FIVA's Hybrid General Meeting: Proxy voting with weighting

FIVA's successful hybrid AGM in Brazil with proxy voting and weighted voting demonstrates how international associations with complex voting structures - weighted voting, proxy voting and multiple time zones - can seamlessly run digital AGMs.

Chapter

1. Short and sweet
2. The challenge: International association elections in Brazil
3. Preparation: Weighted votes and quorum risk
4. Live support via WhatsApp instead of teams
5. What made the difference: Magic links and proxy voting
6. Results: Quorum reached in one minute
7. Lessons learned for international associations

Short and sweet

The Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens (FIVA) held its General Assembly in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, in November 2025 - with over 80 member organizations worldwide, weighted voting and proxy voting. The biggest challenge: Achieving a quorum with many not being on site.

With NemoVote, the hybrid AGM went smoothly - quorum was reached within a minute, Magic Links eliminated password issues, and live support via WhatsApp enabled real-time coordination during the Zoom conference.

The challenge: international association voting in Brazil

FIVA is a global federation with over 80 members in more than 80 countries and a total of around 2 million people. The organization protects, preserves and promotes the world's automotive heritage - from historic cars and motorcycles to tractors and military vehicles (all at least 30 years old).

The 2025 Annual General Meeting in Brazil presented special challenges:

• Weighted voting: Member organizations have different voting weights (from 1 to 50 votes).
• Proxy voting: proxies had to be entered until the last moment to ensure a quorum.
• Time zones: Hybrid participation from Europe, America and Asia.
• Infrastructure concerns: WiFi stability in Brazil was an unknown - but could be solved by FIVA on site.
• Demographic challenge: Average age of participants >50 years - technical simplicity was key.

Secretary General Gian Mario: "This General Assembly was a great challenge. We were outside Europe for the first time in a long time, many employees didn't speak English and the quorum worry was with me at night."

Preparation: Weighted votes and quorum risk

FIVA was already using NemoVote in its second year - in 2024 in Austria with the support of a local expert, in 2025 in Brazil without local helpers. Secretary General Gian Mario therefore opted for live support from NemoVote.

Why was the quorum so critical?

According to the FIVA statutes, a certain quorum must be reached, otherwise the general meeting must be repeated within a month at another location - with enormous costs and organizational effort.

• Proxy registrations were accepted until the last day before the AGM.
• Each new proxy changed the voting weight and had to be entered manually.
• NemoVote and FIVA double-checked every change ("four-eyes principle") to avoid errors.

Test phase: Quorum check one day in advance

FIVA established a test phase one day before the AGM:

• All delegates were asked to conduct a test vote.
• This allowed technical problems (e-mail delivery, access difficulties) to be resolved at an early stage.
• 98% of voters were able to vote immediately without assistance.
• The remaining 2% received the accesses by email manually and then voted without further help.

Live support via WhatsApp instead of Teams

FIVA chose an unconventional but extremely effective support channel for the 2025 Annual General Meeting: WhatsApp instead of Microsoft Teams or Zoom.

Why WhatsApp?

• Gian Mario followed the Zoom conference on his laptop - a second Teams session would have led to confusion.
• Bandwidth concerns: WhatsApp is more data-efficient than video-based tools.
• Dynamic communication: Quick coordination between NemoVote support, Gian Mario and the FIVA team in real time.

Aaron Lesicar, NemoVote: "I was skeptical at first, but WhatsApp worked perfectly. We had a group chat with Gian Mario and his colleagues - while I was watching the Zoom AGM, I was able to give him updates in real time: Quorum reached, 80% have voted, vote can be closed."

What made the difference: Magic links and proxy voting

Magic Links: No more passwords

In 2024, FIVA still used username + password - voters had to copy and paste access data from emails. This regularly led to problems (spaces, incorrect symbols, mobile devices).

In 2025, FIVA used magic links for the first time: A single click on the link in the email authenticates and logs voters in automatically - no passwords, no copy-paste errors.

Gian Mario: "This was enormously helpful because our participants are over 50 years old on average. We had very simple problems this year - some couldn't log into the WiFi - but the Magic Links worked perfectly."

Weighted voting + proxy voting

FIVA uses weighted voting: Not all member organizations have the same voting power (weights range from 1 to 50).

• NemoVote allows fine-grained configuration of voting weights per voter.
• Proxy voting (proxy voting): Proxies take over the voting weight of the absent person.
• Proxies could be entered up to the last moment - NemoVote updated the weights live.

Aaron Lesicar: "We double-checked every proxy change - Gian Mario sent me the updates, I entered them and together we validated that the overall voting weights were correct. That was crucial in order to calculate the quorum correctly."

Results: Quorum reached in one minute

The Annual General Meeting ran smoothly - thanks to thorough preparation and the right tools.

Quorum success

• Test vote the day before: quorum was reached within a minute.
• On the voting day itself: No technical failures, all votes went according to plan.
• WiFi infrastructure held up - no backup was required.

Transparency and trust

To ensure transparency, Gian Mario formed a small committee with colleagues who also monitored the entire process in advance:

• Regular updates to the committee.
• Participation in the Whatsapp group for live support
• Double check of all inputs (voters, voting weights, proxies).
• Clear voting results with large majorities - only one case was close.

Gian Mario: "The voting results were very clear, the differences were large - that helped enormously with confidence in the system."

Gian Mario recommends NemoVote:

"I would absolutely recommend NemoVote. There are many options and flexibility in the service you offer and it is reliable. We have tested it extensively and I would absolutely recommend your company."

- Gian Mario, Secretary General FIVA

Learnings for international associations

1. Carry out the test phase one day in advance

FIVA asked all delegates to conduct a test vote one day before the AGM. This identified 98% of the technical problems before the real voting started.

2. Set proxy deadlines earlier (if possible)

Gian Mario: "For the future, I'm considering setting the proxy deadline earlier - last-minute changes are always the trickiest. But if you need all the votes, you have to make this compromise."

3. WhatsApp for live support during Zoom conferences

If the AGM is running via Zoom and bandwidth is limited, WhatsApp is an efficient channel for real-time support - without opening additional video tools.

4. double check weighted votes and proxies

For complex voting structures (weighted votes, proxy voting), the four-eyes principle is crucial: Admin enters, support checks - then final validation of the overall voting weights.

5. face-to-face remains important, hybrid is the future

Gian Mario: "Nothing replaces face-to-face meetings - the joy of sharing time and space. But hybrid AGMs are essential to engage people worldwide. This year, some European delegates even met in Liechtenstein to follow the Brazil AGM online together - a kind of hybrid-within-a-hybrid."

Conclusion: International association elections with complex structures are feasible

FIVA's 2025 AGM in Brazil proves that international association elections with weighted voting, proxy voting and hybrid participation work smoothly - if the right tools and processes are in place.

• Magic Links eliminated password problems for older participants.
• Weighted voting + proxy voting were fine-grained and managed live.
• WhatsApp support enabled real-time coordination during Zoom conferences.
• Quorum was reached in one minute - thanks to test phase and thorough preparation.

If your association has complex voting structures, covers multiple time zones and wants to rely on legally secure, GDPR-compliant online elections - FIVA's experience shows: it works.

More success stories:

• World Sailing: Hybrid Annual General Meeting in Dublin with 150 delegates
• What are legally compliant online elections?

Are you ready to hold hybrid general meetings in your association?

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