CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT

August 2002 - July 2003

AUGUST 2002

8 August 2002

Jane Raphaely was our guest speaker at a very successful Women?s Day Brunch that was attended by 300 women. She spoke on her successful 'O' magazine bid. A fashion show featuring more mature women showing clothes from one of our member's store 'Sisters in Style' was well received. Wonderful ?goodie? bags were handed out to all the attendees, filled with perfume, nougat, keyrings, pens, J & J products etc. - a real treat!

The Women in Business Expo was held between 21 - 23 August at Beacon Bay Retail Park. A special members price was given to BWA members to take stands to promote their businesses and products. A crafters fair was incorporated for the first time. Many of the exhibitors made great contacts from the general public who attended this event which enabled them to promote their businesses outside of their normal markets.

Women?s Month also gave BWA Members an opportunity to profile themselves either by advertising or by an article in the August edition of the Hilite Magazine under the feature of Women in Business. The Hilite is the Border Kei Chamber of Business magazine, and is distributed to all chamber members and other business sources.

SEPTEMBER 2002

Networking Breakfast

We had a small but very successful networking breakfast at Black Pan restaurant when Glenton de Kock the CEO of Buffalo Tourism gave a short talk on the proposed strategic plan for the development of Buffalo City as a destination.

OCTOBER 2002

Nicky Veldtman

Chief Economist of Nedbank, Nicky once again did a wonderful informative presentation on an economic review of the year thus far. This event was held at the Blue Lagoon Hotel and was very well attended by business in general.

NOVEMBER 2002

Dorianne Weil

Dr Dorianne Weil was our guest speaker for the November function. A large group of both men and women attended this breakfast which was held at the Osner Hotel in the Azalea Room. Dr Weil spoke on Emotional Intelligence - 'The Deciding Factor'.

DECEMBER 2002

A well attended Christmas lunch was held at a local restaurant. Christmas crackers, streamers, wine, good food and excellent company gave the members the opportunity of networking and relaxing after a long hard year.

Ladies' business suits were collected up by the members and donated to a business college for disadvantaged students to enable these women to have something business like to wear to that all important interview. Patti gave a report on 2003 events to take place and a synopsis as to what was happening nationally in the BWA.

FEBRUARY 2003

A whisky and wine tasting was held on February 12th. Sponsorship was secured for this from Distill who hosted the tastings and from Citroen who had a car display. Citroen also sponsored R1000 towards snacks for this event and Woolworths supplied all cheese and biscuits. A lot of fun and hilarity was had by the 100 people who attended this event.

Niven Postma, the CEO of BWA who was in town, gave a short presentation on new developments within the BWA and Daryl Schreyer of Net Advantage Business Solutions elaborated on the new Computer Database Roll out, the improvements being made to the BWA website and the upgrading of the administration onto computer.

MARCH 2003

Nicky Veldtman

March 5th - Nicky Veldtman Breakfast Talk, held at the Sunset Restaurant - Blue Lagoon. Nedbank invited relevant clients and over 100 business men and women attended this event to listen to Nicky?s National Budget 2003 Overview Report.

Kim McFarland

A well attended luncheon was held at the East London Golf Club to listen to Kim McFarland - the current Businesswoman of the Year. Kim spoke on women and work and her story of success.

APRIL 2003

Networking Social

There was a very poor turnout for a social drink and networking at the Keg & Beacon. It is a pity that more members do not use this type of opportunity to network. However, those that were there enjoyed themselves and certainly made new friends!!

MAY 2003

Bursary Winners

Research and interviews were done by an appointed sub-committee consisting of Noleen Barry, Donna Makoboka and Penny Vickers. Two students won an amount of R 5 225.00 each to be used for furthering their education. The two students are:

Nandipha Mnukwa, a 22 year old who is doing her 3rd year at E C Technikon (Butterworth Campus) in N Dip ICT (business stream)
Nolundi Krwala, a 22 year old doing her 3rd year B Comm Accounting degree with Fort Hare/Rhodes University.

Noleen Barry will continue to mentor these young women throughout their year and we will hear from them both at our end of year event.

JUNE 2003

Cathy Yuill Workshops

Cathy Yuill presented two workshops at the Promotions Court, Beacon Bay Retail Park to our members and the general public. These were on Effective Communication Skills and Image. These workshops were enjoyed by those who attended and very positive feedback was received afterwards.

JULY 2003

Regional Achievers' Awards Banquet

Seventeen nominations were received this year for these awards. Judging was done by Sean Cole of Nedbank, Z Tini - President of the Border Kei Chamber of Business and Angela Nielsen of Angela Nielsen Financial Consulting. The finalists and winners were:

Professional:

Tracy Dutton Architects and Interiors

Winner: Tracy Dutton

Start-up:

Pat Norris, Sisters
Jill Fish, Jill Fish Properties
Donna-Mae Peenz of Blue Ribbon Hospitality School

Winner: Pat Norris

Entrepreneur:

Debi Godwin, Independent Executor and Trust
Maretha Bergh, Health and Skin Care Clinic
Colleen Martin, Kumon Maths

Winner: Colleen Martin

These finalists were presented with their certificates and gifts at a prestigious event held at Ernst?s Chalet Suisse. Dr Namane Magau, National President of BWA was the guest speaker. This event was very well supported by business and the media.

SPECIAL REPORT

Umtata Branch, despite trying to revive this branch by many phone calls and two of our committee members personally visiting and meeting with them, (Yoli Balfour and Nellie Maholwana), this group seem to have disintegrated since their chairperson, Dr Boltino, moved to Port Elizabeth. The BWA council took a decision at the last council meeting to write to the group and inform them of our decision to discontinue this initiative until they have 60 paid up members (required to form a branch) and submit regular minutes and show some commitment to become active again.