CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT 02 - 03

It has been a year of positive exploration, growth and reflection. EXPLORATION into the needs of today's women in business and women in general, GROWTH in terms of using this learning to create opportunities for women to Network, learn, grow and have fun and REFLECTION in terms of what worked and what didn't work and how we can make the year 22nd July 2003 to 21st July 2004 "Our Best Year Yet".

May I take this opportunity to thank Nedbank for their continued support. We are delighted to have Jenny Goddard on board as our Nedbank Champion and look forward to a very positive relationship.

EVENTS

Part of our EXPLORATION has been to arrange smaller, more frequent events to cater for the diverse needs of our membership and to offer a forum for truly effective networking. Feedback indicates that this is working well.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS SINCE AGM JULY 2002

JULY

17: Regional Achievers' Awards Dinner

Guest Speaker: Yvonne Johnston.
Winners: Gitta Moolenschot (Entrepreneur) & Dr Rawat (Professional)
The Royal Hotel Grill Room
Business

23: Annual General Meeting
Nedbank Boardroom
Business

AUGUST

9: Winning in the Workplace
Deloitte & Touche
Project

15: Nedbank Golf Day
Westville Driving Range
Fun/Networking

23: Cutt Glass
The Royal Hotel
Fun/Social

OCTOBER

2: Movie sponsored by Nedbank & Nu Metro

The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Pavilion Nu Metro
Fun/Social

8: "Private Lives" - Theatre and Networking
Kwasuka Theatre
Fun/Networking

21: Wine Tasting and Sleep Over

Hosted by Sue Wardrop of Meridian Wines
Oyster Box Hotel
Fun/Networking

23: Nicky Veltdman Economic Overview Breakfast
Durban Country Club
Business

23: Sunny Stout Rostron - The Art of Networking
Enrico's Restaurant
Business/Networking

NOVEMBER

5: Nedbank Golf Day
Westville Driving Range
Fun/Networking

5: Male Order - Art Exhibition
Durban Art Gallery
Cultural

13: Style & Image
Virginia Hanger

22: Baubles, Beads & Bangles - Show, Christmas Function
The Cellar, Playhouse
Cultural

FEBRUARY

1: Mingle & Meander
Botanic Gardens Orientation

10: Database launch - Darrel Schreyer
NSA Gallery
Business/Networking

20: CV Makeovers - Antoinette Cramer
Deloitte & Touche
Business

27: Networking
Tate & Nolan
Networking

MARCH

1: Mingle & Meander
Botanic Gardens
Orientation

4: Nicky Veldtman Budget Speech
Sica's Guest House
Business

26: Kim McFarland Roadshow - Businesswoman of the Year 2002
Durban Country Club
Business/Networking

APRIL

23: Networking
Mugg & Bean, Musgrave
Networking

29: Co-ordinators Conference (2 days)
Jhb
Business

MAY

5: Mingle & Meander
Coppin-Johnson Gallery
Orientation

8: Take a Girl Child to Work Day
Project

13: Money Talk - Mariane Vorster
Durban Club
Business

19: Business Book Club
Coniston Information Centre
Business

JUNE

2: Mingle & Meander
Coppin-Johnson Gallery
Orientation

4: Regional Achievers' Awards Judging
Nedbank Boardroom
Business

11: Wine Tasting & Networking
The Wine Domain
Fun/Networking

25: Sunny Stout Rostron - Your Best Year Yet
Ciao Italia
Business/Networking

30: Business Book Club
Coniston Information Centre
Business

JULY

7: Mingle & Meander
Coppin-Johnson Gallery
Orientation

18: Regional Achievers' Award Dinner
Guest speaker: Bruce Fordyce
Winners: Cindy Norcott (Entrepreneur) & Susan Abro (Professional)
Hilton Hotel
Business

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Margaret Kruger, Vice Chair of BWA Durban for being a "tower" of strength. Margaret knows how to get the job done.

Also, a big thank you to our very supportive 2002-2003 committee members for your time, ideas and commitment to BWA.

Margaret Kruger
Joan Goudsward
Anne Viljoen
Dana Juta
Val Coppin Shaw
Lindiwe Hlatswayo
Mathabo Kunene
Michelle Driman
Robyn Shepstone
Nimo Naidoo

NEW MEMBER ORIENTATION - MINGLE & MEANDER

We are very proud of our new member orientation project, born out of an awareness that our new members need to be integrated and informed in a smaller forum. This is the brainchild of Mariane Vorster who labelled the project Mingle & Meander and positioned it in the Botanic Gardens with bottled water. Cheryl renamed it "BATS IN THE BUSHES".

While we all loved the idea, the venue, time and liquid refreshments needed to be adjusted. After 2 sessions we moved to Val Coppin Shaw's beautiful Coppin Johnson Gallery to be held on the first Monday each month at 5:30 (with wine). It has been a great success and a big thank you goes to Mariane for her initiative. The water was left behind for the ducks at Botanic Gardens.

WINNING IN THE WORKPLACE

2003 will be our 6th year that we have organized a one day Conference for Matric students on Women's Day. It gets better every year. The word is out and it has become difficult to keep the numbers down to 200 Matric students.

