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speaker-0: Welcome to Condos Unplugged, season two, where we bring you real conversations, fresh perspectives, and insights from across the condominium industry. A special thank you to our podcast partner, SV Law, for making this season possible. Now let's get unplugged. Welcome back to Condos Unplugged. I am Jen Green here with my wonderful co-host Brad Wells. And today we're going deep on the one meeting that every condo in Ontario has to hold and almost nobody actually enjoys the annual general meeting. Today we're covering the whole thing from start to finish with two people who have seen every version of it. Craig McMillan, president of Maple Ridge Community Management, who has run these meetings from the manager's seat for decades, and Chris Jagowitz, principal. A common ground con de la who chairs dozens of AGMs across Ontario every year as the neutral, firm, but fair voice in the room. Notice requirements, quorum, proxies, elections, and yes, the open quorum that everyone remembers. As always, a big thank you to our partner at SD Law, Trusted Legal Advisors to Condominium Communities. Let's get started.
speaker-1: it. All right. Thank you, Jen and Chris, Craig, welcome. Thank you for joining us today. We're very excited for this veteran of AGMs. I know I participated with you and you know I know you've been involved in the industry for a long time. So I just love to introduce yourselves quickly and let us know your name, your role, your what you've been doing in the industry, what's kind of going on personally and professionally. And one side question I'd like you to add in. How many condo AGMs have you participated in your career? So Chris, we'll start with you.
speaker-2: Thanks, Brad. Glad to be here with you guys. So it's Chris Jaglowitz from Common Ground Condo Law. I lead a a firm of the five lawyers. We serve condo corporations. For myself personally, so I've done this work since two thousand and three, and over which time I figure I've chaired approximately twelve hundred to fifteen hundred owners meetings over that time. Some with Craig, but keeping keeping them all straight or to think of any single one. That's the challenge.
speaker-3: Craig McMillan, I'm president of Maple Ridge Community Management, been in the industry for since two thousand and three, the same as Chris. I've a lot of AGMs over the years obviously and participated in even more. So yeah
speaker-1: No number, Craig, you can't you can't throw it on the wall.
speaker-3: I'm gonna say over five hundred shared easily and probably well over a thousand participated. Yeah.
speaker-1: That's great. So we got we got a wealth of experience, Jen, so we're we're good for this for this
speaker-0: I love it. I love it. Okay, we're gonna start off with the would you rather? I'm gonna ask you a question, you're gonna pick which one, and you're gonna tell us why as well. Okay, so I'll start with you, Craig. Would you rather survive an AGM where every owner wants to speak for 10 minutes? Or an AGM where everyone mysteriously is silent, but you get 47 emails the next morning.
speaker-3: I'll take the forty seven emails any day.
speaker-0: I had a feeling you were gonna pick that one.
speaker-3: Yeah. If you can get it over with quickly, you know, that's perfect. A fifteen minute AGM is is a manual's dream.
speaker-0: Fair. Okay, Chris, you would you rather explain condo legislation to one hundred angry owners or spend three hours debating whether common element actually
speaker-2: I would talk about the legal aspects any day there because the great thing is you get to blame the government. That's easy. I do that anytime. That's
speaker-1: Good, too, Chris, but
speaker-2: right.
speaker-1: Awesome. Well, that's great. Okay, so let's get to some juicy stuff right off the top here, guys. This is the episode is, you know, the craziest AGMs, kind of the great stories that we've we've experienced, good and bad, maybe. So Greg, great hop as a condo manager, as a leader of a management company, tell us about the AGM that became most openly hostile that you experienced.
