You’ve been on the Committee for three years. The same two other owners show up. Everyone else has an excuse, or just doesn’t reply. You’re tired, and you’re starting to wonder why you bother.
This is the reality in most Melbourne owners corporations. Not because owners don’t care about their building, but because nobody’s made joining the Committee feel worthwhile, clear, or safe.
That can change. And it doesn’t require guilt-tripping owners into volunteering.
Key Takeaways:
- An active Committee helps improve maintenance outcomes, financial management, and long-term property value.
- Many lot owners avoid Committee roles because responsibilities are unclear, or they expect a large time commitment.
- Personal outreach, visible results, and structured onboarding can significantly improve participation.
- Strong owner engagement reduces governance risks and helps owners corporations avoid unnecessary disputes and delays
Why active Committees matter
The difference between an active Committee and an inactive one isn’t just meeting attendance, it shows up in every part of how the building runs.
When a Committee is functioning well, decisions about maintenance, levies, insurance, and contractor management happen proactively rather than reactively. Owners feel informed. Problems get addressed before they escalate. The building’s financial position stays transparent.
When it’s not, the consequences compound. Repairs get deferred until they become emergencies. Communication gaps breed distrust. Contractors operate without proper oversight. And gradually, the owners who were already disengaged become even harder to reach because, from their perspective, nothing’s working anyway.
In more serious cases, governance failures can trigger formal intervention. Under the Owners Corporations Act 2006, VCAT has the power to appoint a Committee if one hasn’t been established (Section 165), appoint a manager on application from a lot owner (Section 125), or, in severe cases, appoint an administrator (Section 173). These aren’t theoretical they’re proceedings that Melbourne buildings end up in when participation problems go unaddressed for too long.
What Committee roles actually involve
Most owners who avoid the Committee picture themselves buried in paperwork or fielding complaints every weekend. The reality is more manageable than that, especially when responsibilities are shared across several members and supported by your strata manager.
- Chairperson: Facilitates meetings and keeps discussions on track. Not making unilateral decisions, just keeping the process moving. Your strata manager prepares the agenda and handles follow-up.
- Secretary: Oversees meeting notices, agendas, minutes, and correspondence. Most of this is drafted by the strata manager. The Secretary reviews, approves, and ensures nothing gets missed.
- Treasurer: Monitors the OC’s finances including levies, invoices, budgets, and reporting. Your strata manager handles day-to-day accounting. The Treasurer asks the right questions and ensures spending aligns with what owners approved.
- General Committee Members: The easiest entry point. Weigh in on maintenance priorities, review contractor quotes, flag building issues, and represent the broader owner group in decisions. No specific portfolio required.
Committee size and structure requirements vary depending on the tier and size of the owners corporation under the Owners Corporations Act 2006. Your strata manager can clarify what applies to your building.
General Committee members
General members don’t carry a specific portfolio, but they’re far from passive. They weigh in on maintenance priorities, review contractor quotes, flag issues they’ve noticed around the building, and represent the broader owner group in decisions. It’s the easiest entry point for owners who want to contribute without committing to a named role.
Committee size and structure requirements vary depending on the tier and size of the owners corporation under the Owners Corporations Act 2006. Your strata manager can clarify what applies to your building.
Why owners hesitate to join Committees
If you’ve ever tried to recruit Committee members at an AGM, you already know the pattern: silence, averted eyes, and a room full of people waiting for someone else to put their hand up.
It’s rarely apathy. Most owners have specific concerns that feel reasonable to them, and honestly, most of those concerns are reasonable. The problem is that they usually go unaddressed, so they harden into permanent opt-outs.
“I don’t have time for this”
This is the most common objection, and it’s worth taking seriously.
Owners picture weekly meetings, constant emails, and a second unpaid job. The reality? Most Committees meet a handful of times per year. The workload between meetings depends on how well responsibilities are shared and how much your strata manager handles day-to-day.
