MINUTES OF BUSINESSWOMEN’S ASSOCIATION PORT ELIZABETH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD AT THE KELWAY HOTEL CONFERENCE ROOM, HUMEWOOD, PORT ELIZABETH ON THURSDAY, 10 MARCH 2011

MEETING OPENED AT 8:00AM

WELCOME

Samantha Bowers, Branch Coordinator of BWA PE, welcomed all members present for attending. Samantha Bowers also read out the list of Apologies and handed over to the Chairperson Betsy Ings, to start the proceedings.

ATTENDANCE

There were 53 attendees and we received 15 proxies
25% attendance was needed out of 258 members = 65 attendees.
Quorum was achieved at 68
See attendee register attached

APOLOGIES

Kate du Toit Judy Woodgate Tanette Melitta Jordaan Susan Allam Rochelle Jenck Salome Clack Zoe Waters Ronel Gouws Carol Batchelor Jean Taunton

Chantal Vogts Bukelwa Noguduka Jenni Ladds Erica Fitzgibbon Dominique Platt Dominique Nunes Lindy Gillespie Lana Nel Lexi Pretorius Lynda de Wet

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING & MATTERS ARISING

Minutes proposed by:	Pauline King
Seconded by:	Lise Claassen

No matters arising.

CHAIRMANS REPORT delivered by Betsy Ings

INTRODUCTION

The vision of the Businesswomen’s Association, “To create connections to inspire and empower women in business” guides our annual report. The activities undertaken by the Port Elizabeth Chapter of BWA in 2010 are testament to this. The Vision led by previous Chairs, as well as myself, has governed me to aspire to serve our members.

2010 presented great opportunities and growing experiences for our Port Elizabeth branch. Martin Luther King inspired us with his wisdom in confirming, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”. As with 2009, 2010 continued to see the global landscape challenged as far as business and social aspects were concerned. Women in business across category type felt some form of discomfort as we journeyed through the year. Change, growth and development have been the most visible result.

From a BWA perspective, we believe that in many of our minds the fundamental first step in change required for our times is the coming together and meeting of minds. We derived great strategic direction as a result of our Strategic Session held in September 2010. Among the many highlighted areas for growth and development, we found ourselves led by our very own proudly Port Elizabeth vision to go from Good to Great. This theme serves as the thread pulling through all of our initiatives and plans. Going from good to great we acknowledged that we require business women with a vision and great purpose for the responsibilities we have accepted as women of the new millennium.

You will remember that our focus in 2009 was cementing structures. To this end, we are incredibly proud to report that we enjoyed the great privilege of an extraordinarily strong team over the past financial year.

The office saw some rationalization and as a result we shrunk the team to stand with just the Co-ordinator. We reconsidered our premises from both a financial and brand awareness perspective. We are incredibly proud to be situated in Walmer on the first floor, Moffat on Main Centre. Our office is well branded. It shares premises with big business brands and is very accessible. To further celebrate the move, we enjoy a more financially friendly arrangement which assists in the overall financial stability of our chapter.

On an operational and strategic level: The Chair, Vice Chair and Branch Co-ordinator meet regularly to ensure Strategic objectives are aligned with operational objectives.

From a senior leadership perspective, both The Chair and Vice-Chair positions become eligible for renew. Both Betsy Ings and Jacky Buys will stand down from our existing roles as Chair and Vice-Chair. As with all things healthy in business and life, one needs to respect the need for change and for renewed energy and ideas.

The newly elected Chair and Vice-Chair will follow due course, which will mean they stand for full term on two years.

Salma carried our Virtual Board portfolio through the year with great attention to detail, strength and vigor. This program is a stalwart in our portfolios and offers great value to members. Selma’s leadership and incredibly strong team has been a wonderful asset to our organization. We value the relationships built in the form of Mentors as well as the brand strength attached to Virtual Board are incredibly valuable to BWA. Salma and her team afforded us an opportunity to partner with the Nelson Mandela Bay Development Agency as sponsors of our current Virtual Board Programme.