speaker-3: I only have to pick one. Yeah. I'm gonna go back to to the almost the beginning. I'd only been a manager for just a couple of months. and I was given this wonderful opportunity with the call in the industry. and there was an AGM and a requisition meeting at the same time. So it was a bit of a a a combo meeting, as they say. What was interesting this is is the the the supervisor at the time asked me to drive to the venue with them. So I'm driving them. And I didn't realize it at the time. But the reason they did that is so I couldn't leave without them, which is probably a very important thing. Because they knew it was going to be a contentious meeting and they wanted to make sure I stayed for the whole thing. So all I remember at the very beginning was the noise from the party room in the building as I walked down the corridor. a lot of commotion. And then we got to the door, the supervisor put his arm around me and said, So the previous management company stole all the money and the manager committed suicide and then opened the door and just basically gently. push me into the room. And then I saw the lawyer who was cornered at the corner inside the room with all these people waving paper at them and screaming and shouting at them. And you know, it was it took at least an hour to to calm the room down so we could actually, you know, start the meeting. a lot of very angry people. obviously, you know, they've lost money. there's a lot of unknowns going on. And the end result was the entire board resigned at the meeting. It was total chaos. It lasted a few hours and you know, the community spent a long time trying to recover from those traumatic moments.
speaker-1: So so Craig, and that's pretty intense, especially as a newbie in the industry. I still to this day remember my very first AGM that I had to run and how nervous I was in my scripts. You know,
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I had word by word of what I was gonna say just kind of shaken. So I was a newbie in the industry, but thinking through the you know, you know, your supervisor or whoever was, you know, kind of involved with that community before, looking back, what were the warning signs leading up to that angry mob AGM that should have been able to to see this was coming?
speaker-3: Well, I think the of the signs were always there, just nobody was looking for them. I always state that, you know, you should never trust your manager completely. and I think the board put too much trust into this manager which allowed them the ability to, you know, commit fraud within the community without having anyone having those checks and balances in place. I think that's probably the the biggest takeaway from that.
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-2: Wow.
speaker-1: Well, Chris, I mean this might be easy picking than that story, all right? Because there's probably many, many things that can go wrong. But like when is this frustration and the the anger, like when is that actually a governance problem? When is it actually a, you know, a very serious problem for the condo? What maybe what did the board manager do to fuel it?
speaker-2: Frustration, I mean, when the longer it carries on, the longer it goes without sort of being checked, the worse it gets, because then that sort of leads to different kinds of behavior, including general distrust of everything. It also creates apathy where you don't get people out to meetings and you're not reaching quorum or they're not filling out the online proxies. So all of that just They say, Okay, I'm getting special assessment bills or I'm getting regular assessment bills and I'm not gonna pay those either because I'm frustrated and because I don't feel heard and because I got my case thrown out of the condo authority tribunal or whatever else or lost my court case and the people do unusual things when they sort of feel powerless and and frustrated. So It's not easy to solve and you're not gonna be able to solve the issue for every single owner. But what can you do in general to get the word out and try to help owners feel that they've been hurt, that they've got people who are making decisions on their behalf and and in their best interest? And even if it might be, especially in managers nowadays face this, these are painful decisions today, but it's the pathway to recovering from years of neglect or bad decisions or bad luck. And we've got to do something painful to to get to a better place. That leads to frustration always. Yeah.
speaker-1: Absolutely. Yeah. What does that look like in from the manager and the legal counsel's suggestions? Like what what are those painful decisions or actions that we can take when we see this train coming or you know these bad situations?
speaker-3: Yeah, I I would say that, you know, as as soon as you're aware of it and you have your some basic facts, a good solution would be to hold an owner's meeting prior to
the AGM. that can help, you know, a town hall, whatever, something like that. it helps get the steam out of the room. so the actual A GM where the business of the corporation is gonna be conducted is is probably a little bit more cordial. Yeah.
speaker-0: The open forum, that's where a lot of disasters happen as well. It's like
speaker-1: Sometimes we call this new business, right?
speaker-0: the dreaded moment of any HEM, right? The open forum. Because you know, you have a silent owners that haven't said anything all year. They haven't, you know, complained to the property manager and all of a sudden they come with their list, they're pointing at the board, they're pointing fingers, they have recordings, they have photos. Tell us about a time where that was a complete went off script.
