About us- Gestion ajax

Annual General Meeting: to do or not to do?

With all the situation going on with COVID-19, the Syndicates all over the Quebec face to dilemma to do or not to do the meeting this year. On the one hand, all the regions in Quebec are in the Red Zone now. On the other hand, the Syndicates are used to schedule their Annual General Meeting during the months September to December. The quarantine and restrictions will last at least till 23rd of November. Fortunately, starting from April 2020 the Civil Code of Quebec let the Syndicates organize virtual meetings and voting.

Prerequisites

There are two main prerequisites for holding a general meeting:

  • All members can communicate immediately with one another;
  • There will be an opportunity to conduct a secret vote that allows the verification of the votes after the meeting without compromising the secrecy.

All the relevant documents can be sent by email, avoiding physical contact. The meeting can be organized by such online platforms as Zoom, Teams or Skype. The voting process could also be made online using those tools. For example, the participants can send their votes by e-mail or by Zoom platform, where it is also possible to send private message to the Board of Directors. This would help them to keep their confidentiality and secrecy. To make the process even easier, only participants who vote “against” can send the messages.

Organisation of Virtual Meeting

The Notice of general meeting should include the following additional information:

  • The hyperlink to connect to the meeting;
  • The telephone number by which to join the meeting;
  • The connection and voting instructions for the meeting.

When organizing a meeting remotely there should be tools and methods to ensure that the meeting runs smoothly and complies with the provisions of the Civil Code of Quebec and the declaration of co-ownership. The major things you should plan are following:

  • Record the whole meeting;
  • Take every precaution to avoid an interruption in the broadcast as a result of poor Internet connection;
  • Allow the chairman of the meeting to grant or withdraw a right to speak to the co-owners;
  • Calculate the quorum in real time.

Conclusion

Those are the main important tips for organizing the Annual General Meeting remotely. There are already syndicates which have organized their meetings remotely and succeeded in that process.

Of course, the authorization to do it virtually would be only valid for a certain period of time until the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *