Yclept – I’m sorry, but even though your description of a Strata Manager’s role is probably based on personal experience, I strongly disagree with your interpretation.
An Owners Corporation (O/C) generally engages the services of a Strata Manager (SM) to provide it with good counsel by keeping up-to-date with changes to Statutory Requirements, to interpret those for the O/C, and to perform all the functions and activities required of an O/C and which can be delegated to a SM under relevant State & Territory Legislation (the Act).
I’ve in the past used the analogy that a SM is a Consultant to the Board of Directors (the Executive Committee), and whilst I agree that they’re not Project Managers, Facilities Managers, or any of the others you mention, the nature of the delegations granted to them by the O/C under a Strata Management Agency Agreement (Agency Agreement) almost always makes them responsible for getting all those things efficiently done (by others).
Perhaps it’s because some SM’s do regard their role as “a book keeper and co-ordination point for reports of repairs etc that need to be done” when that’s not what the O/C expects and/or it’s not in accord with the functions it’s delegated to that SM via the Agency Agreement, that many posts to this Forum are critical, and why more and more O/C’s are opting for self-management.
I agree with you that some SM’s are given too much responsibility, too many Plans to manage, and too little training and mentoring by Licensees, that some O/C’s expect to pay peanuts for “all the bells and whistles”, and that some SM’s under quote and are then forced to under-deliver.
Whilst the first three (above) are something for the Strata Industry to address, and they need to in my opinion, surely the latter two can be addressed by the O/C’s “wants” and the SM’s costs to provide those being clearly stated in some competitive Proposals, after which the O/C can decide upon and agree with the SM about what it really needs and is prepared to pay for before that’s enunciated in the Agency Agreement, which I must say in standard form is one of the better “contracts” that I’ve seen.