We ran a full Virtual Board program and have just kicked off the next program. The team sourced an impressive group of mentors: Industry leaders, men and women from business, the university and the professional sector. There were 25 boards: 25 mentees, 50 mentors and a committee appointed roving mentor for each board. We have broadly seen great success from this mentorship process. To further celebrate, we have seen some mentees make career changes, start their own business and even cement collaborations as a direct result of their interaction.

There are 25 Boards on the present round of Virtual Board, which kicked off on 23 February 2011. Once again, we have some excellent mentors on board and they add value to the programme and credibility to the BWA. The process has been streamlined: a task team member serves as a contact point for each board and the Roving Mentor system is back in place. Early reports are encouraging and we trust that the Programme will continue to fulfill the mandate of the BWA to inspire and empower women.
Julie Spendley and her task team led our membership portfolio with the vision to grow from Good to Great. The team immediately measured our needs and our requirements through a Survey. The survey gave great insight to what our membership require from an organization such as ours as well as what they require in terms of their growth in business.
With these results, the team was well positioned to continue with the focus agreed in 2009, “to consolidate and grow our membership base”. A clear growth strategy was embraced by this team. The dot system is now being used at all events and interactions relating to BWA. This system is to highlight new comers/potential new comers to the team for introduction. Events have been moved to better suit member’s time slot requirements. Fewer events take place in line with the survey feedback. Events have are more business focused and are aimed at growing and developing members. In addition to these initiatives, we had a very successful membership drive in the later part of 2010. We currently have 258 paid up members. We have ensured that we take cognisance of what we've learnt to add value to the membership. Our end goal is to achieve a platform that will provide meaningful business value to members.

Membership has grown through our strategic alliance efforts with various large business organizations. These efforts are predominantly managed and driven by Betsy and Jacky in our roles as Chair and Vice-Chair.

One of our key focus areas in terms of membership is transformation and by this we mean transformation at all levels. Our team has been hard at work to ensure that we are attracting members across all age and race groups, industry sectors and business categories. Whilst we feel that much is still needed, we will continue to hold this drive for diversity as a priority.

Tied very tightly with membership are finances. We are committed to running a financially sound branch and gaining understanding of our financial requirements provided clarity. Our financial reporting is done monthly, where challenges are addressed and advice is provided as per our Treasurers Report.

René Schaeffer and her RBAA team took the RBAA experience to the nominees and we enjoyed a successful orientation evening with our 68 nominees. 17 Finalists were selected after hours of deliberation.

The corporate category featured Belita von Steiger, Lesley Lee and Suzette Schnetler.
The Professional category featured Dr Margaret Cullen, Gillian Robinson and Rita van Wyk.
The Social Entrepreneur group featured Susan Potgieter, Gail Cillie and Sr Ethel Normoyle
The Entrepreneur finalists were, Hlubi Hewitt-Coleman, Sarah Dirsuwei, Deborah Miller and Dipti Varghese
The Emerging entrepreneurs are Julie Oates, Janice Hodgson Zibu Ndikinda and Riana Ferreira

The Judges had an incredibly difficult task and acknowledged the high level of the finalists.
Dorothea Moors, Non-executive member of the Coca-Cola SABCO Group and recipient of the NMMU Council Prestige Award noted the following, “Being a judge is a most inspiring, humbling and at the same time exciting experience. It is wonderful to discover and know that we have so many talented women in Port Elizabeth. This across a broad spectrum being business, professional and in the greater community. I thank BWA for not only giving women the opportunity of exposing these women to the World but for the honour they bestow on me to meet these ladies.”

