Month: September 2019

Is it time to consider a flatline management structure for your committee?

As of 2018, there was 316k strata and community schemes in Australia – that means at least 316k people sitting on strata committees (granted some may sit on many, however, some buildings have up to 9 members).

Conservatively, let’s say that there are 500k people sitting on voluntary strata and executive committees across Australia – dare I say, this would have to be the quickest growing membership of any type of voluntary committee, Australia-wide.

In my time as a strata manager, I have worked with high performing committees and low performing committees. There’s no formula to what creates a good committee for a scheme and often a scheme will need to go through pain for good people to come out of the woodwork and jump on a committee.

A committee should:

  • spend money, not penny-pinch;
  • try and be as efficient as possible and respect peoples time;
  • defer to experts as required;
  • have a basic knowledge of the Act/s under which they operate;
  • make sure they have liability insurance;
  • communicate openly with owners and occupants; and
  • meet relatively often and deal with decisions at properly convened meetings

These hundreds of thousands of strata and executive committee members:

  • are unpaid (generally);
  • don’t know each other well;
  • often have disparate interests;
  • share little in common other than ownership of a strata or community title lot;
  • may have a lot of time on their hands or little time;
  • may have experience in being on professional committees or it may be their first experience; or
  • might want the best for their community or might be there for only personal interests or a vendetta

There’s no easy way to address the above issues – I believe that committees are getting better as they now have more experience and better access to information. However, I believe that all committees would benefit from considering a flatline management structure (which works incredibly well in business and high-performance voluntary organisations like sporting clubs).

We have prepared a brief overview of a flatline management structure for schemes we manage to consider, which could work for your own. Committees should be the realm of those interested, with the requisite skills to push issues in the right direction, who defer to experts rather than ignoring them and who sponsor each member’s interests, skills and passion rather than operate by the ‘many chefs in the kitchen’ mentality.

Strata-Committee-flatline-management-structureDownload

Strata Solar – is now the time?

Solar is fast becoming the in-demand sustainability and energy efficiency initiative for strata buildings in the Hunter region.

Once a building has considered and undertaken ‘low hanging fruit’ efficiency upgrades to lighting, HVAC, etc. – solar is generally the next pillar for consideration.

We all know that the climate in the Hunter region is fantastic year-round, with (300) sunny days per year; this, in turn, makes for fantastic solar energy production.

We have helped arrange the installation of solar at a number of buildings we manage and we’ve had fantastic support from the owners and results for the owners corporation in doing so.

Strata buildings in the Hunter, Lake Macquarie, and Newcastle region have features that lend themselves well to the installation of solar:

  • Flat roofs without plant and equipment, on buildings with a relatively large footprint (there are not many towers in the area like you find in Sydney metro areas);
  • limited over-shading from other buildings (e.g. commercial buildings like you get in many parts of Sydney) and trees;
  • Relatively limited demands on common property power – lighting, garage doors, lifts, HVAC – thus a rooftop solar system is generally able to offset this completely;
  • Payback periods as short as 4-5 years based on current power charges – this will shorten again if rates continue to rise (which they likely will with the closure of power plants);
  • The indicative lifespan of solar systems of c. 25 years, with very little maintenance;
  • Ability to reduce demand on the grid, which can be stressed during summer when people are running air-conditioning and other appliances; and
  • A greater focus on cleaner/smarter energy than there’s ever been.

The process for getting solar on your building is relatively simple:

  • Strata Committee arranges for assessment by a solar installer (make sure you find one that has done strata work previously). There may need to upgrade to the electrical board and wiring to allow for solar;
  • Provided the building is suitable (some are not due to the shape of the roof, over-shading, plant and equipment on the roof or the orientation of the roof), competitive quotes are sought based on a suitably sized system for the building.
  • We suggest having an independent third party such as Sustainability Now or Wattblock (here’s a great white paper that WattBlock did on solar – certainly more informative than this particular blog) – tender the work and give a recommendation (there are so many types of panels and inverters and you want to ensure what you are getting is suitable);
  • Work out how the system will be funded – special levy or out of existing funds (what has worked well at other buildings is using capital funds to purchase the system and then allocating additional funding in future years to repay the system cost from the savings in electricity in the administrative fund);
  • Put relevant motions to a general meeting for funding and the addition of solar to common property; and
  • Once agreed by the meeting, proceed with the work and start experiencing the amazing cost benefits of solar.

Committees and managers should ensure that the solar system is monitored so that you know it’s producing power. There’s nothing worse than having an expensive solar system on your roof which has tripped and nobody is any the wiser. There are now SIM solutions for this at a minimal cost and an alert goes to the strata/building manager/retailer or committee if the system isn’t operating as it should.

There are also some alternate models out there involving leasing the solar equipment and the lessee being able to provide occupants clean power at a discount.

Battery storage technology is getting better year-on-year as well, so there’s every prospect of mating battery with solar to ensure that a building will only draw power from the grid in off-peak periods.

It’s also noted that strata schemes made up of townhouses can likely obtain all the benefits of solar on a per-lot basis (or potentially group together for the installation of a larger system with battery technology – there’s every opportunity for an off-grid development in the Hunter of this type in years to come).

At Bright & Duggan and Cambridge Management Services, we would be happy to have a chat with anyone about the process and the benefits.