Extra ordinary General Meetings

Yes, a simple majority decision by the EC or, failing that, the combined written and signed request by owners holding at least one quarter of the unit entitlements in the building.

This is what the Act says:

Division 3 Special provisions relating to procedure for meetings other than first annual general meeting

31   When general meetings of owners corporation are required to be held

(2)  A general meeting of an owners corporation (in this clause referred to as an extraordinary general meeting), which is not an annual general meeting, may be convened by the executive committee at any time.

(3)  The secretary of an executive committee or, in the secretary’s absence, any member of the executive committee must convene an extraordinary general meeting as soon as practicable after receiving a requisition for such a meeting signed by one or more persons entitled to vote in respect of one or more lots, the unit entitlement or the sum of the unit entitlements of which is at least one-quarter of the aggregate unit entitlements.

'As soon as practicable' means given enough time to send out notices and agendas and organise somewhere to hold it.  It doesn't mean when it's convenient for the secretary, chair, or strata managers.

Last question first.  The standard proxy form as issued by Fair Trading says this:

The appointment cannot have effect for more than 12 months or 2 consecutive annual general meetings, whichever is the greater.

So if you are between the first and second AGMs for which you were given the proxy and and it's been less than a year since you got it, it can still be used. They can't give it to you for two years – just two AGMs. Otherwise, the only thing to stop you is if the owner assigned another proxy to someone else or turned up to the meeting in person.

An EC can overturn a decision of a previous EC – but not a decision of the Owners Corporation at a general meeting.

Regarding the same issue coming up again and again, you can propose an amendment for the EGM that this matter not be revisited by the EC before the next AGM. If the Owners Corporation agrees to this, then the Chairman must rule any attempts to revisit this again 'out of order'.

As long as you use the correct form (which you can download from the Essential Links page, if the strata managers don't send one out), you can nominate anyone you want to speak and vote on your behalf.

I don't think the “or the chair” option is on the standard form as issued by Fair Trading nor should it be (although it's not illegal).  I simply encourages 'blind' voting which is generally a bad thing.

To get back to Muffin's point.  You can't assume that a proxy given to one person can then be transferred to another proxy – unless perhaps you had “or their proxy” on the form as Peter C describes.

In any case, you don't have that so it's a question of getting the original proxies reissued in the name of the person who will actually be at the meeting.  It sounds like it's going to be quite controversial meeting so all this paperwork has to be watertight and a proxy of a proxy certainly isn't that. 

New proxy forms properly signed and dated supersede any previous proxies issued.