Spotlight on: The Annual Meeting Agenda
May 7, 2015 — Last week Habitat shined a spotlight on annual meeting presentations. It was part of a series of articles showing some behind-the-scenes of board life for anyone who is interesting in running for the first time. This week, in the final installment, we look at the agenda.
The generic agenda for an annual meeting, as typically specified in association bylaws, divides the gathering up into four basic parts: formalities designed to comply with arcane legal requirements; presentation of informational reports; voting; and the Q&A/gripe session, referred to euphemistically as "unfinished business" or "new business."
The formalities include convening the meeting; registering the proxies and votes represented by those who have signed in to determine the existence of a quorum (referred to as "roll call and presentation of proxies"); making the affidavit of service of the notice available for inspection; and reading the minutes of the previous meeting (or waiving that reading by vote of the owners personally present).
Assuming there are more candidates than open seats on the board, the electoral process includes formal nomination of candidates; candidate speeches (although this is not a legal requirement); appointment of inspectors of election to tabulate the ballots and proxies and formally certify the election results under oath as required by law; an explanation of the voting process (i.e. straight voting or cumulative voting); and the actual tabulation by the inspectors (which may or may not take place and/or be announced at the meeting).
When voting on proposed governing documents is also on the agenda, such proposals are typically debated by designated proponents and opponents, who are each allotted a specified time period for argument, and the vote is tabulated and certified by inspectors separate and apart from the board election.
Once all of the business on the agenda is concluded, the meeting chairperson entertains a motion for "adjournment," and the closing gavel is sounded.
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