This Q&A article is about effective software platform for body corporate committee communication.
Table of Contents:
- QUESTION: Our committee intends to hold an open forum to discuss motions and the associated costs of the motions they intend to put to our AGM. As non-owners may attend, should financials be discussed?
- QUESTION: What communication platforms work well for body corporates to effectively manage discussions, email documents, budget deliberations etc among committee members?
Question: Our committee intends to hold an open forum to discuss motions and the associated costs of the motions they intend to put to our AGM. As non-owners may attend, should financials be discussed?
Our complex consists of 140 units under the Accommodation Module and the Building Format Plan.
Our committee intends to hold a forum, open to all residents, to discuss motions and the associated costs of the motions they intend to put to our AGM in June this year.
Should body corporate financial matters be discussed with non-owners who will be present?
Is the forum an informal meeting?
If the committee presents attendees with false or misleading information, can the committee be held accountable for negligence and if so, what action could be taken by owners to address this?
Answer: Depending on what the meeting is about and who is running it, it may be appropriate to hold some of the financial details back.
There is no issue with the committee holding an information session. Indeed, trying to engage the occupants of your scheme sounds like a good thing.
It is not necessarily bad if non-owners attend. In some states, it is a legislative right. Tenants contribute to the smooth running of a building, and it may be useful to give them direct information at a session like this or gain an understanding of what is and isn’t working at the building from them .
Still, as you indicate, this is an informal session, so no hard decisions can be made. It may be helpful to hear from tenants to some degree, but ultimately, they won’t be the ones making the decisions. Depending on what the meeting is about and who is running it, it may be appropriate to hold back some of the financial details. It would be up to the people running the meeting, the committee, to be judicious about this.
In terms of providing false or misleading information, do you have a reason to think this might happen? If committee members deliberately do this, there may be some repercussions, although most likely, it would depend on the information presented as a formal vote. However, the fact that you suggest this in advance implies you are expecting this to some degree. If so, there may be bigger issues that probably can’t be resolved within the context of this question.
Bear in mind that committee members aren’t held to an absolute standard. If someone makes a few errors of speech while presenting, that’s not the same as being deliberately misleading. And, if it is just a matter of other people seeing an issue differently from you, that is not the same as providing misleading information. Still, if you think there is another side of an issue to discuss and the committee won’t present it, perhaps you could ask for a few minutes at the meeting to address attendees and give a different opinion. Alternatively, you could arrange a meeting with owners to present your information.
William Marquand Tower Body Corporate E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au P: 07 5609 4924
This post appears in Strata News #693.
Question: What communication platforms work well for body corporates to effectively manage discussions, email documents, budget deliberations etc among committee members?
Are body corporates effectively using business communication platforms to manage discussions, email documents, budget deliberations, etc, among committee members? Businesses use Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace and Slack. What works well for body corporate committees?
Answer: If the committee and body corporate manager are committed to making these platforms work, they can be useful tools to streamline decision-making.
William Marquand, Tower Body Corporate:
Effective communication is what every body corporate owner says they want and what every body corporate manager says they provide. However, we still live in a world where miscommunication is a standard rather than a rarity.
As you indicate, many businesses have moved on from email as their only or main form of communication, using various alternative systems depending on their needs. Many body corporates do something similar, such as sharing messages across social media or other management platforms. The success of these largely depends on the users. If the committee and body corporate manager are committed to making these platforms work, they can be useful tools to streamline decision-making. On the other hand, if people aren’t interested, it doesn’t matter what platform you try. You can only do so much if owners and committee members are apathetic. If you think a program would work for your scheme, give it a go. It would also be good to hear from owners in the comments about what platforms they have tried and whether these are successful.
In my experience, there are two key issues with alternative platforms. Firstly, most of them aren’t designed for strata, so they can be helpful, but they also have limitations in terms of their practicality. Then, you need to consider record keeping – there is an obligation to maintain strata records. While generally good systems are in place to keep email records and meeting papers, that is often not the case for things like a WhatsApp chat. I don’t think this precludes using these systems, but it is something to consider.
Strata-specific apps are certainly a growth area. Many body corporate companies use systems like Strata Vote, Vote Max or Vote Now for recording meetings, and they are a huge leap forward from the not-so-old days when managers collated vast reams of paperwork to tally votes. Most individual companies will also have online portals providing varying interactions. They all give you access to documents, but some can also provide chat boards and other facilities to promote discussion. A few specific apps have been developed for strata. We use Resvu as part of our business. It saves the strata manager time while providing owners with quick, easy access to information.
These platforms offer back-end support to management companies, allowing them to provide a site-specific app for each scheme. Over the next couple of years, this technology will become standard and hopefully move us closer to the ultimate goal of seamless communication.
Brett Baillie, Resvu:
A small number of targeted technology solutions in the market effectively unite management companies, body corporates, owners, and residents. They may include features like a committee hub, request workflows, resident hub, proactive communication, levy notifications, payment gateways, and more.
Considering interconnectivity and integrations is crucial when evaluating a tech stack beyond a comprehensive industry-specific solution. While numerous excellent tools are available in isolation, the key is how they interconnect and offer visibility across all stakeholders while meeting your compliance requirements for documentation. If you have the time and internal resources to build and maintain a solution specific to your business using these individual tools, that’s fantastic. For everyone else, there are industry specific solutions.
William Marquand Tower Body Corporate E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au P: 07 5609 4924
Brett Baillie Resvu E: brett@resvu.io
This post appears in Strata News #685.
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