SCA (Qld) General Manager Update

We have hit the ground running here at SCA (Qld). It has been a big quarter of advocacy, events and education.  SCA (Qld) is really going through a maturation process as an organisation and it is an exciting time. The end of this year marks our 40^th anniversary and as the old saying goes- life begins at 40!

This quarter has been enormous for us and all our business areas.

Delivery of our Annual Conference in Cairns – thousands of kilometres from our home base in Brisbane – presented its own unique challenges but offered a great opportunity to meet our regional members and leverage that quintessential tropical Queensland vibe, which we grabbed with open arms. Excellent presenters, a fun filled social calendar and an awards night rewarding our best and brightest were big highlights. The team worked hard and cohesively to deliver.

I want to take this opportunity to all those people who entered the Awards for Excellence and the very worthy winners. The Queensland strata sector is rich with professional and driven businesses and individuals.

With a charity race day coming up, our social calendar is full and we know how much strata managers like to spend time with one another and raise funds for great causes.

On the education front, we continue to examine our offering and look for ways to professionalise, modernise and “regulation ready” our program. We expect a legislated standard for strata managers is on the horizon in Queensland, and rather than playing catch up later in the piece we are getting ahead of the curve.

Our media presence has been extremely strong as we continue to push SCA (Qld) out into the wider community through print, television and radio. The ongoing housing crisis, reform to how our strata communities run and announcements by the Attorney General on changes to our laws have all seen significant media activity from SCA (Qld) in the first part of this year. As General Manager, radio is becoming a regular occurrence and I want to particularly commend our Advocacy Director Jessica Cannon who stepped up and made an appearance on Channel 9.

Advocacy has been a key part of our business for two years now and we are finally starting to see some results. Last quarter we saw a BUGTA Bill pass and this quarter we have seen the Attorney General announce reforms to scheme termination, pets, parking and the all important issue of smoking. Whilst these changes are relatively uncontroversial, they represent a political will to reform Queensland body corporate law. Jessica Cannon, Kristian our Policy and Media Officer and I also presented before Queensland Parliament’s Legal Affairs and Safety Committee regarding the new seller disclosure regime for body corporate lots. We were pleased to ensure our members were protected from liability and were proud of how the committee responded to our positions.

As I approach one year as General Manager at SCA (Qld) I am really pleased with how we are progressing as an organisation. We continue to monitor our service delivery and enhance our status in the wider community. I am excited for what the next 40 years will bring.