The Judges commitment to the judging process afforded us 5 worthy category winners whom we wish to congratulate once again:
Corporate category winner Lesley Lee, Professional Category winner Dr Margaret Cullen, The Social Entrepreneur winner Susan Potgieter, the Entrepreneur Category winner Hlubi Hewitt-Coleman and Zibu Ndikinda the Emerging Entrepreneur winner.
What a testimony to the amazing business women in the Port Elizabeth region.

A promotion saw Rene stepping down and Jacqui Wilson stepped into the interim portfolio position to facilitate the 2011 nomination and judging process and we thank Jacqui and her team for their sterling endeavors.

Communication of our brand, vision and member visibility is key and Tanya Kisten managed the portfolio and worked closely with the other portfolios to engage our members and strategic partners. We enjoyed media coverage for most of our events, improving our print media coverage locally and nationally in the BWA Magazine. Lexi Pretorius took over from Tanya mid term and we are looking forward to a dynamic experienced communications team with great ideas. We have focused on all the new social media platforms and invite our members to become part of this innovative communication tool.

The BWA Calendar for 2011 is a great communication and marketing tool showcasing our members and events.

The consolidated Public Relations portfolio led by Michelle Brown thrived in 2010 and embraced our “Ayoba” year.

We have enjoyed great partnerships with all our sponsors, our national sponsor being Nedbank, and we have forged relationships locally with Vodacom, Mustek, Magnetic Storm, Imagio, and numerous in kind and monetary sponsors that made it possible for us to host events.

Our Flagship events showcased our members and afforded us the opportunity to facilitate growth and inspiration.

Hurdles and Help led by Kathy Zenios and her dynamic team ensured relevant interactive networking platforms for members and speakers.

The Youth outreach Projects displayed commitment to the future leaders of our country. Antonette Hamman and her task team embraced the year and hosted an excellent Grade 12 workshop with dynamic speakers. The Cell C initiative was cancelled in lieu of support for the Grade 12’s who fell behind due to strike actions.

The CSI portfolio position was filled by Charmaine Hayes who immediately mobilized us to support Ubuntu and their great initiatives. We are presently engaged in a special project with various schools to support vulnerable young ladies who are personally compromised.

A testimony to the team is our 59 events and meetings we hosted during the year this includes our buzz hour, hurdles and help, virtual board matchmaking and kickoff sessions, women’s day, BWOYA lunch, our year end functions and our flagship event RBAA, quite a mouthful and they did it in style.

There is a platform, event or occasion for each member, cost effective networking and empowering opportunities to grow and connect your business.
As a team, we hope to achieve our goals in providing efficiency and in so doing allow you a better space in which to perform. By the same token, we look forward to interacting with our members in a wonderfully positive and energetic manner.

The Strategic Alliance portfolio allows us the opportunity to showcase the strength of our leadership and members. Our meetings with various stakeholders stimulated us to continue to promote and advocate the participation of women in business and greater decision making. We continue to determine areas of collaboration and will consolidate our relationship towards great synergy. We wish to expose our brand to business and confirm our voice of women in business. Our latest strategic alliance is with the Nelson Mandela Development Agency offering the expertise and input of our members and leadership on strategic matters that arise in the development of the metro.

The Leadership Lounged morning sessions at the NMMU Business School afforded us an opportunity to extend our footprint through our alliance. The NMMU continued to partner and support BWA through their participation in the Youth Outreach, Virtual Board, Hurdles and Help and RBAA portfolios.

Through these alliances we would like to: grow diversity, become recognised as the voice of women on business issues, form synergies with other organisations co-host functions.

Supporting our National Census we hosted a successful Women in Leadership Conference chaired by Jacky with speakers addressing business, academia, social and government roles and participation. The purpose of the initial Women in Leadership was to create a forum which will mobilize and measure leaders to address the preparation of women leaders. We built a network, created a database for the forum and enjoyed an informative blog created by Sue Gaskin to facilitate greater input and participation.

I attended the African Business Women’s Network (of which BWASA is one of the 5 founding members) biannual in Ghana representing BWASA. It was an incredible opportunity to present a paper to the international delegation on BWA and our achievements. .

