WORLD HOMESHARE CONGRESS, PARIS, 3-5 JULY 2009
This section reports on the first World Homeshare Congress, which was held at the College de Notre-Dame de Sion, Montparnasse, Paris (we are grateful to the College for their hospitality).
We were delighted to welcome 42 delegates from ten countries and all enjoyed some very interesting presentations, workshops and informal conversation. The opportunity to meet people who had previously just been a name, and the sharing of information between homeshare programmes was very stimulating, while the contacts made will help everyone to share learning in future.
Feedback from delegates was very positive. Most participants indicated that congress was very helpful to their work.
 Left to right: Alain de Penfentenyo, France (Trustee); Angelo Mussoni, Italy (IAG), Kirby Dunn, Vermont, USA (IAG), Carmel Hurst, Melbourne, Australia (IAG), Angela Catley, UK (IAG), Beris Campbell, Melbourne, Australia (Trustee), Elizabeth Mills, Director (Trustee), Helmut Berghaus, Koln, Germany (IAG), Malcolm Johnson, Chairman (Trustee) and Martin Beck, Germany (Trustee) |
 Angela Catley of the UK Homeshare Association, led a workshop on "Freedom, safety and risk: getting the balance right", and delegate, Jenni Dougan made some useful contributions | 
Elizabeth Mills thanking Chairman, Malcolm Johnson, for the gift from the Trustees, with Alain and Typhaine de Penfentenyo looking on |  Marc Francis of Care2Stay leading a workshop on "Powering Homeshare on the Internet" |
Read a summary of the presentations and workshops, with links to the full documents.
A most exciting development from the conference was the establishment of an International Advisory Group for the charity and the adoption of a Charter.
Finally, we set a date and venue for the next Congress.