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Our Managing Agent is advocating the next AGM by zoom. They held this over the covid years. But those are over. Many of our owners are elderly and cannot use IT effectively. Others do not like zoom for it limits the community interaction.
The majority of the EC has ‘rolled’ over to the Managing Agent and agrees for zoom.
Who determines how an AGM is held and can the Owners insist on a face-to-face meeting? How?
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Who determines how an AGM is held and can the Owners insist on a face-to-face meeting? How?
The secretary of the strata committee is the point of contact here but they have to do what the committee and ultimately the owners want.
Put a motion to your next committee meeting or, indeed, the next AGM that future general meetings should be held in person but with Zoom access for owners who can’t attend.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
My 6-unit OC in NSW had the opposite experience: we shifted to Zoom because of the pandemic and have continued to meet that way because it’s so much more pleasurable and convenient for us. (Previously the six of us would huddle with our strata manager in the back stairwell of the building – cold, dark, noisy and generally uncomfortable, as well as not very private. Now we can all Zoom in from the comfort of our homes or wherever we might be.)
But the relevant similarity for us is that, initially, the strata management company had wanted us all to dial in via phone conference. Now, whatever issues one might have with Zoom and interaction, phone conferencing (for any group bigger than three) is a hundred times worse: no body language or facial reactions, unable to see who might be trying to contribute, etc. But the strata management company tried to argue that phone conferencing was “easier” for elderly owners, completely disregarding the fact that none of the owners in question are elderly or remotely IT-challenged 🙂
Anyway, we politely insisted that the meeting be changed from phone conference to Zoom. And we had to make that change again for a subsequent meeting, but now the strata manager has got the message and are scheduling via Zoom as the OC has instructed.
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