2026 Webinar Series - Understanding Village Finances

When residents, resident committees and managers work actively and cohesively with their communities, the whole village benefits.

Join us for two webinars addressing residents’ concerns about village finances.

A live Q&A will follow for your questions and discussion.

Gain an understanding of the financial challenges facing residents in retirement villages, and practical ideas you can use straight away.

You’ll learn about:

• The financial issues village communities face
• The Legislative framework for retirement village finances
• Village finances from the operators’ perspective
• Hands-on skills, tools and collaboration methods immediately applicable to your village.

The webinars will be moderated by James Wiltshire, Executive Director, DCM Institute and with the generous support of the DCM Group.

Webinar 1: Understanding Village Finances – Clarity, Collaboration, and Compliance

Tuesday 3rd February, 10:30 am AEST

Moderator: James Wiltshire, DCM Group

Speakers:

• Dr Diane Hart, NSW RVRA Education Centre
• Peter Hill, Peter Hill and Company, Lawyers
• Fiona Russell, NSW State Operations Manager, Levande

Register HERE for Webinar 1

Webinar 2: Understanding Village Finances – Checking, Meeting, and Collaborating

Tuesday 10th February, 10:30 am AEST

Moderator: James Wiltshire, DCM Group

Speakers:

• Cath Bashford, NSW Regional Manager, Oak Tree Group
• John Rosewarne, NSW RVRA Treasurer
• Dr Diane Hart, NSW RVRA Education Centre

Register HERE for Webinar 2

Webinar - Residents Committees

View HERE

Held on: Thursday, October 19th, 2023

This webinar was designed exclusively for residents of retirement villages in NSW in response to the growing number of questions and concerns the RVRA receives each year on the role, formation and conduct of Committees.

In preparing for this webinar, we reviewed those enquiries, applied the relevant laws and, in collaboration with industry and government, offer a range of resources for our members and all NSW village residents.

Moderator: James Wiltshire, DCM Institute

Speakers:

• Diane Hart (Vice President, RVRA),
• Jim Gibbons (Past President, RVRA),
• Roger Pallant (Secretary, RVRA) 
• Aileen Stewart (Director, Senior Living Mediation) 

The Webinar is supported with funding from the NSW Department of Fair Trading. 

In his introduction, Craig Bennett, President of the RVRA, commented on the role of the newly formed Retirement Village Education Centre as a major project that is “transforming the RVRA in its ability to better serve the sector in its role of providing advice, information and advocacy, in a significantly more complicated environment.”

Some 14% of the members’ calls for assistance that the RVRA receive are about the issues confronting residents, managers, operators and Resident Committees. Since a major role of the Residents Committee is to provide a conduit for information to flow between Management and residents, Residents Committee issues are generally ones that affect the whole village community.

The panel of speakers discusses a variety of problems with particular focus on Residents Committee transparency and conduct. The webinar concludes with information on where to find information and resources when things go wrong.

The role of Residents Committees, how they are established, and the responsibilities of the Committee members, were the focus of the Education Centre’s first rollout of videos and their accompanying Resource Sheets. This webinar adds to those resources by addressing some of the common issues that arise in the interactions between Residents Committees and residents and Operators.