Agenda
“I think in some ways we have allowed other people to set the agenda. Other people to define who we are.”
—Lee Scott

The board sets the agenda. Usually they have a standard template which they follow and therefore, unless there is something out of the ordinary planned, they dust off the template and use it year after year.

The Act states: that no vote shall be taken at a meeting of owners on any matter other than routine procedure unless that matter was clearly disclosed in the notice of the meeting.

Getting an item on the agenda
Individual owners may send the board letters or e-mails listing resolutions or items that they want the owners to discuss or vote on at the AGM. Unless the board agrees with any of these resolutions or items, they will not include them in the agenda. Therefore the owners will not be discussing them.

Submission to Include Material in the Notice of Meeting of Owners
A request by owners to include material in a notice of meeting can be made by filling out the appropriate form that can be downloaded from the Ministry's website.

If an owner sends the board this form, the board can decide whether they want to add the subject to the agenda. However, if the owners of at least 15% of all the voting units sign the petition, then the materials must be added to the agenda as a topic to be discussed. The material will not be voted upon.

An AGM meeting template
1.
Call to Order.
2.
Establish that there is a quorum.
3.
Proof of notice of meeting.
4.
Motion to accept previous meeting’s minutes as distributed/corrected.
5.
Auditor's report.
6.
Motion to re-appoint the auditor for the current fiscal year.
7.
President's report.
8.
Treasurer's Report Discussion on the annual budget.
(Often left off the agenda.)
9.
Materials put forward by owners. (For discussion only.)
10.
Election for directors.
11.
Introduce the candidates.
12.
Open the floor to additional nominations.
13.
Candidates' presentations. (two minute time limit)
14.
Appointment of scrutinizers to inspect and count the ballots.
15.
Counting the voting instruments. (ballots & proxies.)
16.
Questions & answers. (while waiting for election results)
17.
Announce election results.
18.
New business—(Voting only on issues disclosed in meeting notice.)
19.
Close the meeting.

Something weird
I went to one AGM in Mississauga where I saw that the board had this item on the agenda.

“11. Ratification of actions of the Board of Directors.”
When I looked through the minutes of the previous year's AGM I read:
“9. Ratification and approval of acts of directors
On a motion by (an owner) and seconded by (a second owner) it was:
'Resolved that all decisions taken and business transacted during the fiscal year 2012 by the board of directors of Peel Condominium Corporation No. 000 as recorded or reflected in the minutes of the meetings of the board of directors and in the audited financial statements of the corporation, be duly ratified and approved by the unit owners of the corporation.' Motion carried as evidenced by a show of hands.”

At this year's AGM after the president asked for an owner to make this motion and it was seconded, I questioned how could the owners ratify and approve the actions taken by the board at the board meetings when the owners don't know what decisions were made or why those decisions were made as they were not at the meetings or read the minutes.

The president replied that the the owners could not read the minutes because they held confidential information and that they could use the information in the auditor's report to approve the board's decisions.

(An owner told me after the meeting that his request to examine the board minutes was ignored by the board.)

The motion was amended to remove reference to ratifying and approving the actions in the board minutes and that motion was passed by a large majority by a show of hands.

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