The diversity, interaction, learning and pleasure that this day brings, is a joy to behold. We have 9 speakers presenting on topics which are essential for success but are not always available in schools.

Thanks to the generosity and support of Deloitte and Touche we all enjoy a perfect venue and an excellent lunch and teas. We're delighted to welcome Kim Klusener, our Champion from Deloitte & Touche onto the team.

Once again Margaret Kruger has very ably led her management team and 2003 promises to be better than ever.

BUSINESS BOOK CLUB

This project has been hatching since October 2002 and finally was born on the 19th May 2003. The meeting is held on the last Monday of every month at Coniston Information Centre. This function is ably chaired by Charmaine Schwenn and hosted by Janice Rimbault owner of Coniston Information Centre.

It is proving to be very popular and valuable addition to our BWA calendar.

SOCIAL REPONSIBILITY

BWA Durban has moved forward in its resolve to become involved in the needs of Women in our Community. This year we have created a project called "Women Caring for Women" and partnered with Cookie Edwards, provincial co-ordinator of the NGO, KZN Network on Violence against Women, to identify the areas where we can be most effective. Cookie was introduced to us by Vaneetha Moodley of Vuka Uzithathe.

Achievements so far:

Sponsoring Cookie's air ticket to Cairo to attend the 8th Annual African Human Rights Camp.
Initiating the donation of R10 000.00 from the Nedcor Foundation, towards training of volunteers to provide an effective service to victims of violence. The training, to be conducted by LifeLine, will focus on issues related to rape, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS and trauma.
Collecting many items from members and non members for Care Kits.

Our focus now is to appeal to BWA members to give of their time and expertise to the KZN Network on Violence against Women.

A big thank you goes to Members and friends who have donated items to make up Care Kits. We are seeking Corporate sponsors for this project.

BURSARY AWARD PROJECT

A bursary award has been made available to BWA Durban from proceeds of the National Businesswoman of the Year Award Dinner. Our search for a worthy recipient ended this month and Sheri Seetal was awarded a R13, 000.00 bursary to put towards her Doctorate Study in Professional Development at the I-Coach Academy in Cape Town.

Sheri has already agreed to offer her coaching services PRO-BONO to women identified by BWA to be in need of her coaching services. We wish her well on her learning journey and look forward to learning from her.

We are already on the lookout for our next Bursary Winner to be announced in December 2003 and welcome nominations.

NETWORKING

The value and benefits of "true Networking" have been highlighted in many forms through a "networking awareness campaign". Feedback and observation tells us that as an association we are becoming more skilled at this art and enjoying the many fruits of meeting new people and building long term relationships.

We have been implementing a policy to create smaller, more frequent and less costly networking events. Our reflections indicate that small, casual get togethers are the most effective way to achieve this.

COMMITTEE

The following committee members have agreed to stand down according to the requirements of the constitution:

Nimo Naidoo
Dana Juta
Joan Goudswaard
Val Coppin Shaw
Robyn Shepstone
Anne Viljoen

The following members will stand for election:

Val Coppin Shaw
Anne Viljoen
Michelle Driman
Megan Harker
Charmaine Schwenn
Ulaysha Sukhu
Mariane Vorster
Vani Moodley

WEB SITE & DATABASE

This has been a national "work in progress" for almost 2 years. All the hiccups that can be expected from a new project of this magnitude have been ironed out and the system is up and running. We expect that it will add value to the COMMUNICATION and PROFESSIONALISM of BWA.

We are delighted to announce that our very own baby of the family, Michelle Driman, has been awarded the National Contract to re-design, update and maintain our website. Michelle also designed all the email brochure invitations for each branch.

NEW PROJECTS IN PROCESS

Investment Club

This is the brain child of Megan Harker - it has been under discussion for some months and is soon to become a reality.

Durban Manor

We have managed to secure the use of the Durban Manor - recently purchased by a dynamic woman - Dr Chihombori free of charge to use for our project to provide abused women with learning and inspiration in the area of Life Skills and Self-esteem. We plan to hold these workshops once a month.

BWA Awareness Campaign

We are currently preparing a 30 minute Corporate presentation on Self-Esteem in Women as a vehicle to create Corporate awareness of BWA. We also have a 10 minute "BWA Information" presentation to enlighten Decision Makers about BWA. This project is designed to grow our Network of Women working together.

BWA STAFF

This area has been a rocky road in 2002/3 for BWA. Fiona Trevethan left in July 2002. Cheryl Steyn arrived in September 2002 and took BWA by storm, but she transferred to Cape Town BWA at the end of January 2003. Our loss was BWA Cape Town's gain. Jackie Braithwaite-Nunes began in February 2003 but wasn't suitable for the position and left 6 weeks later. Candice Turnbull took over in March 2003. Candice already knew the ropes so the transition since then has been smooth.

We are delighted to have Candice on our team and wish her a very happy journey with BWA.

There is much work to be done and lots to look forward to. BWA Durban is firmly on the Map and has very positive direction in terms of our affirmation "Together we create a dynamic forum to inspire and grow all women in business."

We all look forward to a productive, fun year in Business.