The following question was received from a man who prefers to remain anonymous so we will call him Peter.
We are living on a residential park home site.
We now have a formal residents committee and have started meetings, with formal minutes.
The chairperson has dictated that the minutes will not be available
until our next official meet which is 12 months hence.
I have asked, because of my previous experience to receive the minutes asap,as I am not happy for us to wait.
Chairperson has once again stated she is sticking to her rule of next meeting.
Clearly many not happy, what can we do? or is the chairperson
allowed to make and keep this rule.
The minutes of any meeting should be available as soon as practicable after a meeting but certainly no longer than 7 days. There is no logical argument for the minutes to not be made available ASAP. To suggest that the minutes would not be available until the next meeting 12 months away shows a total misunderstanding of what the minutes are for and indicates a person who thinks that because they are the chairperson, that they are the boss.
The best “chairs” are those who see themselves as “servant leaders”. There are other posts here about the service and the power chairperson.
So what can you do?
Firstly, try sitting down with the chairperson and politely explain your point of view and attempt to persuade them to release the minutes. I know it sounds soft but it is often the best way.
I suggest that you and others who share your view, formally write to the chairperson, state that you have sought advice and request the minutes immediately. Look very carefully though the rules of your residential park as there are often weird rules which make no sense, but that some power hungry person put in years ago to serve their purposes. If there is such a strange rule, go through the process to change it.
If the chairperson still refuses, then you may need to get a solicitor’s letter written to her to compel her to release the minutes. You may also need to explore the process to remove her from the position of chairperson.
Please Note: The author accepts no responsibility for anything which occurs directly or indirectly as a result of using any of the suggestions or procedures detailed in this blog. All suggestions and procedures are provided in good faith as general guidelines only and should be used in conjunction with relevant legislation, constitutions, rules, laws, by-laws, and with reasonable judgement.
David Julian Price
www.davidprice.com
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