Minutes from the Annual General Meeting

4 April 2024

1. Welcome & Apologies

Sue welcomed everyone to the AGM and thanked them for their time. We had a total of 23 ladies’ booked to attend of which 22 were members and 1 was a non-member.  18 members were in attendance on the morning. Formal apologies were sent by Ann Druce, Karen Flood, Rozanne Kruger, Tracy-lee Galloway  and Nikki Sinclair.

2. Notice of meeting

Notice was given verbally at our February and March meetings and written notice was given to our whole database via Mail Blaze on the 8 and 26 March 2024. The 2022 AGM Minutes and 2023 AGM Agenda were sent to all ladies booked to attend the AGM on 3 April 2024 by the administrator, Nicci Hosking.  

3. Approval of previous minutes

Sue asked if everyone had received and read the minutes from our 2022 AGM. The 2022 minutes were approved by all in attendance. Proposer: Karen Stark.  Seconded by: Bianca Johnson.

4. Treasurer Report

Melissa Jacobs of MJ Chartered Accountants gave notice on the 31 October 2023 that she would no longer be able to assist the orgnanisation with our financials. Adrienne Brown from WAHM Technical and Finance was appointed to assist with preparing our Annual Financial Statement for the year January – December 2023. The financials were reviewed and approved by chartered accountant Vinesh Kandailal of VN Kandailal and Company. Adrienne went through the annual financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2023. 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 organisation by emailing [email protected]

5. 2023 Chairman Report

Sue began her report by saying that it had been an honour to lead the organisation into the second year of this committee’s term.

Meetings

KZN WIB Attendance at meetings continued to be a challenge in 2023.  This was compounded by ongoing catering challenges which culminated in a change of venue being implemented from August 2023, when the move was made from DJC to the Hellenic Hall in Durban North following a member survey and extensive work on the part of the committee to find and assess suitable options.

The new venue has on-site caterers who can meet the desired standard of meals provided during meetings, together with crockery and cutlery. Feedback from members has been extremely positive and the Hellenic Hall have done a wonderful job of providing a well located, safe and spacious venue with secure parking while The Food Guy has provided top quality food at affordable prices.

Membership info 2018 – 2024

The following is a reflection of paid-up memberships, and not the number of ladies on our database.

• December 2018 – 84
• December 2019 – 92
• December 2020 – 95
• December 2021 – 93
• December 2022 – 95
• December 2023 – 95
• February 2024 – 107

Meeting attendance 2018 – 2022

The committee continued to focus on increasing membership numbers and actively canvassed for new members at local markets and gatherings to ensure the continued success of the organisation

Meeting and Membership Pricing

KZN WIB membership fees remained constant for several years despite the radical increase in food and venue costs. Membership and meeting fees were increased in March 2023 as follows:

Memberships:

• Primary membership increased from R 500,00 to R600,00 for 12 months. R550,00 for renewal (VAT N/A)
• Secondary membership increased from R435,00 to R535,00 for 12 months. R500,00 for renewal (VAT N/A)
• Bronze Corporate membership increased from R1250,00 to R1350,00 for 12 months. R1200,00 for renewal (VAT N/A)
• Silver Corporate membership increased from R2500,00 to R2600,00 for 12 months. R2450,00 for renewal (VAT N/A)
• Gold Corporate membership increased from R3500,00 to R3600,00 for 12 months. R3300,00 for renewal (VAT N/A)

Meetings:

• Member Rate to attend monthly meeting increased from R200.00 to R250.00.
• Non Member Rate to attend monthly meeting increased from R230.00 to R280.00.

Workshops:

• Member Rate for monthly workshops increased from R150.00 to R200.00 per meeting.  
• Non Member Rate for monthly workshops increased from R250.00 to R300.00 per meeting.

Workshops

KZN WIB continued to offer monthly workshops from February to November, except for April due to public and school holidays.  Unfortunately, 5 of these were cancelled due to a lack of bookings, despite the thought that the content and presenters would be well received by the members. 3 successful in-person workshops were however hosted and one on-line was led by Bianca Johnson and Nicci Hosking, focusing on the benefits of membership and maximizing member visibility.

Administrative Support

Nicci Hosking continued to provide efficient administrative support during 2023.  Her helpfulness, efficiency and general support to the chairperson, vice chair, committee and members is highly valued.

