Two points:
You were at a meeting at which proxies were disallowed because a) they were too late for the first meeting and b) because they were disallowed for the first meeting.
I have quoted a Fair Trading document that explains why that would have been the case.
I also think you are confusing the word ‘may’ with ‘must’ – there are several circumstances under which a meeting may be called – one of them being that enough owners petitioned the EC secretary or that the EC members decided that there was good enough reason to hold a meeting.
Given that the General Meeting is the “highest court” within strata, I can’t see the problem with the EC deciding on a ‘ring-around’ to hold a meeting provided that meeting was properly notified to all owners as required by law.
Otherwise I don’t think you can read too much into owners being given a chance to express their views and vote on what they want.
As for the proxies being disallowed – in the first place it was because someone hadn’t taken the time to find out how proxies actually work. For goodness sake, it says on the bottom of the form that they have to be in 24 hours before the meeting. Or did they not have the proxies on the correct form.
The second rejection was on a technicality and while someone who was at the first meeting might not be able to make it to the second, you have to draw the line somewhere.
I totally get why most people don’t understand most of what goes on in strata. But if I was about to lose a beloved pet or have to move home, I’d make damned sure I found out what I needed to do.
There is good introduction to all this — the Strata Living pamphlet issued by Fair Trading. It covers most of the points raised here.