Strata meetings are essential for making decisions that affect the entire community, yet getting owners to attend and actively participate remains a challenge. Many meetings struggle with low attendance, which can lead to a small group making key decisions on behalf of everyone. Encouraging more owners to be involved can strengthen decision-making, ensure fair representation, and reduce unnecessary disputes.
Examining Attendance Trends
Recent data from ESM Strata highlights some clear patterns in meeting participation across different strata types:
- Commercial Strata: Meetings during business hours are most common (71.43%), yet attendance sits at 44.62%, with a high reliance on proxies (55.17%).
- Mixed-Use Strata: Held exclusively on weekday evenings (100%), yet attendance is much lower at 23.26%, with 70% of votes coming from proxies.
- Residential Strata: Meetings are primarily in the evening (77.65%), with an attendance rate of 43.64%. Fewer owners use proxies compared to commercial properties.
Overall, attendance across all strata types sits at 42.16%, indicating that nearly 60% of owners are not directly involved in decision-making.
Why Low Meeting Attendance is a Problem
When a large portion of owners don’t participate, key decisions end up being made by a select few. This can result in:
- Frustration among owners who feel their voices aren’t heard.
- More disputes over decisions that could have been discussed collaboratively.
- Increased reliance on proxy voting, which may not always reflect individual preferences.
- Strata managers and council members dealing with more complaints and queries that could have been avoided if owners attended and contributed to discussions.
Ways to Boost Meeting Engagement
To encourage more owners to participate, strata councils can implement a few key strategies:
Leverage Electronic Voting and Virtual Meetings
WA’s Strata Titles Act in Western Australia allows for remote/electronic attendance (via MS Teams, Zoom etc), making it easier for owners to have their say without needing to attend in person. Virtual meetings and online voting platforms provide greater flexibility, enabling more owners to be involved from anywhere. This not only reduces reliance on proxy voting but also makes participation more accessible.
Choose the Right Meeting Times
Data shows that evening meetings have higher attendance rates for residential and mixed-use properties. Offering flexible scheduling, such as alternating between after-hours and weekend meetings, may help accommodate more owners’ availability.
Foster a Stronger Community Connection
Owners who feel connected to their strata community are more likely to engage in meetings. Organising informal gatherings, social events, or educational sessions about strata matters can encourage relationships and increase involvement in decision-making.
Introduce Incentives for Participation
Informal gatherings can be attached to formal meetings, encouraging owners to come to the meeting but stay for connection. Food, drinks and even small incentives such as prize draws for attendees during the informal part of the session can be something that council members can introduce to improve meeting attendance.
More resources
Landgate has put together some information on meetings and meeting attendance you can find here:
