18 Feb 2014
Words Tim Admin

ARAMA - A Lot More Than Just a Social Club...

QRAMA (Queensland Resident Accommodation Managers Association) was formed in 1991, primarily as a defensive force to work against legal challenges to the status and operation of the management rights industry. From these beginnings, QRAMA (later ARAMA) has grown hand-in-hand with the growth of the management rights industry to become a leading industry voice. Just as management rights have developed from small ‘mum and dad’ based businesses to a highly legislated multi-billion dollar industry, ARAMA has grown to become a respected and widely subscribed organisation. Today ARAMA has 900 members, managing over 43,000 units, with property value in excess of $12 billion. The revenue generated from these businesses is estimated to be well over $600 million. Kim Cox has undoubtedly been a significant driving force behind the growth of this important group. Soon after purchasing his first management rights business on the Sunshine Coast in 1996, Kim became interested in the wider issues that affected the industry he had joined. Not content to simply follow the herd and do as had been done before, Kim set upon a search to gain an intimate knowledge of the industry, to fight against those who denigrated it and to provide better security and opportunity for those that worked in it. The obvious platform from which to do this was QRAMA. Kim is quite frank about the fact that he has always regarded the organisation as an important formal institution, not a means of widening his social circle. From the outset, Kim began writing discussion papers on contentious issues and pushing for opinion to be heard by bureaucrats and politicians. Working closely with John Anderson, who would be Kim’s battle partner over the next decade, QRAMA began to take on its most critical role…that of political lobbying. That is not to say that QRAMA became a voice to be heard overnight. John recalls his early years being primarily centred on ‘knocking on government doors’ and writing paper after paper. However, as early as 1998, 2 years after Kim and John started lobbying, the tide began to slowly change. Instead of simply pushing opinion, they began to be approached to provide it. Resident managers for the first time began to gain an industry voice. Kim mentions his gratitude towards industry stalwarts such as John Punch and John Mahoney for providing the support, knowledge and advice necessary to get to this stage. The growth of QRAMA membership also played a small part. However, the advent of this new-found representation must be attributed largely to the tireless efforts of Kim and John. Today ARAMA is regularly called upon by politicians, bureaucrats and a variety of stakeholders to provide advice and assistance. Another principal objective of Kim’s during his early years at QRAMA was to increase membership and to raise awareness of the role that the organisation needed to take. When Kim became president of the Sunshine Coast branch of QRAMA in 1998 there were fewer than 100 members. Kim used a holiday guide book to make a list of every management rights business in the area and started knocking on doors. What he found surprised him. Instead of understanding the importance of having an effective industry voice to protect their interests, a large proportion of owners had a ‘what’s in it for me’ attitude. As Kim says, ‘small business breads small minded mentality’. Despite his obvious frustration, Kim quickly harnessed a pro-active solution. QRAMA teamed up with a major national bank to offer a centralised and reduced cost EFTPOS system. It was structured so that the savings made on card transactions covered the membership fee of joining QRAMA. This won over the stragglers and soon the membership was well over 200 managers (at the time over 90%). However, Kim feels that this attitude of determining membership fees based on what managers were willing to pay, rather than what QRAMA needed to function effectively, has continued and has ultimately restricted ARAMA’s work. ‘From the early days, QRAMA has always been under-resourced’, Kim explains. ‘Although we were, and still are today, a highly mobilised, dedicated and effective organisation, we have always been punching above our weight’. Kim is a strong believer that membership fees should be increased, quite significantly in some cases. ‘Due to lack of funds, we have always been a reactionary body, in that all our resources have been pumped into defending ourselves’ Kim states. Although ARAMA has had more pro-active initiatives in recent years, such as the accommodation finder service, Kim feels this is only scratching the surface of its potential. In light of the recent political discussion brought about Paul Lucas’s discussion paper and a minority of zealots at the Unit Owners Association (see ‘If you care about management rights, read this’ - May Informer) it is easy to see where Kim is coming from. Although the UOA represents perhaps only 1% of unit owners (by membership), their extreme and potentially devastating opinions and requests have found an ear in Parliament. As Kim points out, ‘Governments and politicians do not always make decisions based on rational and value, but often on political necessity.’ In other words, there will always be people who want to pull the management rights industry apart, and as long as there are politicians needing votes, someone will listen. Critically, leading figures at ARAMA (alongside other industry stakeholders) have had the expertise to make sure that balanced objections to these attacks have been heard by the right people. However, political lobbying is not a pastime that you learn overnight. It takes years of networking, research and dedication. As Kim says, ‘if we are serious about defending our industry, we should be managing the big issues going forward. We cannot risk losing the knowledge of how to deal with these attacks, essentially gained by a few people working for free over a number of years. If we are to maintain consistency, we must continue to train and recruit….the only way we can do this is with more funding’. In a nutshell, I think Kim wants to reiterate to managers that it there responsibility to maintain membership of ARAMA and to be open minded about membership fee increases. He uses the classic car insurance comparison. ‘You wouldn’t think twice about spending $1000 a year to insure your $40,000 Holden, a lot of managers would think twice about spending $1,000 per year for a unified voice that defends and insures your million dollar management rights’. He goes on to ad, ‘managers don’t even need to be active…we’ve got enough activists…we just need their financial support. As I finish this article I am writing a cheque to ARAMA for an annual corporate membership.