Held: 17 February 2022
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2021 – MINUTES
- Welcome & Apologies
Sue welcomed everyone to the AGM and thanked them for making the time to join us online. We had a total of 24 ladies’ book to attend of which 22 were members and 2 were non-members. 17 members were in attendance on the morning. Formal apologies were sent by Jolene Schefermann, Kate Oliver, Mel Gard and Sharon Emmerich.
- Notice of meeting
Sue advised that our AGM was announced via a specific mailer which was sent out to the KZNWIB database on the 17 January 2022 informing and inviting ladies to attend the meeting.
- Approval of previous minutes
Sue read out the minutes from our 2021 AGM. The 2021 minutes were approved by all in attendance. Proposer: Karen Stark. Seconded by: Nicci Hosking.
- 2021 Chairman Report
Senta began by stating how it had been an absolute privilege and honour to be chair during the pandemic and the KZN riots, and to hold space for our members. She explained how we continued our meetings online until May 2021 and then shifted to hybrid (in person and online) from June 2021 allowing attendees the choice of how they would like to attend. From November 2021 we stopped online and returned to in person meetings.
Venue prices soared and we spoke to many venues before the Durban Jewish club offered us a wonderful rate for our breakfasts. Our ongoing relationship with the Jewish club is supporting our fundraising efforts and allowing us a safe place for meetings during the pandemic. We held an extra event in October to celebrate our 26th birthday ,since we couldn’t hold a 25th celebration in 2020. This was a lovely, fun, covid-safe event and gave our members a special morning to celebrate this occasion. Our workshops continued monthly in an online format. We continued to host Zoom connection chats every Friday morning since March 2020 for our members. These chats have given members the opportunities to still “see” each other. To connect, share, check in, ask business advice etc. where we laughed and cried together, and wonderful business opportunities have come out of these chats. We continued with these connection chats until October 2021. During the 2021 riots and looting in Durban, we stepped in to assist and support our charity the Robin Hood Foundation with food deliveries and storage, soup kitchens making over 780 litres of soup, and more. We offered extra connection chats with our members to help support them during his time too. We had numerous ongoing projects with the Robin Hood Foundation in supporting and volunteering – our members collected donations, hosted tea parties, worked at storge and more.. And we presented them with a cheque for R61000 at the end of 2021. As per our constitution, charities were nominated, and placed on an online voting system. DKMS Africa was voted in as our 2022 charity. As per our constitution, members were nominated, contacted by the Chair to accept or reject their nomination, and if accepted – placed on an online voting system to vote in our 2022/2023 committee. Further to discussions from 2020, I approached Nic Nortje from NKR with the sponsorship option for 2022. NKR accepted a 6 month sponsorship. A 2nd sponsor will be needed for the 2nd half of 2022. We did put on hold our plans with Young women in business, and the mentorship program, as our focus needed to shift to pandemic and riot member support. Hopefully these can be continued by the current committee. Senta put forward a suggestion to the current chair and committee to check that our constitution and policies are all inclusive in terms of “women” and as who identify as women as this is necessary to ensure that we are not discriminatory in anyway. In closing Senta thanked all of our members for their understanding and being willing to adapt with KZNWIB during the past 2 years. She also thanked our sponsors for 2021 – Susan Mercer and Susan Abro along with her vice-chair Jacks Warner, committee and administrator Nicci Hosking, for going above and beyond and truly stepping up into the role of service. Senta expressed how extremely proud she is of the committee and what was accomplished during her time. She believes that they were the committee who held space for the members and organisation during the pandemic. Senta felt that Sue, and the 2022/2023 committee will be the ones to take us out of it and into the future and she wished us all the best.
- Treasurer Report
Melissa Jacobs of MJ Chartered Accountants discussed the financials for 2021. It was advised that should any attendees wish to request a copy of the financials to view, they must please send their request in writing to the organization by emailing [email protected]
- General
Nikki Sinclair thanked Nicci Hosking for welcoming her into the organisation and being efficient, professional, and friendly with all the information she required. Nicci Hosking mentioned that the 2022-2023 committee will need to discuss the possible increase in membership, meeting & workshop fees. Beverley-Ann Fink suggested we do not increase any fees this year as people are still pulling themselves out of the pandemic financially. Chrystal Austin also suggested we navigate this decision carefully.
- Vote of thanks and Closure
Sue concluded the meeting by thanking the ladies for attending our third online Annual General Meeting with the closure time being 08:58am verbally noted by Bianca Johnson. Thank you so much to you all for attending our AGM.
