SHFCA membership fees and other matters

On 24 March, SHFCA will be 6 years old. In that time, the Association has grown organically and at last count, there are 53 members listed on the SHFCA website. In these early years, SHFCA has been kindly supported by Scottish Enterprise but that funding is now drawing to an end. Other sources of funding are being sought to support specific membership programmes and knowledge transfer – more of that in due course.

About a year ago, the SHFCA Board voted to postpone an increase in membership fees for one year as a consequence of the economic situation at the time. I don’t know that things are much better but I have been asked by the Board to notify members that a modest increase in membership fees will be needed to keep things going. This is the first time since the Association was established that an increase in membership fees has been found necessary; previously, fees had been kept at a minimum because of the generous support from SE. I hope the small increase will not deter you from remaining with the Association.

From the 1st April, membership fees will be:

• Corporate £1,250 + VAT
• Standard £250 + VAT (SMEs, Local Authorities, Housing Associations, etc.)
• Academic £175 + VAT (University Depts.)
• Discounted £100 + VAT (Registered charities, individuals & students)

Also about a year ago, SHFCA was invited to present the hydrogen and fuel cell case to the FREDS Committee, chaired by Jim Mather MSP (SG Minister for Energy, Enterprise & Tourism). Prof John Irvine (chair), Dave McGrath (member and past-chair) and I (CEO) attended and I think we did a good job. From that point onwards, we have worked to strengthen a growing relationship with the Scottish Government, leading in October to the convening of the FREDS sub-group on hydrogen and fuel cells. This group has just had its 2nd meeting where work-teams have been formed with specific tasks to address. Minutes and documents from these meetings will be posted on the SHFCA website for access by members only – you will need a user name (normally the email address we hold for you) and a password.

Which brings me to the website itself. A brand new website has been built for SHFCA by Raspberry, a local web design and marketing company. The website is a dynamic site with a sophisticated management system behind it and because it is sophisticated, it is easy to use and interact with. All you need to input and edit information on your own page (texts, pictures, video, etc.) is your user name and password (as above). A random password is generated automatically when you first log in - which you can then change. The first task was to build a website that provides up-to-date news and stories. That done, attention has turned to providing a website that serves the interests of members and raises the profile of the Association. This work is well in hand and some new features will shortly appear that will speed enquiries directly to members pages through a categorisation and search feature.