Three women were elected to its national council at the Sapoa convention last week: Lynette Finlay, of property management company Finlay & Associates, as vice-president; Pauline Larsen, of Viruly Consulting; and Joanne Solomon, of Nedbank Corporate, were elected to serve on the association's national council.

 The first time women served on the national council was last year, when Finlay and Larsen were elected.

 Finlay says Sapoa has 1500 members and is "very representative" of the country's property industry.

 "Up until now it's been male-dominated. The companies that are members are being encouraged to change and Sapoa is now reflecting the change," says Finlay.

 Gerhard van Zyl, MD of Gensec Property Services, was elected the new president of the organisation, taking over from Papi Mphahlele.

 Finlay expects to work closely with Van Zyl.

 "My special interests lie in marketing. I chair the marketing committee of Sapoa. Marketing affects networking, conventions, publications and servicing our members' needs," Finlay says.

 She sees transformation as about giving people who were "previously excluded" opportunities for development.

 The issue of empowerment was also raised at the convention by New Africa Investments CE Saki Macozoma, who said one of the things the commercial property sector needed to do to advance empowerment and benefit from it was to "jazz up the industry" and "create excitement" to attract new people and investors.

 This could be done by making the sector more accessible.

 He said there was a need to take "good care" of people already working in the sector through in-service training, "career-pathing" and rewarding star performers.

 One of the benefits of empowerment in the sector was that "long-term issues of the industry become a concern of a broader community of South Africans, not just a group that may be perceived to be parochial in the defence of its interests", he said.