A condo meeting only happens once a year, so we understand the importance of launching them successfully. In this article, we share with you the things we do to guarantee that you achieve your meeting goals and keep your building’s trustees, owners, and residents happy.
Tips to Achieve a Successful Annual Condo Meeting
It always comes down to the 5Ps: prior planning prevents poor performance. And the best way to prepare is by focusing on the four major elements of your annual condo meeting: the trustees, the notice, the meeting, and the owners.
Here’s how to do it.
Meet with the trustees in advance
At least two to three months ahead of the meeting, we will have a meeting with the trustees.
We go through the previous year’s financials with them and help them create a budget for the upcoming year and get that budget approved.
Once that budget is approved, we can determine if condo fees are going up or down. Any bids must be obtained to keep them within budget for the following year.
When we have this new budget, we will send an annual meeting notice to prospective owners.
Send an advance notice
Everybody gets busy, and we want to ensure that we have as many people come to the meeting as possible.
Having a quorum, the number of people you need to attend your meeting, is important. It’s usually about 50% of the expected number of attendees or more.
The notice also includes the proposed budget for the following year. With this, people can also understand that if they have to properly change their finances to budget for any increases in condo fees, they can do so in advance.
It will also allow them time to add any questions or agenda topics. Most importantly, they can provide any proxy or a signed agreement stating someone else can vote on their behalf as they cannot attend the meeting personally.
Lastly, some seats on the board of trustees might be open, and an election will be part of the meeting. By sending an advance notice, people can submit a ballot with little information about themselves.
This will then be submitted to all the owners so they can read about it and make an educated vote if and when there is an election during the annual meeting.
Lay down the rules for an organized meeting
During the actual meeting, we make sure that it’s a comfortable, well-lit space with printouts and handouts for all attendees. We sign everybody in, and we start on time.
You also don’t want people to keep interrupting, so we set rules and regulations during the meeting. People have to raise their hands to ask questions. It’s probably best if the time for questions is towards the end of the session, if possible.
We limit the information and time in which we can answer questions so that the meeting progresses on schedule. We want to answer everybody’s questions, but the time limit allows us to get through our agenda.
By doing so, we would have covered the most important things first, even if anybody had to leave the meeting early.
Ensure the owners’ attendance
The annual condo meeting is when everybody in the building has a say. The owners learn everything that has been going on in the year prior. Furthermore, they will know what the plan is for the future.
It’s an incredibly important meeting and only happens once a year. So we send out letters, texts, and emails and make phone calls to inform owners about the meeting. Sometimes, we will even do door-knocking.
We want as much participation as possible, which is usually the key to ensuring you have a good meeting. More importantly, owners would not have to keep asking you questions throughout the year.
We try to do our best with newsletters, but the annual meeting is a great time to educate everybody on what happened and what’s going on in the future.
The Boston HOA Guarantee
If you are looking for a professional property management company that can set guidelines and help you run proper annual condo meetings, please think of Boston HOA Management.