speaker-3: Awesome. one one that that sticks in my mind. I was chairing an A GM and obviously we got to the open floor and made a gentleman stand up and he starts hurling and cells, swearing at the head table and the board. And this community was a was a very you know, prestigious community. and people usually conduct themselves in a in a in a orderly manner. But this evening was not gonna be that evening. And I tried to, you know, get word in Edgeways and it just wasn't happening. He was really mad. I believe it was probably he requested additional parking for an adult child who'd returned home and obviously that was the declined by the board. And he wouldn't listen to it. Yeah, yeah. For for his
speaker-0: Visitor spot.
speaker-3: and we held the AGM at a church. and so I was trying to get control of the room and obviously it just wasn't really working out too well for me. And then I saw Jesus Christ on the cross and I said, Why not? I'm going to use that. and I said, Mr. Smith, you're in the house of the Lord. Please conduct yourself accordingly. And all the people all the people around him told him to sit down and be quiet. So his peers essentially calmed the room down. He was probably, you know, embarrassed by that. So now I hold all my AGMs in a place of worship. It is absolutely true, absolutely true.
speaker-2: This episode of Condos Unplugged is brought to you by our episode sponsors Common Ground Condo Law and Maple Ridge Community Management. Maple Ridge Community Management proudly serves over four hundred condo communities in Ontario. As an established and recognized leader in the industry since nineteen eighty four, we've had the distinction of being the most Googled and reviewed condominium service provider in all of Ontario. We've been a certified great place to work in Canada for seven consecutive years, and it's our people that make MRCM great. It's no wonder that more and more condominium communities like yours have chosen MRCM as their trusted management partner. Contact us today to learn how MRCM can help your community thrive.
speaker-3: Absolutely true. I mean you're gonna use what you have, what tools you have in the room.
speaker-2: Craig's
got a good point there. I mean the venue and the sort of sets the stage and the decorum, that kind of thing. And it's really interesting when you compare that kind of forum to, say, a hot, sweaty, small party room in the basement of a high rise. So it's it makes a very big difference. I mean, in terms of your audience's disposition. Yeah.
speaker-3: Absolutely.
speaker-1: Well, to that point, Chris, I would say too, we can also think about how we set up, right? Audio visual, right? I think having a microphone to be able to control a room and and be everyone can hear well what's being said and who has control of the floor. I think that also does help in those controllers situations. Craig, you were saying?
speaker-3: Yeah, so another tactic the that I I love to use is that when you book a venue, book it for a particular time frame and then you have an end. And even if it's the most contentious meeting you're you're gonna be at that that year, let's say, you know it's over by nine PM because you've already advised everyone we have the room for two hours, this is gonna when it happened. And so it's like a movie. Bad movie, good movie, it is gonna end in two hours.
speaker-0: Gifts and tricks. I love this. Those are two great
speaker-1: So so Chris, from the from the lawyer's perspective, when you're chairing, you know, you're chairing these open forums many times. What's your advice or what's your tips of how do you kind of gain control of the floor and the core and the the quorum?
speaker-2: First of all, and and of course, you know, for doing meetings for over twenty years, I mean many of our stories are gonna be from like the in person meetings, but we still do like the vast amount of the meetings that I chair nowadays, they're still virtual. Okay. And they sh in my opinion, they should stay that way for for wherever possible. And of course to be supplemented by in person barbecues, social meetings, town halls and to have a blend of Different meeting types for different purposes. But some of the ways when those open forums sort of go wrong, the first thing that comes to me is board hasn't been holding meetings throughout the year. They're waiting and letting it bottle up and come to the AGM. And so you got angry people coming to the annual meeting, which you don't want. So but doing the meetings virtually, there are a lot of ways, even if the people come angry or there's there's hot button issues and there's truths and decisions and news, using the virtual meeting. And opening up aspects of the platform, like saying having the chat open so everyone can parti participate, everyone can see it. Having the QA open so everybody can see the questions that are pending and which ones we answered and which ones we don't. All of that, it's transparent. And when owners see, okay, I get the sense that you're being transparent with me, and I get the chance to ask stuff verbally, or I can put stuff in chat and the QA and do stuff verbally. So I mean you really
get the The best of both worlds. Plus, like Craig had the good suggestion to have a have a time limit. You can still do that with a virtual meeting, or you can just let it go if that's what it takes to to get to the end of the issue and resolve it. there's still lots of options there with the virtual meetings and for the open forums.
