13 Tips for a virtual owners’ meeting

A month ago, we held our first virtual owners’ meeting at Meridional. This Virtual Extraordinary General Meeting – which we have dubbed VEGM – proved to be a great experience and, at the same time, a success. What’s more, both the owners and our entire team (spread across four different locations) would be happy to do it again.

Why hold virtual owners’ meetings?

Our primary concern is always to look after the people who make up all our Owners’ Associations. The current situation we are facing, due to the restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 crisis, has prompted us to organise this type of virtual owners’ meeting as an alternative to our regular meetings.

Although virtual owners’ meetings are not provided for in any way under the current Condominium Act (LPH), it is possible to propose holding such meetings provided certain conditions are met, the first of which is the unanimous consent and agreement of all owners.

Which online tool have we used for our virtual meetings?

At Meridional, we have relied on ZOOM as a tool to connect the administrator with all the owners. We also decided at Meridional to carry out several tests in the days leading up to the meeting to ensure that the meeting room was working properly and that all the owners could connect without any problems.
On the day of the virtual owners’ meeting, we opened the meeting room an hour before it was due to start, so that we could sort out any problems other owners might have when logging in. We wanted to make sure everything went smoothly.

13 tips for a successful video call

1. Make sure you are in a quiet place
2. Stay close to your Wi-Fi router
3. Make sure you have the charger for the device you’ll be using for the call to hand
4. Let the other people in your household know that you are about to join a video call
5. Check which other devices are using Wi-Fi and switch off any you don’t need
6. Please check that your microphone and speakers are working properly
7. When joining the virtual owners’ meeting, please ensure your microphone and camera are switched off, and switch them on when you are ready and wish to speak
   specific recommendations for each residents’ association meeting
8. Instead of joining the meeting using your usual Zoom ID, please change it to your block number, followed by your flat number and then your surname. For example: Bl 1 Apt 1 Mrs Smith. Here’s how to do it https://youtu.be/mxgiCD1tklc
9. If you don’t yet have a Zoom account, please follow the instructions in the video below. It’s very easy and intuitive. https://youtu.be/xSVDQiby1DI
10. If you need to configure the audio and video settings on your device, here is a tutorial explaining how to do so https://youtu.be/Cnyh0kN38ug
11. Protect your privacy when connecting the camera. If you don’t want your home or other people to be visible in the background, you can set a virtual background. In this video, we explain how https://youtu.be/_lKe4tg37qQ
12. If you wish to speak at the virtual owners’ meeting, you must raise your hand virtually and the moderator will give you the floor during the designated speaking slots. This is to avoid disruption to everyone. Microphones will be muted, so it is essential that you raise your hand if you wish to speak.
    In this video, we explain how to raise your hand during a meeting https://youtu.be/–PwGLZ-TNw
13. If you are using your phone for this meeting, an incoming call or message may interrupt your connection to the meeting room. If you do not want this to happen, set your phone to ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode.
    

For security reasons, if you are already a Zoom user, please update to the latest version available. Here is the link to the Zoom download centre https://zoom.us/support/download

Benefits of virtual meetings

Virtual meetings are increasingly being held as a matter of course in various owners’ associations. What is surprising is that attendance at virtual meetings is higher than attendance at normal face-to-face meetings.

It has also been very rewarding to see the owners – who were not in the city or even in the country – all together and taking part in the discussion. The residents have thanked us for making this opportunity available to everyone.

We have often told you that Meridional is committed to using technological tools to help our owners’ associations move forward and become more efficient. Proof of this is the implementation of MiComunidad, which is constantly evolving.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at this link and we’ll be more than happy to help you with this matter or any other issue