Community Meeting

Hi Folks,

We are a complex of 86 apartments and always have a lively general meeting.

We have a mix of nationalities.

Last year 3 of the German owners talked on each point for a very long time hence one point taking 1 1/2 hours to reach voting stage after translation even though they speak perfect English  in the complex. It seemed like this was deliberate.

This resulted in some owners loosing interest and leaving without giving their proxy vote to anyone. What also happened was that all the Agenda was not disccussed and we had reached 7pm with only a short break. This then allowed this small group to take control of the voting for the remaining points with their own votes and some proxy ones.

Can anyone tell me what powers the president or Administrators has over the amount of time a subject can be disccussed?

Can any owner stand up and say enough is enough lets vote?

Most owners are on a tight schedule and had return flights the next day so it was impractical to carry on the meeting the next day.

I would be grateful for any advise.

Hi 28sac

We too have a mixture of nationalities but usually only the owners from the U.K. turn up.  We have a similar problem usually by  tenants (I know!) wanting to know every single detail of everything future and past and have been able to get the meetings to less and less every year.  Firstly we book somewhere public and only book it until 2pm (thats three hours so enough) and second either I as President, or our excellent Administrator stands up and says that seems to have covered most issues and those in favour etc, this always seem to stop them in their tracks and we have the vote.

We find that reminding everyone that we only have the room for so long and the pressure to vote works, we send the agenda out very early and most owners have emailed and had answered any queries, we also ask our owners to obtain quotes and add items to the agenda, and this seems to save time at the meetings also simply because they are involved from the outset as they should be.

The problem is that for many owners this is there only chance to have an input although they do have the chance all year round but never take us up on it.  You have to find a line between letting owners having their say, which is very important and not letting them take over, difficult I know but possible

Thanks for your reply,

We will take on board what you say and hope for peace to all present.

There will always be some that just love the sound of their own voice.

thanks,

28SAC