2011 AGM
Chairman’s Report
Good morning ladies. I was elected Chairman of the Businesswomen's Association, when
Ann Druce stepped down and my first call of duty this morning is to thank Ann on behalf of the
entire committee for her leadership, passion, energy and drive to empower women and help
others. We are hoping she will stay play an active role in two key projects this year.
Since the last AGM we have also said goodbye to Julie Cloete, Cheri Labuschagne, Vani
Moodley, Delise Sayed and Vanessa Derhmann. They have had to unfortunately resign due to
other urgent commitments but many of them will still be involved at a sub-committee level. I’d
like to thank these ladies for their contribution
I am excited to welcome on board Pria Hassan, Ntokozo Ntuli, Lynette Ntuli, Neo Shabalala
and I think we have a few more ladies wanting to join the committee, which we will confirm
later.
As many of you know, the businesswomen’s association is the largest and most prominent
non-profit organisation for business and professional women.
Our objective is to create a platform for the inspiration and empowerment of women. We aim
to:
o Support women by helping them grow their businesses through networking events,
seminars and workshops. We have events for emerging entrepreneurs, corporate and
professionals.
o We host the Regional Business Achiever Awards annually to recognise the achievements
and contributions of women to the economy and society. The proceeds of this event are
used to fund post graduate bursaries for women.
o We act as a lobby group and as the voice on women's business issues, highlighting and
publicising not only the barriers to success but also the many opportunities available to
women in South Africa today.
o We give our members exposure to top presenters and forums. Previous guests included
the CEO Hewlett Packard, CEO Jupiter Drawing Room, Venete Klein, Exec director from
Absa and Santie Botha Exec director MTN.
o Grant post graduate bursaries to women.
o Give opportunities to mentor and be mentored.
o Host Businesswomen of tomorrow programmes involving young girls.
2010 was definitely an exciting year for the association. Our main events attracted key
sponsorship and we ended the year with a wonderful breakfast celebration with the National
Businesswomen of the Year winner, Ms Santie Botha sharing her life story and top 10
business tips. The event attracted over 220 ladies and we were able to donate R10,000 to
Reach for a Dream. Most of the ladies who attended indicated that they enjoyed the morning,
the comedian, the goodie bag, the networking and they would love more events like this.
We also decided to rebrand and relook at our strategy and our service offerings to members.
In summary what do we hope to achieve in 2011?
• We hope to be the Go to organisation for women – be the first point of call to assist women
in the following:
o Mentorship
o Voice women issues
o Business development
o Coaching
o Networking
o Career development
o Bursaries
o Imparting skills to the youth
o Recognising the achievement of women
• We hope to raise the profile of the BWA, particularly our corporate footprint and public
sector involvement. We have already embarked on a PR/marketing campaign, which has
started to translate into benefit to our members and we are lobbying for additional support
and sponsorship. We were invited by Unilever to speak to their network of women last
week.
• We hope to increase the support provided to women entrepreneurs/business
owners/professionals
• We hope to increase our sponsorship base
• And most of all we hope to have fun and help our members grow in both their personal and
professional capacity.
The 2 key events I’d like to mention at this stage are:
The Regional Business Achiever Awards – July
The call for nominations for the Regional Business Achiever Awards 2011 is out. There are
wonderful, successful businesswomen in Durban; please nominate them. Not only are you
recognising their achievements, you are also helping to create role models for younger women
and show them that it is possible to achieve in business, and that it is worth the hard work.
This is going to be the main event in the BWA calendar this year. Nobuntu and her team are
already planning a “wow” event.
Winning in the workplace workshop – August
Plans are also already underway for this project. For the past twelve years the Durban branch
of the Businesswomen’s Association has presented a workshop on 9th August (Women’s Day)
for approximately 350 female grade 12 learners from various schools. The workshop provides
the “businesswomen of tomorrow”, with the necessary skills to make a success of their future
entrance into the business world. This project is the largest corporate citizenship project of the
BWA in Durban and is sponsored in its entirety. To me, it’s our Oprah style workshop, the girls
write essays which are marked on the day. We surprised each girl with a goodie bag with
items worth over R1,000, they learnt how to complete a CV, apply for a bursary and they were
inspired by successful women. We had a DJ and lots of spot prizes. To watch the joy and
excitement on the girls’ faces was priceless.
I think this extract from one of the girls who attended last year says it all:
“Thank you so much for all of your hard work and incredible effort. The workshop was so well
organised, presented and obviously planned with young people in mind. You are all very
inspiring women. Thank you for helping so many, including me, to understand the true
meaning behind women's day and being a women. Not only did I gain invaluable wisdom, and
wonderful prizes but I learnt about myself and how very capable I am to live a highly
successful life. You have invested in my future by your encouragement, and for that I am truly
grateful...”
Last year we raised R400,000 this year we are hoping to accommodate 500 girls and Cheri is
chairing this subcommittee.
Other key events to look out for include the 2011 Census launch in April, the National
Businesswomen of the Year road show in October and our Year-end Breakfast celebration in
November.
In terms of networking events, workshops and seminars:
Conversation cafe at Cafe Jiran was launched in 2010. Members were given an opportunity to
network in tables of 4 and every few minutes they moved around, which gave them an
opportunity to meet and greet and profile their business. This will continue every 2 months.
Our monthly networking event hosted by Nedbank Private Banking in Umhlanga will also
continue. Bev Mackay is a great facilitator of the networking session, in January we had over
40 members keen to attend.
In addition we are planning to include monthly value adding business workshops and a ladies
night out.
We all work so hard that in March we have planned a fun filled ladies night out at “The
Bedroom” in Umhlanga. Chantal and Hilda have kindly offered to host us and arrange for our
members to have a belly dancing lesson in their delightful store. I know I need the laughter so I
am looking forward to it.
In terms of a business workshop. Yasmeen Suliman a tax partner at KPMG and our BWA
treasurer will be hosting a Cutting through the complexity of Tax workshop: how to manage
your tax affairs properly on 1st April.
Other workshops planned include how to complete a business plan and social media. I have to
also thank Action Coach for their continued support. In 2010 Marlene Powell facilitated 7
workshops for us including 6 steps to better business, cash flow management, marketing and
sales.
We have welcomed on board, Ingrid Roberts who will be hosting her very successful Women
in Diversity workshops later in the year.
Our members can look forward to at least 2-3 exciting events, workshops every month. Please
check our calendar or call Catherine for more information.
We are also excited to announce that we will be launching 2 new initiatives, a more focussed
mentorship program for women and our school visits project. The school visits project is an
initiative to visit schools to inspire kids to further their education and make informed career
choices. We have already seen the benefit of this type of initiative, which provides kids with
the opportunity to learn about different career opportunities.
For both projects we will be inviting successful businesswomen (doctors, lawyers,
accountants, entrepreneurs, engineers etc) to join us in making a difference. To date the
response has been phenomenal. There are so many women who have indicated they want to
give back, but don’t know how. Here’s the perfect opportunity. You can volunteer your time to
be a mentor (minimum 10 hours per year) or you can join us in visiting schools in Durban and
the surrounding areas. The project plans for these initiatives are in the process of being
drafted.
We do need help to continually grow our service offerings. If you are keen to serve on the
committee or even a sub-committee please let us know. Your skills are valued and we would
love to have you on board.
Thank you.
FARZANAH MALL
Chairman 2011