CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT

I am delighted to bring you this report for the 4th Annual General Meeting of the Cape Town branch of the Businesswomen's Association.

This past year has been very busy with 30 very diverse functions, events and workshops. Highlights were the breakfast with Fair Lady editor - Ann Donald, the pre-election presentation from each of the main political parties, meeting the Seattle Women's delegation and the Netherlands Management Cooperation Programme delegates and enjoying lunch with our 2003 Businesswoman of the Year - Nicky Newton-King.

From feedback received, probably the most popular event was the Doyenne's breakfast where 12 of Cape Town's most beloved and eminent businesswomen met members at a unique breakfast. Much fun was had, but also so many interesting and inspirational stories were shared. 

The launch of the business book club has proven popular with the members who have regularly attended and other members are urged to consider joining them during the coming year. These days business books are so expensive and book club members can borrow from the library that has been created at no charge! Thanks to committee member Jenna Monk for getting the "books" rolling with a donation from her personal business book collection.

Our Regional Business Achievers Awards function was exceptionally well attended and nominees came from a broad category base. The interviewing panel expressed how difficult it was to choose winners as all candidates were worthy potential recipients. Here, I would like to salute our three winners: Patience Stevens , Abigail Bisogno and Vanessa Kannemeyer .Thanks to the judging panellists: Wendy Ackerman, Jenny Le Roux, Pat Gorvalla, Bandi Biko and Ronel de Wet. We all felt humbled by the short-listed finalists experiences as we shared the variety of business highs and lows that had brought them to being selected as a potential winner.

Thanks to committee member, Ferose Oaten for all the hard work in bringing the event together, a responsibility that she has undertaken so professionally for a few years now. Also to the Vineyard Hotel and Kitty Petousis for treating us so royally. The food and d?cor were magnificent. I should also like to acknowledge Chantal Rutter who made a very gracious MC for this occasion and for hosting our "Meet the Politicians" function earlier in the year.

The Regional Business Awards function was also an occasion for members to dig deep into their pockets and our raffle added R 6 000.00 - R 10 000.00 bursary awarded from the proceeds raised during Businesswoman of the Year. The two recipients of this are full time MBA students Maria Caros and Meenal Galal. We wish them well for the year ahead.

Council and committee member, Mpho Mashengete represented the BWA during a visit to Switzerland in August. The dialogue, organised by the Swiss Consulate here and sponsored by Nestl? brought a contrasting group of women together in Zurich and Mpho is now working on trying to organise a return visit here for later in the year.

A variety of workshops have been offered during the year and then members enjoyed getting to know one another during the "Two Minute Coffee Breaks", where the BWA coffee mugs were christened by each member receiving her own mug.

Sadly, although we have seen an increase in corporate membership, our personal membership numbers in the Cape have not grown significantly. This is a concern because it is only through growing our membership base that we can continue to offer members the quantity and variety of functions and workshops.

Nationally we are all proud of the BWA Census that pinpointed just how long the road is for women to walk before we achieve better gender balance at Executive and Board level within major corporates and listed companies. Work has already begun on the 2004 results and we are all intrigued to see how much "shift" there has been during the past year.

I need to acknowledge and thank my hard-working committee this year. Apart from Mpho, Ferose and Jenna, all of whom I have already mentioned, I would like to applaud Tina Thiart, Logandree Gouden, Helen Gooderson, Rene Bonzet, Julia Seal-Swanepoel, Shaheema Chilwan and co-opted members Belinde Davidson, Alison Maytham and Kgomotso Mashishi.
Thanks also to Janine Nel for her work on the newsletter before having to step down due to personal and work pressures.

This is also a time to recognise the hard work and dedication from our in-house team - the ladies at head office in Johannesburg and our own co-ordinator, Cheryl Steyn, who is a ball of fire and keeps us all on track! Words are often so restricting when trying to offer recognition and thanks, but I do want to say that quite honestly without Cheryl in the Cape Town office we would not achieve much of what we do - so Cheryl, thank you.

At year end we bid a sad farewell to our CEO Niven Postma, who has brought national recognition for the BWA and who was the driving force behind making sure that the Census "happened" and that the results were as accurate as possible. Niven moves on to pastures new within the NGO sector and we let her go reluctantly but with respect for all that she achieved during her term of office. In saying goodbye to Niven I also have the opportunity to welcome the new CEO, Tina Thomson. We all look forward to working with you, Tina, during the coming year.

To all the members who have regularly supported the BWA with their attendance at functions - thank you. To Futhi Mtoba the 2004 Businesswoman of the Year - congratulations - we really look forward to your visit in March.

Finally my thanks to Nedbank for their ongoing support and in particular our outgoing Nedbank Champion, Ronel de Wet, who leaves to complete her MBA. Ronel was always around to give support, encouragement and the benefit of her knowledge when we needed it and we all wish you "good luck" for great success in the coming year.