The Commission of Strata Corporations continues to receive high marks for its quarterly Annual Returns and basic bookkeeping workshops.  These are a series of small, targeted sessions put on by the Commission to expose attendees to these specific areas of strata management and administration. 

According to Cherry-Ann Smart, who participated in the Annual Returns Workshop, “The Workshop was a timely intervention for our strata operations. Presenters Mercede Scott, Shelliann Sullivan [CSC Inspectors], and [legal officer] Jared Johnson impressed us with their knowledge and professionalism as they led us through the workshop documents,” stated in her assessment of the November 29 session held at the Commission’s Trafalgar Road office.

 “I am now empowered to better represent my strata community, to ensure fairly apportioned maintenance payments, adhere to the legal requirements for meetings, and submit timely and accurate annual returns. More importantly, I have since acquired a more positive attitude about the role and functions of the Commission of Strata Corporations and the services it offers,” Ms Smart added.

Other attendees offered similarly effusive praise, saying there were now more significantly versed on a range of related issues such as notice for general meetings, passing of resolutions, invoicing, budgeting, apportioning contributions by unit of entitlement, among other things.    

The Basic Bookkeeping workshop was held a week earlier on November 22, at the same location.  This was facilitated by Audit Inspector, Sherri-Gay Douglas Grandison.  Each session targets a maximum of 15 persons, by invitation only – including strata proprietors, executive committee members and property managers.  The quarterly meetings are deliberately kept small so that participants are afforded personal, near one-on-one attention. 

Marketing Manager of the Commission, Damian Wilson, noted that the small, in-person sessions are important to achieving the desired result. “Sometimes when a session is large, persons get lost in the mix of not having their voice or questions heard.  This is even more so the case with online platforms where persons are often distracted or disengaged from what is taking place.  This sort of session ensures that we have the undivided attention of attendees, and we can better gage if they learned or retained something from the Workshop.”  Mr. Wilson also noted that these sessions help to give the Commission an indication of the areas where there is a gap in knowledge and how this contributes to the lack of compliance. 

Strata Corporations are required under the Registration (Strata Titles) Act, to submit Annual Returns to the Corporation within 120 days after the end of a financial year.  This includes Minutes of Annual General Meetings and Extraordinary General Meetings held during the filing period, names and addresses of the current Executive Committee members elected during the filing period, Certificate of Insurance (or copy of unanimous resolution not to insure the property). Each attendee was given a workbook containing several exercises to be completed during the three-hour plus timeframe.  They were also given a Certificate of Participation at the end of the session.  The Commission will have ongoing Workshops on a quarterly basis, usually the last week of each quarter.