Vital Voices BWASA’s international sponsor selected 3 candidates nationally to attend a Supplier to Multi-National Companies Course and I humbly accepted the opportunity as training facilitator for South Africa. Our strategic alliance with the ILO afforded us training and capacity building workshops in Business Women Association, Action My Business Growth, Expand Your Business and Women Entrepreneur Development. Rehema Isa a national BWA board member and I sourced international funding and hosted the 12 branch coordinators for training in September 2010.

A first for BWASA, through SEDA funding secured we were able to roll out EYB training to 25 business women by three national facilitators. We are hosting a Women Entrepreneur Development course with Vital Voices to stakeholders to promote Women Entrepreneur support and we are lobbying for Port Elizabeth to host the next ABWN Biannual.

Becoming a member of BWA has been one of the best strategic decisions I have made, I became part of the bigger picture the National Board, what an amazing privilege. Attending the national functions watching, listening participating it has been a blessing.

Hilary Clinton noted at a Woman in Leadership Forum in New York that President Roosevelt’s favourite quote was “This is a generation that has a rendezvous with destiny” and that ours is a generation which has a rendezvous with responsibility. In BWA through our active advocacy interventions we are able to take responsibility and be part of the solution and sustainability of our greater society.

I have friends and acquaintances that span the globe because of this wonderful organization and I am super excited to belong to a bigger network through the African Businesswomen’s Network and to call them my business associates.

I am unable to put a monetary value to what I have gained but I can share the names of the friends I have made, the character building lessons I have learnt, the humility of being able to make a difference and to know I am part of a larger congregation of incredibly dynamic women who make me look good.

Thank you for entrusting me to lead BWA over the past 2 years. Jacky and Sam thank you for your unwavering support and guidance.

I step down with great pride acknowledging my team who made it all possible. You have enriched my life.

To the new committee we look forward to your leadership!

TREASURERS REPORT delivered by Lise Claassens

The 2010 year in the BWA was pretty much lived in accordance with Steven Spielberg’s quote:
Instead of buying a bookmark for a dollar, why not use the dollar as a bookmark!

We had to rationalise and strategise in 2010. We unfortunately had to let our office assistant go and we also moved into smaller and obviously much cheaper premises. All the cost savings however paid off and put us back in a much more favourable cash position and we ended the 2010 year with a healthy bank balance of R32 668 and a profit of R62 744.94 for the year.

As many other non-profit organisations, the BWA records its transactions on a cash basis. This means that we do not accrue for expenditure or income until we have paid or received the cash. The R62 744.94 profit for the 2010 year includes subscriptions that had been received in the 2010 year, but that relate to the 2011 year. This adjustment will still have to be processed by the auditors, who are currently auditing our results. From history, it would appear that the adjustment may be as high as R40 000, which will leave us with a profit of R22 744.94 for the 2010 year. During the 2010 year we also managed to recover all the monies (R28 000) that Head Office had been owing to us for the last 2 years.

In 2010 we offered our members a large number of very valuable and relevant functions. We would like to thank our members and our sponsors again for their attendance and incredible contributions to these events. Our main events in 2010 were the RBAA and Women’s Day.

Due to the financial pressure on all, our membership numbers have remained relatively constant from 2009 to 2010.

Our main income sources were:
• Membership income
• Function income
• Sponsorships (in cash and in kind)

The money raised through these means was expended as follows:

• Office running costs (such a rentals, telephone/fax costs, staff costs, etc )
• Function expenses
• Outreach Projects
• Cover the costs of Who is BWA functions – which are free to the public
• BWA Calendars – sponsored by us as a gift to members
• Our Virtual Board Programme

We look forward to continuing in a healthy manner ... and being able to bring you more value added programmes in the 2011 year. In these economic tough times, we will strive to make functions as affordable as possible to ensure that you receive the value you deserve.

