Committee Meetings

Calling Meetings

Committee meetings may be held as frequently as the committee requires. Meetings may be called by the secretary, or in the secretary’s absence, the chairperson.  A meeting must be called and held within 21 days where a quorum of the committee requests in writing that one be called. If the meeting is not held, the quorum of the committee may agree for another committee member to call the meeting.

Notice Period

Generally, the notice of the committee meeting must be given seven clear days prior to the meeting, and at the same time as the notice is given to the committee members it must be placed on the body corporate notice board (if a notice board is in existence) and circulated to all owners (unless they indicate they do not wish to receive the notices). However, the notice period may be shortened to at least two clear days if at the previous committee meeting all committee members unanimously agree. (Standard Module Section 28).

Agenda

The notice of the committee meeting must include an agenda that contains the substance of issues to be discussed at the meeting, and the substance of the motion to confirm the previous minutes and any resolutions made by a vote out of a meeting. Though, unlike general meetings, there is no need for exact wording of motions to be included, and the committee meeting may also discuss matters not contained in the agenda. (Standard Module Section 30)

Venue

The committee may decide where they wish to hold their meetings. Usually the committee decides to hold the committee meetings at the offices of  the Body corporate Managers because of the high level of facilities that  are usually offered (parking, coffee and tea, tables and chairs, air conditioning, photocopying, conference calls, e-mail and internet access etc). Alternatively, the meetings may be held on site at an owner’s lot or in the community room. However, a meeting may not be held more than 15 km from the scheme land if 50% of the quorum object to the venue. (Standard Module Section 29).

Frequency

You will find the need for meetings depends upon the issues currently confronting the body corporate. In a normal year (and depending on the size of the scheme) three meetings will be able to deal with the business at hand. Any more than the number of committee meetings nominated in the administration agreement will incur additional fees for the body corporate.

Quorum

As is the law for all associations, in order for the committee meeting to be opened a quorum must be present. The quorum for a committee meeting is 50% or more of the voting members of the committee. Non-voting members are not counted for the calculation of a quorum. Proxy holders are counted as two voting members. (Standard Module Section 32)

Chairing Meetings

Where the chairperson is in attendance at the committee meeting then the chairperson is obliged to chair the meeting. In the absence of the chairperson, another member of the committee may be chosen to chair the meeting. (Standard Module Section 31)

Invitees

It is generally a principle in the common law applicable to associations that members of the association who are not members of the committee require an invitation to attend committee meetings. This general principle has been reversed for the Body Corporate and Community Management Act.  Owners who are not on the committee have an automatic entitlement to attend the meetings of the committee provided they comply with the requirements of Standard Module Section 32B. This automatic right is to observe only.  The non-committee member still requires an invitation in order to address the meeting. The invitee may be required to leave the meeting if they do not comply with Standard Module 32B (7).