Why your budget meeting is more important than your AGM

The AGM is your most important meeting of the year, correct? While most people would undoubtedly answer YES to this question, we here at Fort Park have a different opinion.

We believe that the Strata Council budget meeting (also known as the pre-AGM meeting) is in fact the most important meeting of the year!

The reason for this is that the budget meeting is where the Strata Council builds the budget for the year, and sets out any capital projects, and/ or resolutions to be voted on.

If Council and the Strata Agent do a great job of building the budget and anticipating any owner questions, the AGM should be a slam dunk, with near 100% approval.

If the budget meeting doesn’t produce a solid budget, then no doubt the owners will have issues when it comes time to vote on the budget and resolutions at the AGM.

When a poorly prepared, or not thought through budget is presented to Condo Corporation owners during an AGM, it can sometimes take up to an hour to approve, and sometimes, in rare cases, the budget doesn’t get approved at all!

The strata budget meeting should be held 6-8 weeks prior to the AGM, and if everyone is able to do their job, you should come out of the meeting with the AGM package ready to go. Of course there will usually be some tweaks required, but this should be the ultimate goal.

Remember that the Strata Council has to sign off on the finalized budget, not the Strata Manager. Although the Strata Agent’s role is to advise and provide leadership to enable Council to come out of the meeting with a solid budget, ultimately the responsibility lies with the Council who were elected by the Owners to take care the budget.

Looking for some help running a good budget meeting? Reach out to us here to see how we can help you with your Strata Management needs!