Question: Must motions submitted to an AGM by the committee be first formally approved by the committee?
Answer: There is no way a committee can submit a motion to a general meeting unless the committee has first considered the motion and voted on it.
No provision in Queensland’s strata legislation explicitly says the committee must ‘approve’ their motion. That said, there is no way a committee can submit a motion to a general meeting unless the committee has first considered and voted on it, because that’s what committees do – they make decisions jointly.
To put it another way: if a committee didn’t approve of a motion it submitted to a general meeting, then why is the motion being submitted at all and under whose authority?
Or to look at it yet another way: there’s no provision for an individual committee member (or a strata manager) to submit a motion to a general meeting purportedly ‘on behalf of’ the committee, unless the committee has voted on it in the first place.
Moreover, section 93(1) of the Standard Module (equivalent provisions of other Modules) provides that the committee must prepare an agenda for each general meeting. Again, the word ‘approve’ isn’t used here, although section 93(2) goes on to provide that the agenda must include:
- motions submitted by the committee for consideration at the meeting.
This is general information only and not legal advice.
This post appears in Strata News #761.
Chris Irons Strata Solve E: chris@stratasolve.com.au P: 0419 805 898