#27803
Sir Humphrey
Strataguru

    @Krusty said:
    … young, high-ranking naval officer … is now a (first time) committee member who has taken it upon himself to become the buildings vigilante. I received a very pointed email … What offended me was his demands that we pay for the damage (obviously – we know that). Worse, he gave us a two-day period to guarantee it would be addressed, plus a deadline of four days for the remedial work to be completed.

    I have developed a pet theory that some high-ranking people (military and elsewhere) have little experience of working collaboratively with peers. Rather they are accustomed to doing what they are told by those superior and expect unquestioning obedience from those below.

    For a first communication on a minor matter, I would expect a polite face-to-face conversation or email along the lines of: ‘This damage has been pointed out to the committee and we believe it was your tenant. We are pointing it out in case you had not been aware of it. We can arrange for the repair but we would then have to bill you for it. Could you please get in touch to discuss further? Here are our contact details…’ This takes a bit longer but tries to avoid offence. If that initial approach is ignored, then it is time to get heavy with deadlines to respond etc. 

    This is the Strata Managers jurisdiction & not his.

    Actually, it is the committee’s jurisdiction to instruct the strata manager about how to handle such matters. I would have a quiet word to others on the committee and suggest to them that their new colleague is going to rub people up the wrong way and the whole committee will be tarred with the same brush. After all, ‘everybody knows’ that only ‘little Hitlers’ joins strata committees and that expectation will be confirmed in the popular imagination by the smallest things. 

    My concern though is about this extract: “On the agenda for the last committee meeting was the proposal that XXX be paid $5000 a quarter to run the building (over and above the Strata Manager’s fee)”. I was a committee member for over ten years & did not expect any recompense.

    The question is can a committee member ask or expect this? If so then why won’t all committee members expect payment?

    They can ask! Smile

    $20,000pa to be an on-site contact person seems like a very generous compensation, especially when you are paying for a managing agent already. For this to have any chance of success at the next AGM, I think it would need to be a very clearly spelled out proposal. I expect that most OC members will be very sceptical and have no idea how much work a dedicated committee member does. Even OC members who are sympathetic and appreciative don’t really understand how much we do. 

    Where I am, such a proposal would be very likely to fail. Some would object because they don’t think much work is done and they are still bitter because one committee ‘failed’ to attend to their pet gripe quickly enough 15 years ago. Others would object because they did their time on the committee for a year or two 25 years ago without payment so they feel they have done their bit. Others would say the committee should just let the manager do the job they are paid for (without understanding that the manager needs oversight).

    At most, somebody not on the committee might propose a vote of thanks for the past committee at the next AGM and include a motion that some nominal amount from the budget be approved for each of the out-going committee to be given a bottle of wine or a dinner voucher. Even if one person did most of the work, it would have to be the same for all committee members.  Often even the rest of the committee doesn’t appreciate just how much one person did.