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: Anyone?
speaker-3: Or
speaker-2: Sure.
speaker-0: Yeah.
speaker-2: Yeah, yeah. You know what though? You can harness the power of the neighbors. Craig hit this, and it's true. Like instead of starting to to yell back and forth with that owner, you just let them go long enough until half the room is looking at you saying, Really, is this gonna go on? And then you know what?
speaker-1: Starting.
speaker-2: Yeah. And then owners shut it down. They say, Come on, Fred, sit down. We've had enough. You know, that something like that. Yeah.
speaker-0: Yeah.
speaker-1: Yeah, I want to pick up Chris on you said too, because I think there's so much that can be done ahead of the annual meeting, right? it's whether it's social things or open forums or town halls or whatever, but even even written communication, right? The first time that an owner is hearing about a big issue shouldn't be in the AGM package. So Craig, what do you what do you think? Like how do we communicate better leading up in the in the weeks and months leading up to AGM when we have some things bubbling?
speaker-3: Yeah, I think using newsletters or email blasts, things like that, are crucial. And and again, as Chris pointed out, being transparent about the concerns or the major issues and and using those other tools. Maybe it is in today's world with virtual meetings, you can have a virtual town hall meeting just on one particular subject and let that be be what what's gonna be transpired in that regard. Again, taking the steam out of the room for the EGM as much as possible. Another tactic that that I like to use when there's a contentious person, let's say, or a group of people, I want to meet with them or offer to meet with them before the meeting. And and even if they're still contentious at the meeting, just have a sign word with them saying, Hey, I'm gonna give you twenty, thirty minutes with me and the board after the meeting. Let's just get through the business and then we'll take care of your concerns after the meeting. It sometimes helps tremendously 'cause they feel that they're gonna be heard. and there's gonna be some resolution.
speaker-0: Have have either of you ever seen like a physical altercation? Yeah, punches.
speaker-3: Unfortunately. I've had water bottles thrown at me. I've seen homeowners get into fisticuffs with each other. You see it all. There's been police at A GMs. Thing like it really is, it's a whole gambit of of emotions, right? It's it w it's just exactly the same as what happens in life. To run C P twenty four is the same thing.
speaker-0: Wild. Wild. Well there is drama definitely around the open
forum, but there is as well around the election. And that's always a fun one. So I want some stories from the election results or when people get to speak. Like if what what happens there? What have you guys seen? Tell us.
speaker-3: But I mean, usually the AGMs when it comes to elections, money's a big big issue, right? So if if common ailment fees are increasing or there's a special assessment, that's usually that's a good way to achieve quotum because you know, people delete spends? Yeah. Raise the fees, yeah, yeah. Put a twenty percent increase in your budget and people will show up. People in arrears are always a challenge as well 'cause they can't vote type of idea and and you know, so therefore there's some congestion there as well. And then there's rival residents, either groups of people or they're The spreading misleading information about other candidates or management in order to gain votes. That's probably, you know, the most contentious things that we normally see when it comes to to voting. Right.
speaker-0: Yeah.
speaker-2: I was just gonna say I one of the stories I've got is is having fourteen candidates. so I mean at giving each one too many
speaker-0: Anyone usually to be on a board. So that's a lot
speaker-2: Yeah.
speaker-0: of
speaker-2: It it was. So of course, after you know, giving each of them up to two minutes for a candidate speech is that was twenty eight minutes. Some of us weren't gonna get back. And other sort of weird things. And director qualifications now is a really big thing where we know the complexities that come from those disclosure forms and where people say, Wait a minute, you disclosed here that you're not a party to lawsuits, but we know there's a lawsuit against you. So then you get that stuff happening. Or wait a minute, Fred, you're not an owner. But you s tick the box saying you are. You are. So that brings interesting challenges. And are those are those people qualified or are they disqualified later? Lawyers love this kind of stuff because it's grey, it's messy as heck.
speaker-1: What in general, I mean the obviously the every case is different, but in general, do you try to resolve those types of disputes live at the meeting?
