becomes the ruling culture.
Who should get the Asset list together? the caretaker or the BC Manager?
Hi Mervyn,
Thanks for our query.
This task is ultimately the responsibly of the Body Corporate however the Body Corporate may engage a service provider to complete the task on their behalf which can be either the caretaker or strata manager, depending on terms of engagement and specified duties. In most cases the duties are not this specific to either service provider however there may be provision to engage either provider to complete the task as an additional service in line with rates chargeable within the agreement.
I hope this helps.
What is the procedure for committee meetings with respect to misleading and or incorrect motions at a committee meeting ?
Hi Ben,
Seems like you may have a dispute to deal with. The office of the commissioner has a comprehensive website outlining the steps to be taken to resolve disputes. They also have very helpful information officers that you can speak with. Details as follows:
https://www.qld.gov.au/law/housing-and-neighbours/body-corporate/
Thankyou for your reply can you please elaborate when a committee member asks you to leave what does “sensetive information” cover, unfortunatley your slides dont really explain.
Regards
Anna
Hi Anna,
As mentioned in my prior reply, “sensitive information” is very broad and is not specifically covered in the legislation. You will need to specify exactly what this information “sensitive information” is about so that you can seek advice specific advice to your situation. The office of the commissioner has very helpful information officers that you can speak with. Details as follows:
https://www.qld.gov.au/law/housing-and-neighbours/body-corporate/
Alternatively you are able to find a specialist Strata solicitor on this site who will be sure to help you further.
Can a tenant attend a meeting as an observer? Your comments seem to indicated that observers need to be ‘invited’? So if a tenant makes a noise complaint against a committee member, then that tenant might be interested in hearing how that complaint is dealt with, without waiting for an invite to attend.
Having read the summary re the presentation on Committee Meetings, the heading “Take accurate minutes – Watch this space” attracted me for 3 reasons:
• The legislation outlines only the basic details that must be included in “full and accurate minutes.”
• Minutes of a committee meeting are the only way some owners have of gaining an “honest” update on the building in which they have invested. For this reason, I believe honesty, accuracy, and relevance are vital.
• I had just received minutes from a recent committee meeting that I felt were inadequate, lacking accuracy and poorly presented considering that minutes are a legal document.
The minutes I refer to had no actual financial data, no correspondence at all, incorrect recording of a vote taken prior to the committee meeting (voc) and most of the other vocs missing, and incorrect due dates for levies.
Most significantly a very important issue was recorded in a manner that owners present feel was inaccurate and misleading. Where discussion is recorded in the minutes, it is imperative that the details are accurate.
The Body Corporate Manager (experienced but new to the building) indicated the minutes would be corrected at the next meeting and in the subsequent minutes…..probably late May or early June.
The minutes do not inspire confidence.
I would appreciate your comments.
Hi Sandra,
Full and accurate minutes need to be taken into context as the minutes are required to be a record of decisions made. For specific details or a report on specific matters within the building, I suggest you write to the Body Corporate and request the details you require. If you still do not receive adequate details to satisfy our queries, then there are further steps that can be taken to resolve this specific issue.
As for the accuracy of the minutes, procedurally this is decided upon confirmation at the next meeting. For best practice, we recommend the minutes are approved by a Committee representative prior to distribution to all owners to avoid any need to correct errors at the next meeting.
Our BCC have a lot of “informal” meetings. That is, they have meetings of the BCC only. At these meetings they make decisions such as deciding on the appointment of a engineer to ascertain where all the leaks in our building are coming from. They also get quotes and decide on who to appoint for the CCTV installation (which cost $25,000) and the only input the owners have is to vote on changes to the sinking fund. They also decide to appoint a legal representative and then seek advice and take action against owners (like writing to owners who are short term renting [which they can do under the accommodation module] to try to ‘force them’ to stop this practice. The owners have not been aware of any of this type of action or decisions except to see the costs in the budget. They have a ‘formal’ meeting about three times a year. Is this allowed? If not, what can we do about this?
Hi Desley,
Thank you for your query on this matter. I would recommend you contact the Information Service Team at the Office of the Commissioner on 1800 060 119 to discuss further.
Some helpful articles on this topic can be found here: https://smartstrata.com/accessing-records-part-1/ and here: https://www.qld.gov.au/law/housing-and-neighbours/body-corporate/records.