Nick Whiley represents the Strata Owners Chapter on the SCA (NSW) Board and has done so since 2017 when he was asked to fill a casual vacancy. Nick was officially elected to the NSW Board at the 2019 AGM.
He is well-qualified to represent strata owners being an owner himself and having sat on or chaired strata committees since the early 1990s. Nick has likely experienced most of the highs and lows of strata from a strata owners perspective.
One of Nick’s first recollections of those early days on strata was that the strata manager held the authority as they held the expertise and chaired the meetings, which put them in a position of authority.
This is still a common attitude amongst strata owners and committee members, so Nick’s challenge is to help strata committees to understand the role of the strata manager (as a service-provider to the committee) and also to understand their own roles. To do this he says that strata committees need to have access to educational resources and good information, so that their participation in strata is more professional. Moving away from pure self-interest towards a sense of community is crucial to creating better strata experiences and owners and strata managers need to come on board with this concept of community.
He says that the strata laws need to support and recognise the personal impact of the decisions made by strata committees and that the NCAT also has to be understanding of the role of committee members.
Nick will most certainly advocate for owners and wants owners to also promote SCA (NSW) connections so that owners understand that they do have a voice and are connected to the strata industry and with government.
To do this he wants to see an increase in strata owners membership. The stronger the numbers the more effective the voice. By joining SCA (NSW), every member, regardless of the Chapter they come from, benefits from being a part of a truly representative organisation that has the ear of government.
Looks like the next two years for Nick are going to be busy and exciting not just for him but for the strata owners of NSW.