Your building has a future.
You're the one who builds it.
A planning circle of five apartment building champions — meeting regularly, working on real master plans, and keeping each other honest about what’s actually happening in their buildings.
Max 5
people per group
Monthly
sessions online & in person
Curated
placed in group best suited
THE GAP |
Buildings don't fall into disrepair all at once. They drift there, slowly.
“Most strata buildings are managed reactively – responding to what fails, not planning for what’s coming. Without a long-term view across the whole building, opportunities for energy transition, sustainability improvements, and infrastructure renewal are missed not because owners don’t care, but because no one has mapped what the building actually needs over the next ten, twenty, or thirty years.”
Most apartment buildings manage reactively. Something fails there’s an emergency levy, works happen, owners exhale and then it’s back to the day-to-day until the next crisis arrives. No plan. No foresight. No record of what was decided or why.
Sustainability improvements solar, electrification, EV charging, better insulation ” keep getting pushed aside because they “feel like an add-on” to the real agenda.
The person who cares most about the building’s future is often doing it alone. No peer support. No shared framework. No one who’s been through it before.
The Planning Circle exists because that person – you- deserves a better process.
A small group of building champions doing the same hard work, at the same time
A Planning Circle is five building champions meeting regularly to develop their master plans and keep each other moving. What one building learns, the others gain from. The structure is simple. The commitment is real.
CORE OFFERING
Monthly planning circles - online & in person
Every month the group meets to share progress, name what’s stuck, and help each other take the next step. Sessions are online by default with in-person meetups scheduled through the year. The structure is what makes the difference – a regular commitment turns good intentions into actual movement
TOOLS
Masterplanning frameworks, templates & supplier recommendations
Step-by-step guides for every stage of building renewal – from understanding what a master plan actually is, to scoping works, commissioning the right reports, and briefing professionals. Plus supplier and professional recommendations from within the group and Tonja’s network – people who understand strata and won’t waste your time.
CIRCLE
Shared knowledge that compounds
Five people, five buildings, five different challenges. The honest accounts of what’s worked and what hasn’t – share in a group small enough that honesty is the default.
ACCESS
Direct access to Tonja
Bring real questions to a real conversation – specific to your building, your committee, your situation.
NETWORK
Expert network
Access to architects, remedial engineers, sustainability specialists and strata finance advisors – at the right moment for the right question.
EVOLVING
A program that grows with you
Your group is small by design. What you share, what you question, and what you learn directly shapes the experience for the four people alongside you.
GROUP DESIGN |
Five people. That's the limit. There's a reason.
Each planning circle is capped at five members. Not as an arbitrary constraint – as a deliberate design decision grounded in how genuine peer accountability actually works.
THE CAMPFIRE EXPERIENCE – CHARLES VOGL
“People have gathered around campfires to share stories and build the relationships that matter for millennia. The intimacy of the circle, and the absence of distractions, created a space where people could see and hear one another.”
Five or fewer. Not a preference - a threshold.
Charles Vogl’s work on small group dynamics is clear on this: five is the number. Above it, people contribute less because the group can absorb their absence. Below it, there aren’t enough perspectives to be useful. Five is where real accountability becomes possible.
Three conditions that make it work.
Sessions are kept small, open, and focused — the three conditions that make honest conversation possible. You’re not here to report progress. You’re here to work through what’s actually happening in your building, with people who understand what that involves.
Everyone gets heard. No-one can hide.
In a group this size, what you said you’d do last month is remembered. Progress is visible. So is stalling. That’s not comfortable — but it’s what actually moves things forward.
Tonja curates your placement
You don’t self-select into a group. Tonja places you based on your building type, your stage, and where you’ll be most useful to the people already there. Getting the mix right is what makes the accountability real.
CROSS GROUP SESSIONS
On specific topics – switchboard upgrades, owner communication strategies, working with engineers, financing major works – Tonja convenes sessions open to all groups. You get the intimacy of a small group plus access to the broader community’s knowledge when the topic warrants it.
WHO YOU ARE WORKING WITH
Direct access to someone who actually knows strata.
Tonja Gibson is the founder of Strata Answers and a licensed strata manager – which means when you ask a question, you’re talking to someone with both the regulatory knowledge and the lived committee experience to give you a genuinely useful answer.
Strata Answers holds no strata management contracts. That independence is intentional – it means the advice you receive is about your building’s interests, not anyone else’s.
Tonja has been a strata committee member herself – across a large building and a smaller one -for over ten years. She started this program because she couldn’t find the support she was looking for as a committee member. Now she’s building it.
Licensed Strata Manager - Strata Answers Pty Ltd - NSW
WHO JOINS
You don't need to have it figured out. You just need to care.
Members join as individual building champions – one subscription per person. If more people from the same building want to join, we have a building group price. Get in touch
Committee members
Sustainability champions
Grappling with emergency works, stalled programs, or a committee overwhelmed and short on time.
Engaged residents
Not yet on the committee, but able to see what needs to happen and willing to help make it possible.
You’ve made improvements inside your own apartment and want to understand what’s possible for the whole building.
Future committee members
Building knowledge and confidence to step up – and wanting a community that can support that.
INDIVIDUAL CHAMPION
$350
PER PERSON * 6 MONTH SUBSCRIPTION
Monthly planning circle sessions online + in person
Masterplanning frameworks, templates and step-by-step guides
- Supplier and professional recommendations
- Direct access to Tonja Gibson (licensed strata manager)
- Expert network architects, engineers, sustainability experts
- A curated circle of five building champions working on the same challenges
Not sure if this is the right for your building? Fill in the form and Tonja will be in touch for a no-obligation conversation – to understand where you’re at before you commit to anything.
MULTIPLE CHAMPIONS FROM ONE SCHEME
If more than one person from your building wants to join, we offer a scheme group price that gives the whole committee access.
Contact us to discuss pricing for your scheme
HOW MEMBERSHIP WORK
You subscribe as an individual champion. There is no building-level lock-in – you join because you want to move this forward, not because your committee has voted on it. Your subscription starts on the day you join. You’ll receive access to your planning circle, the resources, and session scheduling within 48 hours.
JOIN
Ready to start moving your building forward?
The first step is just a conversation. Tell us about your building and Tonja will be in touch