› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Proxies – blind faith or good sense? › Proxies in committee elections, yes or no? › Current Page
You are correct when you wrote that candidates for a committee are mostly not known until nominations are called for at the AGM. Good stratas make clear in the agenda which if any of the current members wish to stand again.
Proxy forms can be of two types: (a) one where the proxy holder has been authorised to to vote on all matters, as he sees fit (i.e UNRESTRICTED) or (b) one where the proxy holder has been authorised to vote on only certain matters. In this case the authoriser would list what those matters are (not what MOTIONS they are) and how the proxy holder is to vote.
Assume we don’t know who is running for a seat on your committee.
You could note your views on the proxy form along the lines of “Strata Committee – when it comes to nominating, seconding and voting for committee members, vote against Mr A, Mrs B and Ms C. Vote in favour of Mr D. Once A, B, C and D have been voted on or dealt with, as authorised by the proxy giver, feel free to vote as you please”.
As the proxy form needs to be given to the secretary or agent before the AGM, the proxy giver’s voting intentions will be clear. This is unsurprising if one is giving the proxy form to someone she doesn’t know well e.g. a neighbour if one is new to the strata or a harmless committee member.
But say the proxy giver, you, don’t want your intentions to be so clear so long before the vote, you can ask ANYONE to be your proxy. The person need not live in the strata. It can be a friend, colleague etc. In such a case you would complete the proxy form in favour of say Ms Jones, your friend. Before the start of the AGM, in accordance with the agent’s instruction, you should email him/her the proxy or hand it in at the AGM’s start. Such a proxy would be I recommend, UNRESTRICTED. You could make clear to Ms Jones how she is to vote on every matter and those intentions need not be telegraphed on the proxy form itself.
You are correct about the incumbents with 35% or more of the votes dictating how the vote will go. This is politely known as “proxy harvesting”, which is sad to say, not only a threat to democracy (by super gluing a long standing member or long standing members to their committee seats) but is also a consequence of owners (a) being easily influenced as to how to vote by current committee members and (b) falling victim to granting an UNRESTRICTED proxy to a committee member (this happens often when a committee member includes his or her perspective of the past year in the agenda and cynically urges everyone to “get involved” by attending the AGM and if that is not possible, then by passing your proxy form to a ‘committee member of your choice”).
As in your strata as in most, committees often stand or fall together, it doesn’t matter one jot who on the committee gets the proxy, as they’ll all vote the same way.