Community Education Seminars – Wrap Up! 

This week saw the last stop of our Community Education Seminars, finishing up at the Maroochy RSL on the Sunshine Coast.

Like the previous 5 seminars, the presentation was received well by all in attendance. Grant Mifsud – Archers the Strata Professionals, Chris Irons – Strata Solve, Andrew Suttie – Nicholsons Solicitors, James Nickless – Chambers Russell Lawyers and Eric Van Meurs – ARAMA all took to the stage to deliver a clean and concise message focussed on By-laws and their necessity within a strata scheme.

We were beyond thrilled to have not only an incredible panel of presenters and a wide range of exhibitor partners but also such high attendance at all locations. This seminar series saw over 400 registrations come through, and an incredible response from the community. From the feedback results all regions had an impressive average of at least 8.5 /10. This was based around the quality of content, relevant topics, presentation, and exhibitor/ suppliers.

It was also great to see that there were multiple occasions where the attendee’s first indicated that they believed By-laws were not worth the paper they were written on, but after hearing the educated and experienced views of presenters they had decided to take a different stance on the question. For us here at Smart Strata, that is the best feedback that we can receive. Its not about us wanting our audience to think a certain way but being able to provide the Strata community with the education to make informed decisions and conclusions.

To gauge audience opinion on whether or not By-laws are worth the paper they are written on, we collated feedback on this question before and after each session.

At the Gold Coast session, the audience view was 77% agreed they are, 0% disagreed and 33% were undecided. By the end of the session, 83% agreed, 0% disagreed and 17% were undecided. So, the overall opinion at this event was the majority of people were in agreeance.

The Brisbane session results displayed a different outcome. Before listening to the presenters 72% agreed, 14% disagreed and 14% were undecided. By the end of the session, the agreed rate dropped to 36%, disagree rate grew to 42% and the undecided remained stable at 21%.

The North Queensland results all displayed similar trends. With Mackay 73% in agreeance, 18% undecided, and 9% disagreeing before. After the seminar 82% agreed, 9% disagreed and 9% were undecided.

Townsville’s agreeance rate went from 69% before to 81.25%, The disagreement rate remained the same at 6.25% before and after, and the number of people undecided halved. Dropping from 25% to 12.5%. This shows that 50% of those who started undecided were able to gain knowledge on the subject to make an informed decision.

In Cairns, it shows that the presenters were able to open the minds up of the undecided to the possibility that by-laws are worth the paper they are written on. With 18% of people switching their no vote to an undecided. 82% of people remained in agreeance.

On the Sunshine Coast, the audience started with a view that had 55% agree they are, 10% disagree and 20% undecided. By the end of the session, 50% agreed, 7.5% disagreed and 22.5% were undecided. Looking at individual results, some shifted from undecided to yes, others to no, but overall undecided marginally won on the night as the only answer to increase in percentage.  Overall, 50% of the audience (that responded to the question) left thinking that by-laws are worth the paper they are written on.

When averaging the percentages for the entire series, it is clear that the majority believe By-laws play a role in strata communities, but when reading comments, it becomes clear how opinions are impacted (as you would expect) by the experience individual communities have had with their By-laws and how much they have had to refer to them to combat issues within their complexes.

We were very grateful to have so much support at all locations and were happy to be able to provide our attendees with the opportunity to mix and mingle with our exhibitor partners. A special giveaway was awarded at each event to a lucky respondent who completed the exhibitor passport. We are excited to announce the winners were:

• Gold Coast – Phillip S, Jefferson Lane Palm Beach
• Brisbane – Barbara J, Norman Park Manors
• Townsville – Linda B, Mint apartments
• Cairns – Phil H, Ramada Treetops
• Mackay – Ian V, Rivage
• Sunshine Coast – Carole S, Alexandria on the Pacific

Again, a big thank you to all our Exhibitors who got involved.

• ARC Utilities
• Archers the Strata Professionals
• Boss Building Maintenance
• Diverse Group Consulting
• Dulux
• Macquarie Bank
• Marsh Advantage Insurance
• MYBOS
• O’Brien Glass
• Programmed
• Property Audit Solutions
• Strata Compliance Solutions
• Strata Loans
• Watt utilities
• Wurtulla Plumbing + Drainage

For those of you that missed the seminars or would like to re-watch and/or pass it on to friends, colleagues or committee members you will be able to thanks to Chambers Russell Lawyers in the coming weeks! Keep your eyes peeled for the official release of the online seminar.

With all that said, it is now time to close off on the Strata Community Education Seminar series for 2022.  It has been an absolute pleasure to not only help educate and inform but also to learn with you all. A final thank you to all involved and we look forward to seeing you all at our next seminar series in 2023.

This article has been contributed by Smart Strata.