Standards Matter

Earlier this month our Directors, Paul Stephenson and Michael Haines attended the Strata Community Association (SCA) Australasian conference held in Darwin.

At Strata Management SA we are proud members of SCA and are involved in attending events and educational opportunities while also happily volunteering our time in order to promote and develop the strata sector that we love.

The stunning Mindil Beach during the Welcome to Country address

It was a wonderful event allowing some time to thaw out from what has been a cold Adelaide winter with over 400 delegates in attendance.

The main role for Michael and Paul in attending the conference was to strengthen relationships with some existing service providers such as underwriters, brokers, energy providers while taking avantage of product demonstrations and meeting some potential future service providers who can assist us to solve problems faced by unit owners.

Two Carlton fans shared a chat as Paul met the legenday Sticks Kernahan

In addition to this wonderful time with these important problem solvers, it was sensational to be able to discuss the state of strata business and the challenges faced by interstate industry colleagues which so often mirror our own. Given that we haven’t seen some people since before Covid it is a pleasure to be able to reconnect with fellow strata professionals.

Some of the conference speakers were engaging, enlightening and thought provoking such as Scott Bales acknowledging the future consumer, Kelly Jamieson of Edible Blooms discussing continual improvement and Carolyn Madden detailing purpose driven standards for businesses.

While Paul may find his meeting with Stephen Kernahan a highlight, the absolute highlight for Michael was was the discussion between the SCA President, Chris Duggan and Tom Skiba, CEO of CAI (Community Associations Institute, the SCA equivalent working with members in the US, Canada, Middle East and South Africa) which dove into some of the challenges faced with community living around the world and the unforgettable tragedy that was the collapse of the Surfside Condominium of two years ago.

The engaging discussion working Internationally together

The challenge for all property owners when seeing a building make the news under terrible circumstances should be to ensure that their building is safe.

We have certainly had a wonderful response from apartment owners when confronted with flammable cladding over the past few years, with many buildings re-clad. The other large financial burden placed on unit owners has been the increased fire safety requirements being passed by councils to unit owners which we have been working through with multiple client corporations to achieve a safe and financially viable property.

The only positive out of such a tragic example is that it prompts us to question whether we are doing enough to help educate and guide our clients to adequately maintain their assets, which is a conversation that has made its way back to our weekly Strata Community manager meetings.

Thank you to the wonderful SCA staff and the volunteers who made this wonderful conference possible.

It was a shame to leave the absolutely stunning weather (particularly when I arrived too late to see the Crows play and too early for the Supercars) but there is no place like home and we are back to a wet and windy Adelaide but kept warm through delighting in helping our clients across South Australia.