The board of directors has adopted a new AGM policy that will make our annual member meetings more accessible, inclusive and effective.

As usual, following the AGM this past April, the Governance Standing Committee reviewed the participant survey and decided to strike an AGM Policy Review Task Force. This task force was tasked with reviewing our current policy regarding the AGM and recommending policy that would enable a better overall membership engagement at our AGMs.

Their recommendations were reviewed by the Governance Standing Committee who in turn recommended approval to the board of directors. The following highlights support the principle that the AGM is not the only opportunity for member engagement, but it is an important member event with a clear governance purpose.

AGM policy highlights:

• The AGM shall include the CREB^® AGM as well as the AGMs for CIBS and the REALTOR^® Community Foundation and in total should not exceed three hours in duration. Each AGM will include an open forum discussion.
• The purpose of the open forum discussion in the AGMs is for the members to have an opportunity to raise issues of interest that are not on the agenda and provide an opportunity for follow-up discussion.
  • At the discretion of the Chair, each open forum shall be no longer than 30 minutes in duration and no speaker shall have the floor for more than five minutes.
  • A member may only address the open forum once and the topic must not have been previously addressed.
  • Under no circumstance may a motion be made in an open forum, or any vote conducted.
  • Prior to the commencement of the open forum discussion the chair shall remind the membership that discussion is prohibited on specific members, business models and language used must not be anti-competitive in nature.
• The AGM will be staged at a centralized off-site location with free parking and easy access for members. This location must be capable of simultaneously presenting the meeting virtually.
• The annual report on the activities of REB Resources Ltd. will be included in the Annual Report and a verbal report or update will not specifically be included in the AGM agenda.
• An accredited parliamentarian shall be in attendance when an agenda for an AGM contains proposed bylaw amendments.
• Questions will be encouraged to be provided electronically in advance of the AGM, for a response on the meeting portal. When questions are invited by the Chair during the meeting, each member shall be limited to one question and one follow-up question per topic. Questions must be specific to that matter of business on the agenda.
• The Chair of the AGM has the authority to remove a member from the meeting based on behaviour that is disrespectful, anti-competitive or detrimental to conducting the AGM’s business. Stakeholders are welcomed only to provide brief updates and greetings. No questions will be directed to the stakeholders who make presentations.

The Annual General Meeting Policy, section 4.1.6 can be found on page 103 of CREB^®’s Governance Manual on CREB^®Link.

Click here to view the complete Governance Manual with all the policy details. 

In the interest of transparency and to demonstrate this practice, the members of the task force requested their names be included in member communications. Thank you to the task force members, Shelagh Krause, Chair, Gareth Morris, Matt McBean, Robyn Moser and Jeff Kahane.

For questions about CREB^®’s AGM policy, please email executiveoffice@creb.ca.