The organisation welcomed three new committee members Michael Hesketh from Paragon Housing Association, Lisa Scott from Hillhead Housing Association 2000 and Jim Berrington from ng homes.

Chair Martha Hutcheson took the opportunity to thank Paul McShane, director at Trafalgar Housing Association, for his contribution and leadership during his time on the committee. Paul had been a member of the SHARE committee for five years and stepped down as chair in 2016.

SHARE director Alan Ferguson provided a brief overview of the past year highlighting some key stats over the past year: almost 300 training courses took place, 2,471 delegates took part in training and 517 delegates attended events.

Martha launched SHARE’s Strategic Plan for 2017-2019. The plan ensures SHARE’s members are front and centre in all future developments for the charity. The organisation was set up by the sector for the sector and continues today to be the only learning & development organisation for staff and committee/board members within the housing sector in Scotland. SHARE will continue to develop new products and services in consultation with its customers, further develop our e-learning offer and deliver events which are relevant and focussed whilst delivering value for money.

“There are some busy and exciting times ahead for SHARE”, said Mr Ferguson.

Those attending the AGM heard the guest speaker Andrew Bulmer, from the Institute of Residential Property Management (IRPM), welcome the working relationship with SHARE and congratulate SHARE on the success of the Foundation in factoring programme which is accredited by IRPM. The programme, which was introduced in January, is the first of its kind and is a real success story for the sector.

Speakers also included some past and current learners; Bob Innes AIRPM successfully completed the Foundation in Factoring programme and talked about the positive impact this has had on him in his current role. Allan Scott, chair at Milnbank Housing Association, is currently working towards the SHARE’s accredited programme for Chairs and advised any chair, long-standing or new, to take on this learning.

Karen McDonagh, committee member at Ardenglen Housing Association, provide some background on her role, and why she undertook the GOSHA training. Karen praised the course, her support from SHARE and her own organisation and talked about how proud she felt at achieving this.

One of the highlights of the evening was the Celebration of Learning. Learner of the Year Nick Halls, from Milbank Housing Association, won this award for the third time. A number of certificates were presented to some of the successful learners in 2016/17. These learners successfully completed accredited courses through SHARE in a variety of subjects such as Understanding buildings & managing repairs (C&G), A foundation in factoring (IRPM) and GOSHA – Governance of Scottish Housing Associations (SQA).