EHFA's members approved the association's plans for growth and appointed new board members at the 2009 general assembly in May. The plan covered the association's expansion of its standards and register work and the widening of its membership across European markets.
The decisions were taken at the general assembly held in Essen on 22 April 2009, and the association reported them in a press release dated 12 May 2009, which carried its full text as an attachment.
Growth, for an association of this kind, meant three specific things rather than merely getting bigger. It meant more national associations inside the framework, so that a qualification recognised in one market was recognised in more of them. It meant more accredited training providers, so that the framework described what was actually taught. And it meant more facilities covered by the register, so that the qualification had somewhere to be used.
Approving plans of that kind also meant approving what it would cost to carry them out, at a meeting where the members who funded the association were the same members who voted on its direction. The weeks after the assembly show the pace the association was working at: the chair of the Standards Council was appointed in the middle of May, and a few days later it published its case for higher standards across the sector.
Each of those depended on the others, which is why the association pursued them together: accreditation brought educators into the same room as operators and national bodies. See accreditation and membership.