Stand for your sector

There is still time to get your nominations in for SCVO’s Policy Committee elections. Several places are available. The last year saw the Committee become entirely independent from the board of SCVO, enabling it to have a distinct voice in representing the views of the third sector on the whole gamut of public policy issues that affect us. Committee members are elected as individuals, not representatives, by the full membership of SCVO, which instills a unique mandate to join the sector up and focus on issues of common interest.

we need people whose experience and knowledge is about the environment, the arts, poverty, children or young people

I would, of course, encourage you to stand. I'd also ask you to contact all the best people you know who are working in public policy and encourage them to stand too. The Policy Committee is on a journey of development, its voice growing louder within SCVO’s new structures. Committee membership at this point in time provides a great opportunity to have an impact on what SCVO does and how it conducts itself. We need depth and expertise, but we also need breadth of experience. For too long the committee has not had the benefit of people whose experience and knowledge is about the environment, or the arts, or poverty, or children and young people, to name only a few. So whatever your area - sectoral or geographical - your voice is needed to strengthen ours. You will not, though, be a representative of your organisation, speaking only for and to that subject. You are elected onto SCVO’s policy committee as an individual, bringing all of your experience, professional or otherwise. You contribute to everything you wish to, and you don’t hold back. For you, the value comes partly through ranging across issues, by considering and discussing what is happening beyond the day-to-day priorities of the organisation you work for. You don’t have long. So sort out your nomination, or your colleague’s nomination, just now, and become part of the strongest influencing voice in Scotland’s third sector. Take the opportunity to shape your world alongside a group of similarly committed people. Use your presence, your voice, to strengthen ours. Amy Dalrymple chairs the SCVO Policy Committee