New Ballot Creation

The first step in the Meeting Hub end-to-end process, is to create a new meeting, which is covered in this first section of the guide. The ability to create a new meeting is available to all Meeting Hub users - both with 'Standard' and 'Administrator' privileges.

After creating the meeting, the Meeting Details screen will be displayed, which is covered in the next section of this guide. Please see Meeting Details to learn about that screen.

Ballot Creation Overview

• The creation process for meetings and ballots is separated and therefor has two different buttons: New Meeting and New Ballot.
• The ‘Exit Meeting Creation’ allows you to exit the creation process at any point, whilst the ‘Complete Creation’ button finalises the creation of the meeting, provided all required sections are completed.
• Each section that has been completed will display a green tick in the header, whilst incomplete sections will display a red warning icon and additional warning messages appear in each section if the 'Complete Creation' button is clicked prematurely.
•  As you scroll down the page, each section will automatically collapse and can then be clicked to quickly expand that section.

Building

Click the Select Building... drop-down menu, and use the Filter... field if necessary to locate and select the required building.

The Building state, Regulatory module and Building type will be selected automatically (synced with Building Information), and are displayed in Meeting Hub to assist with the setup of the ballot. They will affect the ballot content and the way the ballot is run, in particular the building state determines the resolution types that are available and how resolutions are determined. If these details are incorrect for the selected building, they can be adjusted in Building Information before restarting the meeting creation process.  

Quorum Required

This field defaults to the quorum percentage recorded in the Building Information. You can opt to use this default value or manually enter a different quorum for the ballot. 

Meeting Type

Click the required selection for the  Meeting Type . This is state-specific for the meeting types that are available, and the type selected, will determine which Standard Meeting Template will appear when the Use an existing standard meeting template box is ticked (next step). This selection will also alter any sections available further down the page. For example, selecting the Flying Meeting radio button will add another section to the page called 'Committee Members'.

Standard Meeting Template

Select one of the two tick boxes here. The Use a blank meeting template box will result in you having to manually add all the agenda items, motions and Template Groups afterwards in the Meeting Details screen. 

By ticking the Use an existing standard meeting template tick box:

• A list of saved Standard Meetings will appear to chose from, and a Filter... field can be used to locate and select the required Standard Meeting. This will be used as a basis for the new meeting with all of its details, such as motions, template groups, etc. being visible in the Meeting Details screen. If a standard meeting contains a standard motion with an invalid resolution type, an alert icon will be display advising that the standard meeting ‘Contains a Standard Motion with an invalid Required Resolution for a Committee Meeting’. This must be corrected by editing the Standard Meeting first and then starting the meeting creation process again so that the Standard Meeting can be selected.
• The Standard Meeting can also be previewed by clicking the 'glasses' button. This will display any Standard Motions or Standard Agenda Items it contains, which can also be previewed by clicking on them. This is how they will appear in VoteMax.

Ballot Dates

The dates for ballot dates will default to the system date and will remain open for 21 days. You can either confirm these default values by selecting ‘Confirm use of default values’ or manually enter the required dates, which will affect the days the ballot is open for. The small, blue 'info' icon displays that 'Ballots are typically closed after 21 days..'.

VoteMax Settings

VoteMax Settings determine if a meeting is visible to lot owners / committee members in VoteMax, and whether voting is enabled before and during the meeting. After selecting and configuring one of options below click the Next button to progress to the next screen.

Show in VoteMax without voting will make the ballot visible in VoteMax with all of its details including the agenda items and motions. However, attendees will not be able to cast votes in VoteMax.

Show in VoteMax with voting will display the meeting details to the owner in VoteMax, and allow them to cast and declare their votes electronically in VoteMax. Additional tick boxes will appear when this is selected. In the Voting Open Date and Time field, voting must be set in the future and be in line with the 'Ballot Dates' section above. The Voting Close Date and Time field must also be in line with the 'Ballot Dates' section above.

Hide from VoteMax will simply not display the meeting in VoteMax.

Committee Members

If Flying Meeting, or Vote Outside Committee Meeting, or similar is selected as the Meeting Type, then an additional section for Committee Members will be displayed. The list is generated from the members in Office Bearers in StrataMax. The committee members that are selected for the committee meeting can also be adjusted once the meeting has been created. And when distributing the meeting notice, members can be custom selected as recipients.

Summary 

Once all sections have been completed (note the green tick icons for each section), the details of the new meeting will be displayed in the Summary section. You can either click in the green text box or the Complete Creation button at the top of the screen to proceed to the Meeting Details screen.