speaker-2: What do you do? Sometimes you can. Like if if it's a simple one, like where the candidate ticks the box saying they're in arrears of paying common expenses, it's usually accidental. And we can say, Hey Fred, did you actually or Jane? Your your common expenses aren't actually in arrears though, right? Like and just and to raise that, like perhaps as just a question after their candidate speech they can clear it up or when we're taking nominations from the floor just to deal with any little issues like that that do come up. But some sometimes you can't resolve them and sometimes the candidate doesn't show up. So what do you do, right? Right.
speaker-0: Was about six years ago or so. I ran for my condo board with about four other people, and one of those individuals was wild. Let's just say that. And he campaigned for weeks against me personally, covered his car and you know, don't vote for Jen. She's terrible. She's corrupt. All this this things. And so it it all came down to the AGM night with the election. And typically, I mean, you both would know, you wouldn't say the number of votes that. someone receives you would just say this person is you know the three year two year one year whatever well because this was such a contentious voting and election night the lawyer that was running it is actually Rob Mullen. He told everyone how many votes everyone got so this guy got one his own vote and that was it. Then the rest of the votes were divvy amongst the board. But it was just like this this was just wild. But this guy you know he was up there yelling that said called names to the rest of us in the middle of this and it was all online. This was during COVID. So think this was twenty two.
speaker-1: Well, Jen, that leads into one thing I'm curious about because we do get in these situations, whether it's the manager, the lawyer, maybe it's a board member, and someone from the floor starts hurling personal attacks or blatant lies even, right? In in this public forum. I've always struggled with that because, you know, especially if it's maybe my one of my managers and they're saying these things, I'm like, that I know these things aren't true that are being said right now. I also don't want to get up there and try to look defensive and look like we're trying to cover or make excuses or whatever, right? So whatever the party is that those kind of comments or improper language or whatever is being used, like what's the right tactic to try and dispel that well beyond the record?
speaker-2: This episode of Condos Unplugged is brought to you by our episode sponsors, Common Ground Condo Law and Maple Ridge Community Management. More scrutiny, more pressure on managers. Common Ground Condo Law runs legally compliant owners' meetings while staying on budget. Our affordable flat fee service provides a complete solution, including package preparation, electronic voting and proxy services, professional chairing, and governance guidance. We oversee the process from start to finish. Handling the details so managers can focus on their communities. Stay compliant, stay on budget, common ground condo law, uncommon sense.
speaker-1: being used, like what's the right tactic to try and dispel that while being on the record?
speaker-2: One aspect is in the initial rules at the start of the meeting. It's very common for a chairperson to give some initial ground rules and one of them is to remind owners that they're accountable for their words. Like that's remind them that they're among their neighbors and that it's the the goal here is is to keep things civil and courteous. And then if in certain circumstances where you've got a physical microphone or a virtual, in that case once it crosses a certain threshold, a
person is warned, then take the microphone.
speaker-3: Yeah, I'll add to that a code of conduct at the sign in table or even the beginning of a virtual meeting explaining how people should conduct themselves. It's a great tool because then you can point to it and and and say, you know, this is how this meeting's gonna be run. and a lot of the time if it's not a question, just say thank you for your comment and and move on is is a big part of that as well. And setting time limits for for how long people can actually speak for and making sure that that it's a question, not a statement. Right.
speaker-0: It's a heated night. It really is these AGMs. Now what can they do to kind of build this up properly so that there isn't any of these issues? Is there is there anything
speaker-3: I think, you know, it's an opportunity to explain the process, the requirements to be on the board, as well as, you know, how board decisions are made, some confidential issues as well. A lot of people come on the board and then they they run about telling people board decisions and board discussions even to to the to the community, which can be a bit of a problem. And and you know, I would also say that, you know, when we're dealing with the communication, 'cause everyone's using Jet G T P these days, unfortunately, and they're sending everything out everywhere and and what we're actually seeing is is they're spoofing emails now and and they're putting emails out there that look as if they're coming from the management office or the present of the board when actual fact I'm not. I think, you know, reminding people that these are the factual email addresses or or factual letterheads that are going to be coming out. and to use those as official communication channels to the community.
