AGM Season, Best Practices

by Ben Zelikovitz

For most people, the CNE, Labour Day weekend and kids going back to school mark the end of summer. For GetQuorum, they mark the beginning of our favorite time of year, AGM Season! Many of our clients will be holding their first AGM since the amended Act came into effect. We know this because we get a lot of questions about what should be included in the Preliminary and AGM Packages under the Act’s new requirements. We thought it would be helpful to share some of our Best Practices for preparing for AGM notices:

Preliminary Notice Package: To be sent to owners no later than 35 days before the AGM (or, 20 days prior to the AGM package). It should include the following:

  • Cover Letter from the Board of Directors or Property Manager (optional but recommended); This can cover things owners should know like the date of the upcoming meeting, an overview of candidate nomination process, a summary of the business to be conducted at the meeting, explanation of the Corporation’s legal requirement to provide the preliminary notice and, hopefully, announcing the usage of GetQuorum for electronic voting prior to the meeting! :)

  • A completed Prescribed Preliminary Notice of Meeting form; Note that you will need the latest version of Adobe Reader to access the form.

  • A blank Candidate Disclosure Form; To be completed by those interested in becoming a candidate for the Board of Directors. This is mandatory under the Act but there is no standardized form. Your legal counsel can provide this, or we are happy to share ours.

  • A templated Board of Directors Nomination and Resume Form; an optional step that encourages nominated candidates to provide pertinent details about their background and professional experience relevant to their candidacy for a Board position.

AGM Package: To be sent to owners no later than 15 days prior to the meeting. Many clients use an ~17 day notice period, adding 2 days to account for the day of mailing and the day of the meeting. AGM Packages can include:

  • Cover Letter from the Board of Directors or Property Manager; Many clients use this cover letter to set the tone for the meeting by summarizing the Corporation’s financial status and overall well being, maintenance and projects updates and discussing any other important business being addressed (e.g. By-Laws) at the meeting.

  • An itemized agenda for the meeting;

  • A completed Prescribe Notice of Meeting form; Note that you will need the latest version of Adobe Reader to access the form.

  • An Information circular; This helps owners understand general meeting protocol, how proxies are used, their individual right to vote and the Board positions open for election. Many Property Management firms have proprietary versions of this circular, we are happy to share our version.

  • Previous year’s AGM minutes;

  • Audited financial statements;

  • Candidate resumes and nomination and disclosure forms;

  • A blank Prescribed proxy form; Note that you will need the latest version of Adobe Reader to access the form.

As a reminder, gathering agreement to receive notices electronically (i.e. e-consents) and the electronic distribution of preliminary and AGM Notice packages are included as part of your service with GetQuorum. We’re happy to answer any questions you may have and look forward to working with you for your upcoming AGMs!

All the best,

Ben