Charity

TAFTA was the nominated charity for 2023 and we were delighted to have active participation and ongoing engagement from this extremely professional NPO. The Chairperson and Vice Chair participated actively in fund raising for their Cash Ring Rush on 18 July 2023 and raised R8,817.00 between them, and several members supported their 60th birthday celebration.  One member signed up a monthly debit order and members shared their information and requests on social media platforms.

Unfortunately, due to rapidly rising costs, the final handover amount was substantially less than 2022, but we were still honoured to be able to hand over a cheque in the amount of R35,070 as a result of our members generosity.

As per our constitution, charities were nominated, followed by member voting, with the winning charity for 2024 being Singakweza.

Sponsorship

In 2023 we returned to offering annual sponsorship and ActionCoach iNala took up the opportunity.  Meetings were well attended, and members were given great insight and tips on a variety of business related topics.  Action Coach iNala also provided their venue for a workshop and members were invited to attend their own workshops.

Committee

Robyn Keulder of Cherish Designs was unanimously voted onto the committee in February 2023 to support her social media portfolio. I, the Chairperson, abstained from participating in the vote due to my personal friendship with Robyn. In addition, Ann Druce, who was previously nominated for the committee, was approached and accepted the offer of joining for the remainder of the period.  Both committee members actively participated and added value for the period of their tenure and their willingness to support the organisation was appreciated.

In addition to our usual Social Media, we have received the following media Coverage from Emma Dunk from Em-Between PR and Communications:

• Total media coverage for 2023: R185 207.65

Website 

The KZN WIB website was updated and relevant font purchased by KZN WIB. We explored moving from Mailchimp to Mail Blaze to reduce our expenses from +/- R1000 per month to +/- R300 a month – this was investigated and trialled towards the end of 2023 and successfully implemented at the beginning of 2024. 

Other

The 2022/2023 committee were very well engaged and worked well together.

6. General

Tilanie Grote mentioned that there is no formal emergency succession plan written into the Constitution should the Chairperson or Vice-Chairperson be unable to fulfil their term. It was agreed that should the Chairperson be unable to fulfil her term, the Vice-chairperson will step into the Chairperson role. And if both Chairperson and Vice-chairperson are unable to fulfil their term, then a vote will be taken within the respective committee for the replacement Chairperson and Vice-chairperson. Candice Munien-Govender from CNG Attorneys offered her services to help us correct this and include it in the Constitution. 

Loretta Wilmot suggested a ‘visitor orientation’ for first time guests that attend our meetings to inform them on what to expect at each meeting. Bianca Johnson and Nicci Hosking explained that each new attendee is emailed the day before each meeting explaining exactly what to expect from our monthly meetings. Nicci also explained that new visitors are welcomed by the committee on the morning and introduced to other attendees to help them feel welcomed and included. Loretta also suggested we have some sort of incentive to our members who bring guests to the meetings. Nicci Hosking, Chrystal Austin, Senta Seele and Emma Dunk all explained that we do already do this with our ‘Bring a Buddy’ initiative whereby you are entered into a lucky draw if you have brought a guest with you to the meetings and could win a free seat to the following meeting. Chrystal Austin also reminded Loretta that we are an NPO that has to be mindful of our spending and expenses. Loretta also pointed out that it is always the same ladies that offer a lucky draw prize at our meetings and questioned how we could increase membership. Sue St Leger mentioned that we used to have a rule in place which was that guests could attend 2 meetings as a non-member thereafter they would need to sign up to become members. This rule has since been removed because we have found that if ladies want all the benefits our organisation has to offer, then they become members in order to make use of them. The real connection in networking is made through consistency and not one off visits every 6 months. 

Amendments to the Constitution:

We propose including a Succession plan in the event of an emergency should the Chairperson or Vice-chaiperson be unable to fulfil their term. 

The above changes to the Constitution were made by a resolution, voted upon and passed by no less than two thirds of the members who were present at the Annual General Meeting. 

7. Vote of thanks and Closure

Sue concluded the meeting by thanking the ladies for attending our Annual General Meeting with the closure time being 11:23 am verbally noted by Nicci Hosking. Thank you so much to you all for attending our AGM.

 Many thanks and Kind Regards,

Sue St. Leger Stretch(Chairperson 2022-2023)	Bianca Johnson(Vice-chair 2022-2023)