speaker-2: question I've got to sort of help with elections specifically in advance. Because sometimes you get owners in the in the audience on on AGM night saying, Okay, the candidate just gave their speech, now I want to ask some questions. And at some communities that's fairly common. I hate doing QA's with candidates at AGMs. And in fact, I usually rule it out of order and say, We're not gonna do that. But I do what I would make the suggestion that boards and managers were who know that owners have questions or they have a lot of candidates or there's hot button issues among the candidates is they have a candidate's night. And you could have it even three nights before the AGM or the night before or the morning of or a month before. So there are certainly are options there and especially like Francis, that meeting where I had fourteen candidates. I mean, why wouldn't they have debated that for days and days and had lots of time for that? That would have been better than raising it all at the A GM. Absolutely.
speaker-0: also really like when they do like a one pager to the package. Yes. People have have read, you know, so they know who we are in
speaker-3: Yeah.
speaker-0: the hallway. I find that to be very valuable as well. Yeah. Brad, you got anything else that's hot and spicy that we're gonna
speaker-1: Well I mean again two great guests here. We've barely scratched the surface here on AGM and we're kinda up to the clock. So I would say maybe before we get into your rapid fire gen, Chris and Craig, what's one thing that you want to share with tunnel managers or court members? what's one thing you'd tip or advice you'd give about preparing or holding AGMs?
speaker-3: Yeah, I would say, you know, be prepared is probably the the most important thing. Have access to the governing documents, the budget, the reserve fund, project updates, any and and fiscal ledges as well, 'cause people are going to ask questions that are in the audit. The audit may not have, you know, all the answers for those particular questions, but if you've got the general edges, then you can look it up pretty quickly. And that helps support the discussions that are inevitably going to happen within the meeting. I'd also say arrive early. So you can go scope the room out, make sure everything's the way it's supposed to be. And then afterwards, you know, I would stay later after the meeting has actually closed. and that helps build relationships, especially if there's some contentious stuff and people are maybe still unsure about what decisions were made or what information was actually provided.
speaker-2: My tip would be stay virtual. In many communities, I know they'd like to have the social aspects, but there still are so many benefits, and we can achieve quorum more reliably with virtual. It's far better and better for bringing in professionals like the auditors and lawyers and engineers and presenters who charge premium rates in several instances for showing up in person. As much as I miss the house calls and and seeing people in person, I find in the time since COVID. Still the virtual meetings are better. They're working out better. And those boards and managers should resist those small calls we want to do in person. And usually most owners don't. And we find that those managers and boards who are switching back to in person, they're not getting the numbers, they're not getting the attendance, and they're often not achieving quorum. Yeah.
speaker-0: You can do it from your phone in the car. Like it could just be card.
speaker-2: Yeah. While the owners are on the go train coming home or while they're feeding their family or they're out of town if they want. And or if they're off site and there's so many investor owners, they're frequently not gonna come to the site or near the site for a meeting. They'd far rather join remotely. And you do get greater participation and and owners know that there's less chance of somebody dominating the meeting from their soapbox.
speaker-3: Yeah. Yeah. And the travel time as well, right? So I did an in-person EGM last night and I have a virtual tonight and then another in person the following evening. I enjoyed last
night's EGM in person. I think it was appropriate to have it in person because there was some contentious issues in there. And being present sometimes just allows you to have those conversations that just don't happen virtually. But I'm with Chris where and when you can. Virtual's the way to go. It's it's it's a far, far more convenient, cost effective way to hold these meetings. And and you have
speaker-0: control which is true okay we're gonna move on to the rapid fire questions as we get to the end of this so i'm gonna ask each of you one question answer as quick as you can and then i'll move on to the next so we'll start with Chris most ridiculous thing you've seen happen at an age
speaker-2: Yeah. A meeting held in a tent and which was fitting because it did become a circus with it being a weekend afternoon and I could could see and could tell from their disposition there. Some owners were drinking significant alcohol in the back there, which is is like basically pouring gas on a fire.
