What are some things to watch out for when preparing meeting minutes?
Posted 08 November 2024
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The content of the meeting minutes is crucial and serves the purpose of recording the resolutions at a meeting. As such, the record should not contain any opinions, of those owners who attended the meeting, transcription of the meeting or interpretations of what occurred at the meeting.
From our experience, common sources of disputes regarding minutes tend to arise from:
- Factual inaccuracies or disputed recollections; and
- Claims that the minutes contain either too much or too little information about the meeting’s topics, which can diminish their value as a balanced record of the decision-making rationale. This is significant for later reviews of decisions. Since the reasoning can differ among meeting participants, it is advisable not to document this rationale. Instead, focus on recording the motions passed (including any amendments) and the votes cast for or against the motions.
When recording minutes, you need only change one word, that being the word “resolves” to either “RESOLVED” or “NOT RESOLVED”. For instance:
| “The Strata committee RESOLVES to appoint ”
to either [when recording in meeting minutes]:
(a) “The strata committee RESOLVED to appoint ”
or
(b) “The Strata Committee NOT RESOLVED to appoint ” |
Distribution of meeting minutes
Whilst the meeting minutes of a strata committee meeting should be shared within 7 days after the meeting, a separate statutory timeframe applies to the distribution of meeting minutes for a general meeting. Here are the guidelines for providing a copy of the minutes within 7 days after the meeting:
- Distribute to each member of the strata committee.
- Share with each owner in the case of a small scheme.
- Provide a copy to each owner who requests it within 14 days of the meeting for a large scheme.
Note:
Please note that there are other requirements for strata renewal committee meetings and meetings held for the purposes of Part 10 of the Strata Schemes Development Act 2015. This area is not addressed in this e-book.
This is an extract from our Strata Committee Manual.
To access more information, please fill in the below form to download our Strata Committee Manual for free.
