At a breakfast held in Johannesburg last week, Sapoa CEO Brian Kirchmann and president Lynette Finlay highlighted major focus areas of the organisation, one of these being research. The intention is to set standards that will aid newcomers to the property industry.

Sapoa also says its education committee will be re-evaluating all its courses on offer. It intends to outsource the co-ordination of the training facility but the ownership of the courses will remain with Sapoa.

Kirchmann and Finlay say they will introduce courses on trends and industry-specific topics with underlying educational levels to cover a broad spectrum of industry subjects.

The industry property charter will also be under scrutiny this year. Sapoa has undertaken to drive the property charter for the industry and already has a separate committee to deal with this.

It announced that the Sapoa board of directors would play a more active role in the organisation. In line with good corporate governance, an audit and risk committee and a remuneration committee have been established. Each board member will have a specific portfolio.

The board will also become more involved in the planning of its annual convention. The convention committee will be replaced by the board together with the chairman-elect.