The fix is simple: tell owners what the actual commitment looks like. Four meetings a year. Occasional email input. That’s it. If you don’t spell it out, they’ll fill in the blanks with worst-case assumptions.
“I don’t really know what I’d be doing”
This one’s on the OC and the strata manager, not the owner.
If the only information someone has about Committee involvement is a line in the AGM agenda asking for nominations, of course they’re going to hesitate. Nobody volunteers for a role they can’t picture themselves in.
The solution? Clear role descriptions. A brief onboarding conversation. Even a one-page “what to expect in your first year” guide. That’s often the difference between a confident nomination and a hard pass.
“I don’t want to get into arguments with my neighbours”
This fear is more powerful than most Committees realise.
Owners who’ve witnessed heated AGMs, passive-aggressive emails on the noticeboard, or ongoing disputes between residents will actively avoid putting themselves in a position where they might become a target.
The antidote isn’t pretending conflict doesn’t happen. It’s showing that the Committee has a structure for managing disagreements constructively, and that your strata manager acts as a buffer for the more difficult conversations.
“Someone else will do it”
The bystander effect is real in strata.
In larger buildings especially, owners assume there are enough other people who are more qualified, more available, or more invested.
What breaks this pattern is direct, personal communication. Not a generic call for volunteers at the AGM, but your strata manager or an existing Committee member reaching out individually to owners who might be a good fit.
Most of these hesitations don’t survive contact with:
- Clear expectations about the role and time commitment
- Genuine support from the strata manager and fellow members
- A Committee that feels organised rather than chaotic
How to recruit Committee members
The AGM call for nominations is the least effective recruitment tool in strata. And for most buildings, it’s the only one being used.
Owners who haven’t been personally approached, who don’t understand what they’d be signing up for, and who’ve never seen the Committee achieve anything visible have no reason to raise their hand in a room full of strangers.
Recruitment that actually works tends to be direct, specific, and low-pressure.
Have the conversation one-on-one
A personal approach almost always outperforms a broadcast email or an AGM announcement.
When an existing Committee member or your strata manager speaks with an owner directly, it reframes involvement from “generic volunteer call” to “we think you’d be good at this.” That shift matters more than most buildings realise.
People are far more likely to say yes when they’ve been individually asked and given a specific reason why their contribution would help. After a meeting, during an inspection, even a casual hallway conversation. The setting doesn’t matter. The personal touch does.
Make the commitment concrete, not vague
“We need more Committee members” tells an owner nothing. Compare that with: “We meet four times a year, each meeting runs about an hour, and your strata manager handles the agenda, minutes, and follow-up.” That tells them everything.
Owners are more willing to volunteer when they can see the actual shape of the commitment:
- How often the Committee meets
- How long meetings typically run
- What’s currently on the agenda
- How decisions get made
- What support is already in place
A simple one-page role summary covering these basics can be prepared by your strata manager and shared ahead of the AGM or during individual conversations.
Highlight what the Committee has improved
This is the most underused recruitment tool in strata.
If the Committee secured a better insurance deal, fixed a long-standing issue, or improved building communications, owners should know. Not buried in AGM minutes. Communicated clearly and visibly.
Even a brief annual update can change the perception entirely. Highlight three or four key outcomes:
- A maintenance issue that was finally resolved
- A cost saving or better contract negotiated
- A new process that improved communication
- A project that made the building better to live in
When owners can see that participation leads to tangible results, the value proposition shifts from “thankless obligation” to “this group is actually getting things done.”
Lower the entry barrier
Not every owner is ready to nominate for a formal role, and that’s fine. Two approaches work well here.
Let them observe first. Invite interested owners to sit in on a Committee meeting. No obligation, no commitment. Just a chance to see how it works in practice. It makes the process feel transparent and far less intimidating.
Start with small contributions. Offer time-limited tasks as a starting point:
- Sourcing a contractor quote
- Helping draft a resident communication
- Reviewing a maintenance proposal
These low-stakes tasks give owners a taste of involvement without the perceived weight of a Committee title. They often lead to formal nominations down the track.
