Meetings are a fact of life but they are something we dread if they aren’t run correctly.
As an Executive Committee member, you may look forward to or wish you could avoid meetings with your fellow owners corporation representatives. The way you feel about meetings depends on how well organised they are and who takes control.
Many Executive Committees don’t realise every meeting can (and should) be made easier by the Strata Manager. If your Strata Manager isn’t doing the following five things at the very least, it’s no wonder you never look forward to an EC meeting!
Five EC meeting tasks for a Strata Manager:
- Meeting notes
Tired of taking minutes or sorting through a muddle of badly written bullet points? This is where your Strata Manager comes in handy.
Ideally, this professional will take responsibility for taking minutes. They may even do so with the help of voice recording software or an administrative assistant who has experience in this area. At the end of your meeting, they will go away and prepare the minutes so they are accurate and easy to refer to in future.
This saves you from the stress of trying to take notes and contribute to the meeting at the same time. - Procurement
Strata Managers have access to a range of suppliers. Instead of being forced to sift through quotes and provider pros and cons, your Strata Manager can make recommendations based on your requirements, premises and budget.
Often, Strata Managers can get a great reduced rate by placing a bulk order. This means your premises can save money and access discounts which it couldn’t as a standalone customer. It also makes for much faster decisions during EC meetings. - After hours emergencies
Time is taken up in meetings going over incidents, including emergencies. Questions will cover what happened, why it happened, how long it took for someone to respond and how things could have been done differently.
With a good Strata Manager, your premises will have processes and procedures for out of hours emergencies. Someone will always be on call and the post-incident follow-ups and reports will take less time.
Reliable Strata Managers understand the value of your premises is underpinned by the experience of lot owners and tenants. Hopefully, things won’t go wrong late at night but if they do, people will appreciate a prompt and effective response. - Compliance registers
Compliance is another meeting agenda item for Executive Committees. From lift registration to annual fire safety checks and cladding audits, these must be covered but it is difficult to keep track of what needs to be done and when.
At Vantage Strata, we keep a full register of compliance requirements so we can add the necessary items to a meeting agenda before they are due. We will also limit the need for lengthy discussion by providing our recommended auditors and fire safety specialists (hopefully for a discount). - AGM preparation
Drafting an agenda for the AGM, proposing the budget for the next 12 months and preparing financial reports can all result in Executive Committee meetings running overtime.
Ask your Strata Manager to help you schedule a pre-AGM committee meeting. They will prepare an agenda for this meeting and have a lot of answers ready so decisions take less time. As a result, your AGM will also run more smoothly. Owners Corporation members will leave the meeting feeling confident about the way their building is operated.
If your Strata Manager skips meetings, doesn’t come prepared and doesn’t bring efficiencies to the table, they are not doing their job. With their help, your Executive Committee meetings should run smoothly, be free from heated debates and allow you to focus on important areas like improving the value of your building.