I thank you for your support and contributions.

CONFIRMATION OF CHAIR, COMMITTEE and PORTFOLIOS

Samantha Bowers confirmed that Jacky Buys, the Vice- Chair, and Betsy Ings the Chairman would be stepping down from leadership with immediate effect as per the Chairmain’s report above.

Jacky Buys, Vice Chair, confirmed the following Committee Portfolios and Champions.

Treasurer:	Lise Claassen
Proposed:	Pauline King		Seconded:	Salma Munshi
RBAA:	Jacqui Wilson
Proposed:	Jane Stevenson		Seconded:	Brigitte Jones
PR:	Michelle Brown
Proposed:	Mimi Rupp		Seconded:	Sue Gaskin
Virtual Board:	Salma Munshi
Proposed:	Pauline King		Seconded:	Jacqui Wilson

The Communications Portfolio champion, has stepped down nominations were called for.

One nomination was received for this:

Communications:	Susan Simpson (nee Lascelles) – Lexi Pretorius
Proposed:	Salma Munshi	Seconded:	Jenna Jefferies

Membership champion has stepped down and nominations were called for.
One nomination was received for this:

Membership:	Susan Potgieter
Proposed:	Julie Spendley		Seconded:	Antonette Hamman

There are a number of subcommittees falling under PR and these constitute:

Hurdles and Help:	Ansie van der Westhuizen
Proposed:	Michelle Brown		Seconded:	Zibu Ndikinda
Youth Outreach:	Antonette Hamman
Proposed:	Pauline King		Seconded:	Leanne Bennett
Events:	Mimi Rupp
Proposed:	Michelle Brown		Seconded:	Salma Munshi
CSI:	Charmaine Hayes
Proposed:	Jacquie Wilson		Seconded:	Michelle Brown

As per the Chairpersons report the following committee members had stepped down during the 2010 year.

Julie Spendley
Rene Schaeffer
Tanya Kisten
Lexi Pretorius
Kathy Zenios

THANKS TO CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR

Branch coordinator stepped up to present Betsy Ings and Jacky Buys with gifts for the Committee and Members appreciation of the work done during their tenure.

Chairman, Betsy Ings, presented Branch coordinator, Samantha Bowers with a gift for the ongoing dedication to the association.

ADDRESS BY GUEST SPEAKER, Dr Lesley Lee, HR Manager at VWSA Introduced by Betsy Ings

Dr Lesley Lee has kindly given us her notes and we wish to acknowledge that the Theme is derived from the book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins

In the Book Good to great Jim Collins talks about various ways of transforming organisation and we could be looking at an organisation like the BWA...
He starts off by saying: Good is the ENEMY of Great... e.g... We don’t have great schools because principally we have good schools; we don’t have great governments because we have good government... and so I ask do we have a good BWA or a great BWA...

In his research the good to great companies focuses equally on what NOT to do and what to stop doing... How many of us sitting here are focusing on the non urgent items. The good to great companies paid negligible attention to managing change, motivating people or creating alignment...
Under the right conditions, the problems of commitment, alignment and motivation and change do it for themselves... How many of our members do we have to motivate or change to become a GREAT BWA organisation…
It is important to note that in the good to great companies there was no single defining action, no great program, no miracle moment... it was rather a giant flywheel moving in one direction; turn upon turn building momentum until a point of breakthrough...

I am going to give you a brief overview of his concepts:

1) FIRST WHO... then WHAT… so it was not about the vision and strategy but rather about … they got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, the right people in the right seats.. So” the saying “People are your most important assets” turns out to be wrong… People are not the most important assets,,, The RIGHT people are”..
Do we have the right people on the bus??? to carry the BWA in 2011/2012??? When in doubt don’t hire..just keep looking.. put your best people on your biggest opportunity,, not your biggest problem. When you need to tightly manage someone you’ve made a hiring mistake… The best people don’t need to be managed.

