Hybrid AGM checklist.

1. Check your rules and the law

• Read your constitution or rules for what they say about meeting by technology, online attendance and voting methods.
• Check the legislation that applies to your organisation. For companies, the Corporations Act 2001 (section 249R) covers meetings using virtual meeting technology. Incorporated associations follow their state’s Act; in Victoria, the Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012 and your rules.
• Decide the format your rules allow: in the room with online attendance (hybrid), or fully online.
• Confirm the date fits the required timeframe (in Victoria, associations generally hold their AGM within five months of the end of the financial year).
• Agree who decides questions on the day: the chair, the secretary and any returning officer or scrutineer.

2. Send the notice of meeting

• Send notice within the period your rules or the law require, to everyone entitled to receive it.
• Say how members attend online, and when online access opens.
• Explain how members ask questions, before and during the meeting.
• Explain how voting works for online and in-room members, and how to appoint a proxy and by when.
• Include the business of the meeting, any special resolutions in full, and the papers members need.
• Give a contact for technical help before and during the meeting.

3. Get the member register ready

• Bring the register up to date: who is a member and who is entitled to vote.
• Record voting weights where your rules give them (for example, units, shares or classes of member).
• Set the proxy deadline and record every proxy received, including any directions.
• Plan how in-room members check in, and how online members prove who they are.

4. Plan quorum and voting

• Confirm how quorum is counted, including members attending online and proxies, under your rules.
• Decide how each resolution is voted on: show of hands or poll, and whether any ballot is secret.
• Make sure online and in-room votes are counted together, once each.
• Appoint a returning officer or scrutineer if your rules or the occasion call for one.
• Plan how results are declared, and how online members hear them.

5. Plan questions and participation

• Give members attending online a fair way to ask questions and comment, not only those in the room.
• Agree who moderates questions, how duplicates are combined and how questions are taken on notice.
• Decide whether members can speak live from online, and how the chair brings them in.
• Plan captions and other access needs, so everyone can follow the meeting.

6. Rehearse

• Write a run sheet and a chair’s script that includes online members at each step: welcome, quorum, questions, voting and results.
• Run a full rehearsal with the chair, secretary and anyone presenting, including a test vote.
• Test the venue internet and the backup connection, and agree what happens if the stream drops.
• Send speakers and online presenters clear joining instructions and a test time.

7. On the day

• Open online access early, with a holding screen and a sound and picture check.
• At the start, explain how online members ask questions and vote.
• Confirm quorum, including members attending online, before business begins.
• Watch the outgoing stream, not just the room, for the whole meeting.
• Read out results for online members, and record the meeting.

8. Afterwards

• Prepare minutes that record attendance in the room and online, and the results of each vote.
• Answer questions taken on notice, and tell members where the answers are.
• Publish the results and the recording, if your organisation shares them.
• Keep the register, proxies, votes and records for as long as your rules or the law require.

Before you rely on it

This checklist is general information, not legal advice. What your meeting must do is set by your constitution or rules and the law that applies to your organisation. Check with your secretary or adviser.