Hello! Happy to have found this group.
I'd looking for answers regarding proper protocol during the registration phase of a virtual meeting. At our recent condo AGM, via Zoom for the first time, members were "let in" to the registration session as they arrived and then one by one, they were registered with name, their unit numbers, the Unit Factors allotted to them, and if they were holding proxies, the total UF's for those proxies. In some cases, they read out the unit numbers for those proxies individually, but not all. In at least one case, we caught an error in the UF assigned.
For good reason, it was important that I know which units were represented at the meeting by proxy (especially proxies held by members of the board) and so during that registration process, I requested several times that they read into the record each of the units there by proxy and what unit factors they were assigned. The person doing the registration seemed open to this, but the corporation's lawyer - who, together with the board, all have a conflict of interest and were well aware that I had been questioning their use of proxies - kept insisting that there was a point in the meeting, once convened, when owners would get to decide whether to have a roll call. I argued that these proxies and their UF's were relevant to quorum, which would be required before they could vote, and also made clear that we knew full well the Board had the necessary majority and would vote to waive the calling of the role. Still, they refused to call out the units represented by proxy for the board members - even during the 15 minutes of silence while they were waiting to establish quorum.
When the meeting host - during that registration phase - announced that she would begin reading those proxies in - at my request - a board member objected and started to explain why. Reflexively, still only somewhat aware of the Robert's Rules, I made a "point of order"....and received a very loud and aggressive "I'm talking, I'm talking"...to which I said that according to Robert's Rules, I was allowed to interrupt. Chuckles could be heard and the corporation's lawyer could be heard saying "no you are not". At this point, it had already been clear to everyone that the Board was hostile towards me. I asked several times "are we not following Robert's Rules". It never occurred to me at the time that the rules might not apply during the registration period. The aggressive Board member then proceeded to state that he wanted "to make a motion", preventing the reading in of those proxies during the registration "unless a board member requests it".
At this point, the corporation lawyer stated that the meeting had not yet started and so a motion wasn't appropriate....and again, that it would be addressed during the point in the meeting where owners get to decide if there will be a calling of the role.
The entire meeting was a sham. I have some questions/comments about other aspects of the meeting that I'll address in a separate thread but for this discussion - I'm curious to know what rules if any, apply to the pre-meeting phase (and the pre-quorum period). In case it matters, there was no chat function enabled (they claimed it was on, but that they were having technical problems which did not get sorted and to some of us, it was all by design) so owners basically couldn't communicate with each during that stage and they were muting our microphones. I needed a way to be able to interject and ask for those proxy details, and the only tool I had was to say "point of order", which was not respected.
I'd love to learn from your collective experiences.
