How to organize a digital General Members Meeting (GMM)?

The temporary Corona Emergency Act gives associations, cooperatives and organizations the option of digitally organizing a member and / or board meeting, even if the statutes do not facilitate this. But how do you do that, organize a digital General Member Meeting?

Based on our many years of experience with digital voting, the guidelines from the emergency act and the experiences of the users of OnlineVotingtool.com we have arrived at the following advice:

• If the board wants to hold a digital meeting, this must be stated in the convening notice for the GMM. Members may authorize another member for the GMM.
• The chairman may determine the rules on the basis of the corona emergency law. These rules must be told at the beginning of the GMM, so that everyone can adhere to them. If the connection falters during the GMM or someone cannot participate properly in the digital GMM due to other circumstances, this will not affect the legal validity of the decision-making.
• The ALV can be followed digitally by members. There are tons of free and paid video conference tools. The most commonly used tools among the users of OnlineVotingtool.com are Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
• The members were given the opportunity to ask questions in writing or electronically prior to the digital meeting.
• The questions of members must be answered no later than during the GMM and the answers must be available to the members.
• During the GMM, questions from members must be answered as accurately as possible, unless this is not reasonably possible.