Andrew Vye has worked across the Public and Third Sector Housing Sectors in Wales for the last 20 years and is currently Managing Director of Homes and Communities at Pobl Group. He has been a Community Housing Cymru Board Member since 2018. Here, Andrew talks about the benefits of being a board member:
“The team at Community Housing Cymru (CHC) is a small but extremely effective group of passionate, smart, open, authentic and connected individuals who come together around a very simple ambition of making housing associations in Wales the best they can be. CHC believes passionately that housing associations have a key role in shaping a better Wales. Our thinking as a board is always shaped by this principle.
As part of the Board you will be made to feel like an important part of that team where your views count, where you will be listened to and where group thinking is consistently challenged. The coming together of the CHC board and CHC team always feels like a shared endeavour.
For anyone joining the board, do not expect an easy ride – there is a lot of big thinking to do. You will spend as much time helping shape strategic thinking as you will in the fiduciary and overseeing the running of the business.
For a small organisation, CHC punches above its weight and has incredible reach and influence. Working on the board will develop you personally and professionally, whatever your previous experience. You will gain a unique insight into the workings of Government, the interrelationships, the politics and the people.
CHC is truly representative. As a board member you will learn about the issues affecting all member housing associations, big and small, in North and South Wales.
Finally – I think that the Covid experience has been a defining moment for CHC. During this time the organisation and its leadership teams have galvanised the sector, brought it together and helped demonstrate the importance of housing and care services during these most challenging times.
The experience has made CHC stronger and more relevant than ever before. I am very proud to be associated with CHC and look forward to the next 12 months when CHC will help make sense of the last few months, capture the learning, and support housing associations in Wales to shape and influence the challenges ahead.”
Apply to become a member of Community Housing Cymru’s board here.