Run your AGM

Stagewerk helps you run a general meeting or AGM: it keeps your committee, sends the notice to financial members, prints a proxy form, records who came and who sent a proxy, and keeps the minutes. It does not run the meeting or the vote, and there is no online voting. It is not legal advice: your constitution and your state's associations Act decide how long the notice must be, what the quorum is, whether proxies are allowed and what the minutes must say. Check them before you rely on the figures here.

Everyone on your team can read the committee and the meetings. Only owners can change them.

Record your committee

1. Open "Committee" in the sidebar.
2. Under "Add a term", pick a club member or type a name, enter the position (such as President, Secretary or Treasurer) and the date the term starts.
3. Leave the end date blank while the term is still running. When someone leaves, edit the term and give it an end date, so it moves to the history.

The committee list is the club's own record of its office holders. It has nothing to do with the roles on the Team page, which decide what people can do in Stagewerk. See Members and roles.

Create the meeting

1. Open "Meetings" in the sidebar.
2. Under "Create a meeting", choose the kind, give it a title, and enter the date and time, the timezone, the place and the agenda.
3. Check "Days of notice", "Quorum: members" and "Quorum: percent". They start from the platform's defaults and you should set them to what your constitution says. The quorum is the larger of the fixed number and the percentage of financial members.
4. Choose "Create meeting".

Send the notice

Financial members are people whose paid term runs through today. A member in their grace period, a lapsed member or a pending member is not financial. Members you imported without an account are included when their term is current and you have their email address.

1. Open the meeting and go to "Notice to members". The page shows the date the notice should go out by to give your notice period.
2. If today is later than that date, a warning says so. To send anyway, tick the box that says you know it gives less notice than your period.
3. Choose "Send the notice".

The notice is a required message: members cannot switch it off. The page lists who it went to, and any address that could not be mailed is shown as not sent. Your rules may call for another way of giving notice, such as post. If you change the date, place or agenda later, send the notice again.

Print the proxy form

Choose "Print proxy form (PDF)" at the top of the meeting. It is a blank form with the meeting's details. The wording is general: check it against your rules, including who may hold a proxy and how many.

Record attendance and proxies

1. At or after the meeting, open "Record attendance or a proxy".
2. Choose the financial member. Choose whether they were present or gave a proxy. For a proxy, enter who holds it and the date you received it.
3. Choose "Record".

A member has one record for the meeting, so recording them as present after a proxy replaces the proxy. People who were not financial on the meeting day cannot be recorded.

The page shows the financial members on the meeting day, what the quorum needs, how many are present and how many proxies were received. The quorum figure counts members who are present. Proxies count towards it only if your platform administrator has switched that on, because rules differ. Under some constitutions a proxy counts, under others it does not, and some do not allow proxies at all.

Keep the minutes

1. Under "Minutes", write the minutes and choose "Save draft minutes", or upload a PDF or a photo of the signed pages.
2. Keep editing the draft until the club adopts the minutes at its next meeting.
3. Choose "Confirm the minutes". Confirmed minutes cannot be changed.

Everyone on the team can open the minutes and an uploaded file. Opening a file is written to the audit log.

What the state Acts say

Notice, quorum and proxy rules differ by state and your constitution may change them. These are the defaults in the model rules and Acts at the time the sources were read.

• New South Wales. Model constitution: notice to each member at least 14 days before a general meeting, or 21 days if a special resolution is proposed. The quorum is 5 voting members. Members cannot vote by proxy.
• Victoria. Model rules: at least 14 days' notice, or 21 days for a special resolution. The quorum is 10 percent of voting members. A proxy must be another member and proxies count towards the quorum.
• Queensland. Model rules: at least 14 days' notice to each member. The quorum is the number of committee members at the close of the last general meeting, plus one. Proxies are allowed in writing.
• Western Australia. Model rules: at least 14 days' notice, or 21 days for a special resolution. A proxy must be a member and may hold proxies for at most five others. The quorum is the number notified to the Commissioner.
• Australian Capital Territory. Model rules: at least 14 days' notice, or 21 days for a special resolution. The quorum is 5 voting members. A proxy goes to the secretary at least 24 hours before and one member may hold at most five.
• Tasmania. Model rules: at least 14 days' notice published by newspaper or another reasonable means. The quorum is 5 voting members. There are no proxies.
• Northern Territory. Model constitution: at least 30 days' notice of an AGM and 21 days for a special general meeting. Proxies are allowed to another member.
• South Australia. No model rules for notice, quorum or proxies were found in the sources read. Check your own constitution.

The platform's default notice period is 14 days and its default quorum is 10 members. They are only starting points for the form. Public officers, secretaries and the minutes also have rules in each state, such as who must be an adult resident or when the AGM must be held. Check those with your state's regulator.

Where these notes come from

• New South Wales: Associations Incorporation Regulation 2022, Schedule 1 (model constitution), clauses 30, 31 and 35.
• Victoria: model rules under the Associations Incorporation Reform Regulations 2023, rules 33, 34 and 36; Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012 sections 60 and 64.
• Queensland: Associations Incorporation Regulation 1999, Schedule 4 (model rules), rules 35, 36 and 40.
• Western Australia: Associations Incorporation Regulations 2016, Schedule 2 (model rules), rules 33, 53 and 55.
• Australian Capital Territory: Associations Incorporation Act 1991 and Regulations 1991 (model rules).
• Tasmania: Associations Incorporation (Model Rules) Regulations 2017, rules 15, 16 and 20.
• Northern Territory: Associations (Model Constitution) Regulations 2004, clauses 45, 46, 49 and 52.
• South Australia: Associations Incorporation Act 1985 and Regulations 2023.

The sources are the legislation websites of each state and territory and the regulators' model-rule pages. Laws change, so confirm against the current version.