Getting owners to participate isn’t a mystery, rather a structural problem. If your building needs help getting that structure right, Strata Management Consultants can walk you through what’s worked for other Melbourne owners corporations in similar positions.
How to keep Committee members engaged
Getting owners onto the Committee is one challenge. Keeping them there is another. Most turnover isn’t caused by the workload — it’s caused by disorganisation, poor communication, and a feeling that nothing’s moving forward.
Give new members a proper handover
A new member who walks into their first meeting with no context won’t come back for a second. Before that meeting, your strata manager should provide recent minutes, the meeting schedule, OC rules, insurance details, contractor contacts, and a summary of active projects. Simple to compile. Easy to overlook.
Respect people’s time in meetings
Two-hour meetings that could’ve been forty minutes are the fastest way to lose good members. Circulate an agenda beforehand. Keep discussions on track. End with clear action items. People who feel their time is valued come back. People who don’t, won’t.
Close the loop with owners
Committee members stay motivated when their work is visible to the broader owner group.
A short quarterly update. A noticeboard summary after key decisions. A maintenance note sent with levy notices. None of it needs to be elaborate. It just needs to exist.
When owners hear nothing between AGMs, Committee members feel like they’re working in a vacuum. That’s when engagement drops.
What motivates owners to participate?
Committee involvement isn’t charity work. Owners who participate directly influence the decisions that affect their property, their levies, and their daily experience of living in the building.
Buildings with organised governance and proactive maintenance consistently present better to buyers, valuers, and prospective tenants. An active Committee means better oversight on contractor pricing, more deliberate budget planning, and fewer surprise special levies. And when decisions are shared and communicated transparently, the low-level friction that builds up in strata, noise complaints ignored, emails unanswered, maintenance requests lost, starts to ease.
Owners who sit outside the process often end up paying for decisions they had no input on. Those who participate shape them.
Can proxies replace direct participation?
Proxies let absent owners vote, but they don’t replace being in the room. A proxy counts toward the result. It doesn’t contribute to the discussion, ask questions, or raise concerns others hadn’t considered.
Victoria’s 2021 amendments to the Owners Corporations Act tightened proxy rules to curb proxy farming. In OCs with 20 or fewer lots, one person can only hold a proxy for one other lot owner. In larger OCs, the cap is 5%. Family members are exempt.
The intent behind the reform is clear: owners corporations function better when owners participate directly, not just delegate their vote.
If you’re unsure how proxy rules apply to your building, your strata manager can clarify.
What if a Committee cannot be formed?
When no one steps up, the OC doesn’t just lose governance. It starts losing control.
Without a functioning Committee:
- Decisions stall
- Maintenance gets deferred
- Levies go unreviewed
- Contractor oversight disappears
The building drifts, and the longer it drifts, the harder it becomes to pull owners back in.
There are practical steps before things reach that point:
- Casual vacancies can be filled during the year
- Sub-committees can handle specific projects
- Your strata manager can increase direct communication with owners to rebuild interest
These aren’t permanent fixes, but they buy time while participation improves.
If governance breaks down entirely, any lot owner, creditor, or person with an interest in the land can apply to VCAT under Section 173 of the Owners Corporations Act 2006 for the appointment of an administrator. Once appointed, an administrator can exercise all the powers of the owners corporation, including levying lot owners for additional funds.
That means owners lose decision-making control over their own building.
VCAT does not appoint administrators lightly. The starting presumption is that owners corporations should be run by their lot owners, not by third parties. But VCAT has also noted that the market value of lots can be depressed by the presence of an administrator, and that potential purchasers tend to be discouraged by it.
The message is simple: early investment in owner engagement is far cheaper and less disruptive than the alternative.
Looking to improve Committee engagement?
Committee participation isn’t something owners wake up and decide to do. It’s something the right structure, communication, and support make possible.
If your OC is ready to make a change, Strata Management Consultants can guide you through the process with independent expertise. Call 1300 917 848 or visit here to reach us.