2) Confront the brutal facts:
One needs discipline to confront the facts... What are the facts here... Do we have enough business women? As a winner I was often confronted with this.. Buzz hour at 12:00.. I am unable to do this as business women
ie.. we don’t have to motivate people to join BWA.. if you have the right people they will be self motivated..
One needs to have absolute faith that you can prevail regardless of the difficulties and at the same time confront the brutal facts..

3) The hedgehog concept: To go from good to great requires competence… because you have been something for years or decades does not mean you can be the best in the world at this,,.. if you cannot b the best in the world at your core business then your core business cannot form the basis of a great company, .. So anything that does not fit with the hedgehog concept we will not do… SO no unrelated business, .. If it doesn’t fit we do not do it…

4) A culture of Discipline… Very few companies have a culture of discipline.. When you have disciplined people you don’t need hierarchy, discipline thought, you don’t need bureaucracy, disciplined actions you don’t need excessive controls…
When you have a combination of this you get the AHHH moment.. do we have a culture of discipline women at BWA??? DO not confuse this discipline with a tyrant.. one is highly functional and the other is dysfunctional/

5) Technology: G to G companies think differently about the role of technology.. it is the application of this technology

And Lastly he talks about LEVEL 5 Leadership.. level 5 leaders set up their successors for even greater success.. and hence I wish the individual who will be taking over my role all the best.. Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce results. MORE PLOW horse than SHOW HORSE…

Level 5 leaders display a compelling modesty and are understated,, Many level 5 leaders when things go wrong they look in the mirror and blame themselves taking full responsibility,,,
AT BWA we could look at the central concept of BUILT TO LAST. So we need to discover our core values and purpose beyond just making money and combine this with the dynamic of progress…
This transformation as said earlier take a lot of effort to get things moving but with a persistent push in a consistent direction over a long period of time, the flywheel builds momentum…

Three of the big trends predicated for 2011:

• Increased usage of social networks to “suss” out applicants
• Normalization in the premium paid for BEE candidates
• Increased investment in skills development and training. From Yoni Tit, owner of JHB based human Capital.

20 years ago no one expected that women would one day be at the helm of the reserve bank or numerous key ministries... We have the kind of choices that were 20 years ago inconceivable...
There are increasing more women represented on middle management...i.e IT sector .. we are making progress but we need to caution against the possibility of creating an elite group,, we need to cascade the opportunities down to all women

I believe people who deliver smart, simple targeted solutions online and mobile) will drive the industry in 2011.

I would like to end of with the following:

• Do something that makes you happy…- happiness booster... gratitude journal
• Take control... focus on the concrete actions that is within your control
• Change your view point... If you hate your job, think how much you’d hate being unemployed
• Fight your fears and believe you can
• Self doubt is one reason why women don’t take up opportunities presented to them., so take your development into your own hands, develop networks and mentor other’s,,
• Thank you for the opportunity and have a successful day

CLOSING AND THANKS
Samantha Bowers, BWA PE Branch Coordinator gave the vote of thanks to all attendees, those that have supported us through the year and of course the Sponsors, particulary recently the Calendar sponsors the Mandela Bay Development Agency for their support of the Virtual Board programme.

Thank you to the members who support our functions and renew their memberships without fail. Thank you to the Committee members and their task teams, without which I would certainly flounder.

Thank you to Dr Lesley Lee, our speaker for this morning, please accept this gift as a token of our thanks.

Samantha Bowers asked all attendees to please complete the feedback forms.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:10am

SIGNED________________________AS AT THIS DATE OF_____________________.

Port Elizabeth Branch, P.O. Box 40041, Walmer, 6065, Port Elizabeth
Branch Co-ordinator Samantha Bowers: Tel: (041) 3671104 Fax: 086 612 5778 Email: pe@bwasa.co.za Web : www.bwasa.co.za
VAT Registration Number: 4470208705