Owners majority vote for board of directors positions

[Terry Gibson]

Good question.

I am sure others will have wiser responses, but here is my 2¢:

One concern: Are you able to get the majority of owners to vote on any vote? Many condos experience poor turnout of owners, even at AGM’s. Complaceny – the enemy of all condos. The 75% rule, for making changes to bylaws is a major challenge for any condo to achieve.

Another approach might be that the majority of voters must support any person running.

Many condos have great difficulty getting a full slate of directors.

Another approach: decide what skills your condo needs on the board and actively pursue those skillsets from within your condo community.

Please spread the word!

[Kenneth H Chamberlain]

Tks Terry you raised good points. We are a small corporation with 24 owners as such we usually have a good turn out for our AGM and/or proxies utilized. We will have to word the bylaw to indicate a majority of the voters present at the AGM.

Please spread the word!

[Mark Hambridge]

The Condominium Property Act (Sections 26 to 28) is silent on how board members will be elected at a general meeting.

The bylaws at our condominium are silent on the method of election. In the past, nominations have been prepared by the current board to either re-nominate themselves or bring forward a new candidate to replace a ‘retiring’ (the language of the Condominium Property Act) board member. Then, the chairman calls for nominations from the floor.

If there are more nominations than the number of board positions determined by the board, an election is held among those attending the annual general meeting, typically about 40 owners from the 175 units in our development. The ballot usually has the names of those running for election or re-election and write-in spaces for nominations from the floor. Voting is by placing an X or check mark against the names selected by the voter.

Two scrutineers count the votes, and the five (or seven) with the highest number of votes are declared elected. It is not mandatory to vote for all five (or seven) positions – in fact, there are no rules about how many candidates are to be voted for. We may be instructed to ‘vote for the number of candidates to fill the vacancies’. If there were five vacancies and ten candidates, we would be instructed to vote for five.

The result is an election of a board by a very small electorate, just those who attended the meeting and voted for some of the candidates; hardly representative of the owners’ will, but reflecting the concern of apathy mentioned by Terry Gibson.

There are better ways to conduct an election; for general advice, see

https://www.fairvote.ca/prforboardelections/

Please spread the word!

fairvote.ca

PR for civil society board elections - Fair Vote Canada

Send your MP a holiday card telling them about your support for proportional representation!

[Kenneth H Chamberlain]

Tks Mark, you and Terry raised some good points. We will have to consider these moving forward

Ken

Please spread the word!

[Dana Bouwman]

Yes, I often see this wording in Hugh Willis’ bylaws. If you haven’t already hired a lawyer then he might be a good one to reach out to.

Please spread the word!