Definition : Board of directors - Virtual meeting

31 décembre 2021 - Par un arrêté ministériel du 26 avril 2020 (Arrêté 2020-029), la ministre de la Santé du Québec  Danielle McCann autorisait la tenue de réunions et d’assemblées à l’aide d’un moyen permettant à tous les membres de communiquer immédiatement entre eux, à certaines conditions. Ce fut donc la naissance des réunions et des assemblées virtuelles en matière de copropriété, qui n’étaient pas permises jusqu’à ce moment. Ce nouveau moyen permettait de continuer l’administration des syndicats, mais ceci n’était valide que pour la durée de l’urgence sanitaire et cesserait avec cette dernière.  

The COVID-19 health crisis and its procession of government restrictions to limit gatherings have often made it impossible to regroup. The legislator was forced to organize the rescue of legal persons, banned from assemblies, to preserve, at least for a time, their functioning. The syndicates of co-owners have thus adopted alternatives to face-to-face meetings of co-owners. Social distancing obliges, COVID-19 has given rise to a phenomenon in co-ownership: virtual meetings of co-owners, also called remote meetings. In order to perpetuate this way of doing things, the law now authorizes syndicates of co-owners to hold meetings by technological means.

The board of directors occupies an important function in co-ownership governance. It holds meetings as often as the interest of the collectivity of co-owners require and addresses any matter that concerns the syndicate’s good management. These meetings are moderated by a president who ensures their efficient conduct. Directors can debate and reflect upon the orientations to give to their co-ownership. The more carefully and methodically the meetings are prepared, the more motivated and interested the members will be to participate thereto. Moreover, precise rules must be followed imperatively, otherwise the decisions taken could be invalidated.  

In order for the board of directors to validly deliberate and make decisions, the declarations of co-ownership generally provide that a minimum number of directors must participate to the meeting. This requirement is called the quorum. Unless the board of directors is composed of a single director, the quorum at a meeting of the board of directors is generally set by the By-laws of the immovable by a majority of the current directors. Recall that the quorum is defined in order to ensure the representativeness and authority of the board of directors. It avoids decision-making by a limited number of directors. Therefore, it must be checked at each board meeting.