speaker-0: Biggest myth about what a chair is allowed to do.
speaker-3: Probably the biggest myth for what a chair's allowed to do is make decisions on, you know, candidates and stuff like that. Again, you know, I think when you come to what a chair does, there's a lot of misconception of what they should do and what they do do. It's always better to have an impartial person share the meeting or have the president of the board chair the meeting. I think it's a really bad idea to have the manager who manages the the site chair the meeting 'cause obviously, you know, that can be seen as being a bit of a challenge when it comes to how decisions are made.
speaker-0: Fair. Okay, Chris, from the twelve hundred EGMs you've you've chaired or attended, longest EGM you've personally sat.
speaker-2: Wait, it was probably four or so hours because of the counting. Counting of ballots. Just very complicated balloting questions, a huge condominium with a lot of units and just the scrutineers and head registrar just didn't come together to make it quick counting. The counting is what killed us. Yeah.
speaker-0: Like one thing boards should stop doing before their next ATM.
speaker-3: It's a good question. Stop I would say the you know for boards they they should stop. It's a difficult question actually. Hang on, let me think about that for second. What should they stop doing? Stop antagonizing the community. How's that? It's probably the best one. Creative.
speaker-0: Chris, most common reason an AGM spirals out of control.
speaker-2: Where the owners don't feel heard or they've been badly surprised.
speaker-0: Craig, best way to end an open forum without a riot.
speaker-3: again put a time frame on it and and and end it. So you're gonna take the last question, the last two, three questions and and just end it that way. As long as you're you're telling them, you know, we're gonna take three or four more questions and then we're gonna close the floor. All right.
speaker-0: Chris, one A Gm trend that could
speaker-2: Go back to the boards and managers feeling compelled to go back to in person meetings when in fact the community's not ready and maybe that community's not suited to in person meetings. But they c they could have all kinds of other meetings in person, just not the AGM.
speaker-0: Big takeaway from this. and the last one, Craig, one AGM trend that gives you all
speaker-3: virtual meetings are being accepted more and more and I think, you know, nobody wants to sit on the four one for two hours to get anywhere. And it's a game changer for managers. Before virtual was was accepted, almost every manager who had to attend an EGM had to drive to the to the community, organize people getting there, cook a room, all that sort of stuff. and travel there, family time, and then get home at eleven o'clock at night. And so I think, you know That virtual meeting, which you can start and get over with within usually forty five minutes, is a real game changer for managers and will help retain talented people.
speaker-0: Okay, so everyone that's listening right now, it's it's all about online.
speaker-2: Yeah.
speaker-1: Yeah, and I'm thinking I'm thinking a lot we should be approaching some of these online platforms that help us host these AGMs to sponsor these episodes because you know our guests are really
speaker-0: Yeah, I popped it up.
speaker-1: services here. So no, totally agree. So well, today's conversation is proof that the AGM isn't just one moment that can go wrong. It's a whole chain of events, starting with the notice that goes out and the weeks before anyone even sets foot in the room or the virtual room. so huge thank you to Craig McMillan from Maple Ridge Community Management. Chris Jagalitz from Common Ground Condo Law for walking us through everything from their experience from quorum and proxies and those fun stories. but great advice and great tips. So thank you, gentlemen. No one wants a runs past midnight, and no owner wants to leave an AGM feeling unheard or unseen. But with the right preparation, the right chair, the right structure, an AGM can be the moment where the community actually comes together instead of the moment it falls apart. Next
speaker-2: So until
speaker-1: time, thank you for tuning into Condos Unplugged. Please like.
speaker-2: Follow subscribe.
speaker-1: subscribe, share. So we appreciate your support, watching and and supporting our sponsors that have made this happen. Special thank you to our title sponsor, S V Law.
speaker-0: See you next time. Thanks guys.
speaker-1: That's a wrap on today's episode of Condos Unplugged. We hope today's conversation left you with something new to think about, a fresh perspective, or an idea you can put into action. Thank you to our podcast partner, SV Law, for supporting season two. We'll see you in the next episode.