Managing Owners Corporation Meetings Effectively: 5 Tips for Melbourne Committees

It is 9pm on a weeknight. The committee has been talking for two hours, three agenda items are still untouched, and nobody can quite remember what was decided about the leaking roof. If that sounds familiar, you are not alone. Owners corporation meetings have a habit of expanding to fill far more time than they should.

They do not have to. A well run meeting is mostly a matter of preparation and structure. Get those right and the same agenda that once took three hours can be cleared in one.

This guide covers five practical tips for running effective owners corporation (OC) meetings in Melbourne. It then tackles two issues that regularly catch Committees out: what to do when too few owners turn up, and how the rules now work for online and hybrid meetings.

1. Structure the agenda and keep to time

Efficient time management is the simplest way to keep a meeting running smoothly. Committee members are volunteers fitting the meeting around work and family, so their time is valuable and often in short supply. Start on time, and have everything ready before the meeting opens.

Structure matters just as much as punctuality. Think about the order of business and decide what needs to be dealt with first. If a particular item needs your strata lawyer present, put it at the top so they are not sitting through an hour of unrelated discussion before their five minutes.

Make sure the secretary records the minutes. Under the Owners Corporations Act 2006, the minutes must include the date, time and place of the meeting, the names of those present, the resolutions made, how the vote went, and any correspondence or documents tabled. Accurate minutes are not just good practice. They protect the OC if a decision is later challenged at VCAT or questioned during a property sale.

2. Resolve motions promptly

The aim during the meeting is to make sure every motion is properly considered and then resolved, rather than left hanging. Meetings drift when people talk over each other or wander off topic. One item can swallow an hour without reaching a decision. That is the moment to take charge.

Two simple ground rules keep things on track:

• Ask members to submit questions to the strata manager in writing before the meeting. That way the agenda is settled in advance and there are fewer surprises during the meeting.
• Set a time limit for speaking to a motion. Sixty seconds or two minutes works well. Allow yourself the discretion to extend it when a topic genuinely warrants more discussion.

3. Draw on the support available

Running a meeting well is not a one-person job. Plenty has to happen before anyone sits down: the agenda has to be drafted, motions worded, supporting documents prepared. During the meeting itself, someone needs to manage voting papers and hand out any circulars.

This is where the strata manager earns their keep. A good manager assists the chairperson, keeps the procedure compliant, and frees the Committee to focus on the actual decisions rather than the paperwork. If your meetings consistently run long, feel disorganised, or leave you unsure whether a decision was even valid, that is usually a sign the procedural load is falling on people who never signed up to carry it, and it is worth talking to a strata partner who can quietly take that weight off the Committee.

4. Appoint an experienced chairperson

The chairperson sets the tone for the whole meeting. If the person in the chair is unsure of the process, things unravel quickly.

A good chairperson understands how to run a meeting in line with the Owners Corporations Act 2006 and the OC rules. Before chairing, it helps to be comfortable with:

• What a poll is, and when an owner can call for one
• The quorum rule, meaning the minimum attendance needed for decisions to count, and what happens if you do not have one
• What makes a proxy valid, including the current limits on how many proxies one person can hold
• How a special resolution is calculated
• How to read the building’s financial statements
• How Committee member elections work

One detail often missed: the chairperson has a second, or casting, vote when a vote is tied, but only if the chairperson is a lot owner or holds a valid proxy. Knowing that in advance avoids an awkward stalemate.

5. Lead with calm confidence

Confidence carries a meeting. If you are chairing, you need to be able to address challenges without getting flustered. When a member stands up and questions you, the instinct is to take it personally. Resist it.

An objection is rarely a personal attack. Handle it with patience, hear the point out, and you may even learn something useful. A chairperson who stays composed under pressure earns the room’s trust, and a trusting room makes decisions far more easily.

Understanding quorum and what to do if you cannot reach it

This is the problem committees ask about most, and the one least often explained clearly.

Every binding decision needs a minimum number of owners present, in person or by proxy. The formal name for that minimum is a quorum. For an owners corporation general meeting, it is at least 50% of the total votes, or at least 50% of the total lot entitlements.

In smaller buildings where only a handful of owners ever turn up, that threshold can be hard to hit. The good news is the meeting does not have to be abandoned. It can still proceed, but any decisions made are interim resolutions rather than binding ones.

Here is how an interim resolution works. Within 14 days, the minutes and notice of the interim resolutions must be sent to all lot owners. The resolution then becomes binding 29 days after it was made, unless a special general meeting is called within that period to consider the matter, in which case it has to be confirmed there. One limit is worth knowing: a meeting without a quorum cannot pass interim resolutions on matters that need a special or unanimous resolution, such as major works or rule changes. Those decisions have to wait for a properly constituted vote.

This is why getting attendance up matters. Encourage owners to send a proxy if they cannot attend in person, and make the agenda and its importance clear in the meeting notice. The more engaged your owners, the fewer decisions end up in limbo.

Running online and hybrid meetings

Online meetings are no longer a workaround. The 2021 amendments to the Owners Corporations Act 2006 gave electronic meetings and voting a clear legal footing, and many Committees now run hybrid sessions as standard.

The key principle is straightforward. An owner who takes part by teleconference, video link or another prescribed method is treated as present in person. They count towards the quorum and they can speak and vote like anyone in the room.

A few practical habits make online meetings work:

• Send the meeting link and any documents well ahead of time, and confirm everyone can open them.
• Keep one person responsible for managing the technology, so the chairperson can focus on the discussion.
• Agree on how voting will be handled, whether by show of hands on camera or a written or electronic vote, and state it at the start.

Done well, hybrid meetings lift attendance, which directly helps with the quorum problem above.

When better meetings are not enough

If your meetings keep running off the rails despite a solid agenda and a willing Committee, the issue may sit with your strata manager rather than the Committee. A manager who knows the Act, prepares properly and supports the chairperson is the difference between a meeting that decides things and one that just talks.

Strata Management Consultants helps Victorian owners corporations make that switch. Our no-cost OC management brokerage handles the transition to a new manager for you, in line with the law.