Can I inject a note of caution here? Strata management is complicated, and from this history, you and your fellow owners have muddled though only from luck, and stumbling across people who voluntarily helped, like a bank employee. A building with 8 Units is quite large, and I have to wonder if you can self manage the plan with your lack of experience. It sounds like you plan to embark on a program of repairs and improvement, with the increased investment in the building, and doing that without good strata knowledge is going to be a struggle.
I understand you not renewing with your present strata manager. But it might be better to find another one, perhaps one that is not part of a slick huge corporation. I would recommend (for all buildings) that the contract with your strata manager should only be for one year (not 3), which means you renew it at each AGM. You can negotiate with a strata manager for them to take over a limited set of duties – the committee can do all the quote getting, contract reviewing and bin cleaning, and leave the strata manager to manage the accounts and provide advice about the complex stuff, like fire safety Orders and Schedules, insurance, by-laws and so on. Be aware that some other owners might take advantage of your inexperience, and act up, since none of your committee members know anything much about strata laws, I assume.