For laymen like us who’ve not attended any important meetings even before the COVID-19 situation, you must be wondering: Meetings? Use Google Hangout lah.
Well, true: with the new measures, this means a meeting cannot have more than 10 people, and the meeting room must be large so that there would be enough safe distancing between people.
But here’s one more question for VVIPs: how about legal meetings that die-die require real people’s attendance, like, you know, an Annual General Meeting?
Or compulsory meetings held by a building for its owners?
Like what I’ve said, laymen like us won’t have attended any of these meetings, but rich people like your boss need to attend them because some require votes.
So the authorities have stepped in to clarify everything.
New Laws on How to Conduct Meeting During COVID-19 Will Be Clarified Next Week
Well, not to clarify everything lah but to tell you they’ll tell you what to tell your participants next week.
In the next Parliament sitting, which will occur on 6 April 2020 (though the law might be introduced on 7 April in accordance to their press release), the authorities will introduce a new legislation (i.e. law) on how to conduct such meetings.
But what if you’ve such a meeting tomorrow, here’s what the authorities proposed first:
- Allow and strongly encourage attendance at meetings using tele-conferencing, video-conferencing, or other electronic means;
- Allow meeting attendees to appoint their proxies using electronic means, such as by e-mail;
- Allow meeting attendees with rights to participate, to exercise these rights to the extent possible and appropriate, such as by allowing questions to be submitted by e-mail in advance, and responses to be conveyed by tele-conferencing, video-conferencing, or other electronic means;
- If voting is required, strongly encourage meeting attendees to vote by proxy, or (if available) by electronic modes of voting; and
- Provide meeting attendees with access to meeting materials.
In other words, they suggest doing an e-meeting and e-voting.
The authorities also provide a list of meeting examples:
- Meetings (e.g. annual general meetings and extraordinary general meetings) held under the Companies Act and each company’s constitution;
- Meetings held under trust deeds, in particular, listed business trusts and listed real estate investment trusts;
- Meetings held under the Variable Capital Companies Act and the variable capital company’s constitutions;
- Meetings held by management corporation strata title (“MCST”) under the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act;
- Creditors’ meetings;
- Meetings in relation to the winding up or liquidation of entities
- Meetings held under the Societies Act and the society’s rules;
- Meetings held under the Co-operative Societies Act and the co-operative society’s bylaws;
- Meetings held under the Town Councils Act and the Town Council’s standing orders;
- Meetings held under the Trade Unions Act and the trade union’s rules
Now you know why your boss needs to go for so many meetings, though if he goes for a meeting like #6, that would also be his last meeting #justsaying
