It's been a busy year since our last AGM. We've had changes at a senior level, moving from five directors to two – Tim Hencher, Strategic Director of Delivery, and David McNeill, Strategic Director of Development - with a new management structure below that. In April, we launched our [Strategic Plan 2019-22](https://storage.googleapis.com/scvo-cms/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/SCVO-STRATEGIC-PLAN-2019-2022.pdf), the result of much engagement with the sector and a wholesale review of what SCVO does. We do many different things, and it might have been logical to hone down what we do to fewer things. But consultation showed us that everything we do is valued by someone and we decided to embrace that diversity and make sure we are doing it all well. It also resulted in a longer term review of our role as a membership organisation, our offer to members compared to our offer to the wider sector. We intend to bring the fruits of that review to next year’s AGM. In the meantime, our membership continues to grow and I’m particularly pleased to see some members who had left returning to us. Our service delivery continues to grow too – with more [payroll](https://scvo.org/services/payroll) customers, more [IT](https://scvo.org/services/managed-it) customers, another successful [Gathering](https://scvo.org/the-gathering-2020), more subscriptions to [Third Force News](https://thirdforcenews.org.uk/), more adverts placed in [Goodmoves](https://goodmoves.com/?utm_source=scvo&utm_campaign=page&utm_medium=website) and more jobs filled through [Community Jobs Scotland](https://scvo.org/jobs/community-jobs-scotland). Our [information service](https://scvo.org/services/information-service), [training programme](https://scvo.org/events?q=&course_type=Training+Course&month=&location=) and [Funding Scotland](https://fundingscotland.com/) search engine all continue to be popular - Funding Scotland now has 30,000 subscribers!  Our [digital offer](https://scvo.org/digital) continues to be held up as a shining example of building capacity, inclusion and leadership recognised in Scotland and beyond. We have also managed around £1million of grants to the sector on behalf of Scottish Government over the past 12 months. This year the Scottish Parliament celebrated its 20th birthday. The voluntary sector has had a huge influence on policy-making and legislation under every administration since 1999 and we recognised that with the publication of our limited edition book, ['Charities, Scotland & Holyrood: Twenty Years Delivering Change.](https://scvo.org/projects-campaigns/20-years-delivering-change)' There continues to be a good working relationship between the sector and both Scottish and local government in Scotland, and we can and do challenge robustly as well as working collaboratively to build better policy and legislation. Members of the [SCVO Policy](https://scvo.org/policy-research) Forum has been working on a manifesto to influence all the political parties in the run up to the 2021 Scottish elections to help us influence collectively on the issues that matter across the sector, as well as individual organisations or specialist intermediary organisations influencing on the issues that matter to them.  Maximising our collective voice makes a difference to us all, and to the people of Scotland who interact with the voluntary sector in many forms every day. Finally, I’m pleased to see our partnerships with other organisations building. For example, with Volunteer Scotland on the Saltire Awards, with Social Enterprise Scotland on the National Investment Bank and the Gathering, and with colleagues across the UK on digital. At our 76th AGM recently we elected three new trustees - Pauline Lunn, James Adams and Manish Joshi - and said thank you and fond farewell to outgoing trustees Michelle Carruthers, Eliot Stark and Graham Curran. --- ## About SCVO SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations) is the national membership organisation for Scotland's voluntary sector. Our role is to champion the role of voluntary organisations in Scotland and to support them to do work that has a positive impact. SCVO supports members and the wider voluntary sector with all aspects of setting up and running a voluntary organisation. SCVO represents the needs and concerns of the voluntary sector to the Scottish government in Holyrood and UK government and Westminster. Through our learning and events programme SCVO offers training and development opportunities to the sector. Members access an extensive membership benefits package including specialist, in-depth, 1-to-1 guidance from our Information Services team and from professional service partners. Access to exclusive membership networks (including comms, employers, governance and policy) supports members to grow their connections, stay up to date, exchange ideas and views with peers, and learn through tailored, learning opportunities. SCVO members enjoy free access to Funding Scotland Premium to stay on top of funding opportunities to support their organisation’s financial resilience. Discounts and savings savings on SCVO products and services (including our HR service, managed IT support, payroll service and events and training) and partner offers provide members with support to allow them to focus on delivering their organisation’s goals. Further SCVO products and services include [extensive digital support](https://scvo.scot/support/digital), a climate action resource [Growing Climate Confidence](https://climateconfident.scot), a voluntary sector publication [Third Force News](https://tfn.scot) and a voluntary sector jobs and recruitment service [Goodmoves](https://goodmoves.org). For more information on SCVO membership, visit [SCVO membership](https://scvo.scot/membership)