MINUTES OF THE OSALL ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD AT NORTON ROSE, SANDTON, ON 3 AUGUST 2011

Transcription

1 MINUTES OF THE OSALL ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD AT NORTON ROSE, SANDTON, ON 3 AUGUST Welcome and Apologies Fanus Olivier welcomed attendees to the 35 th OSALL AGM. He thanked the sponsors, LexisNexis, for their contribution. He thanked the representative from Academic Marketing Services (AMS), LexisNexis representatives, Juta s representatives, the CEO of Red Pepper Books, representatives from Sabinet Online, OSALL members and guests for attending. Apologies were noted from: Krista Verster (National Prosecuting Authority) Laetitia Louw (LIBFO Library and information Services) Lucy Graham (First Rand Bank) Nonzuko January (Bowman Gilfillan) Sue Beard (Fluxmans Inc.) Ruth Ward (Werksmans) Lynette Davis (Johannesburg Bar Library) Mary Bruce (KZN Law Society) Salome Vranas (South Gauteng High Court) 2. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 6 August 2009 Annami Language and Charmaine Bertram accepted and seconded the Minutes of the 2010 AGM. 3. Matters Arising 3.1 South Gauteng High Court Library Salome Vranas has been appointed on contract at the South Gauteng High Court for a year. She will advise members of her address as soon as it has been set up. 3.2 Formation of LIASA Regulatory Council for the LIS profession Nico Ferreira raised the question of LIASA setting up a Regulatory Council for the profession, which had been noted in an received by OSALL members. Fanus informed him that he had been in contact with Naomi Haasbroek at the SAOUG AGM, and the involvement of SAOUG in the process was only in the discussion stages. SAOUG intends sending out an to their listserv to gauge members interest in such a process. 1

2 4. Annual Reports 4.1 Chair Fanus Olivier read his report to those attending the AGM. The report is also available on the OSALL website, and printed copies were made available at the AGM. He informed attendees that SAOUG will be holding a conference in 2012 at the Sandton Convention Centre, in which OSALL and SLIS will be involved. The salary survey is going to be put up on the OSALL website. 4.2 Financial Gill Rademeyer presented the financial report for OSALL. Hard copy summaries of the report were given to the AGM attendees. OSALL was not in arrears during the financial year. OSALL has a current account and a 32 day call account with Standard Bank. The total income for the financial year was R10, excluding interest. R1, was received for advertisements placed on the listserv and in the newsletter, at R per advertisement. Membership fees came to R6, Some membership fees are still outstanding, and will carry over to the next financial year. It is difficult to trace non-renewal of membership, so Gill asked members to please advise the Treasurer of any change in personal details, such as a change in job, contact details and address. Gill thanked all members who had submitted membership renewal forms for payment and for addition to the membership database. New members included Herold Gie and the Dept of International Affairs. A number of personal members also joined OSALL. It is still very problematic to identify payments made via EFT. Members must please ask the Accounting Departments of their firms/companies to include the firm/company name and reference number on the EFT payment. In response to a question, Gill confirmed that she would be accepting membership renewals at the end of the AGM, and each member would receive a receipt. The R13, sponsorship for an OSALL delegate to attend BIALL was not used in 2010, due to the FIFA World Cup and the BIALL conference coinciding. This amount doesn t reflect in the accounts for the past financial year, and was carried over to Gill thanked AMS on OSALL s behalf for their continuing sponsorship for an OSALL member to attend the BIALL conference. The R13, was transferred to the call account. The interest earned on the call account was R1, and was low due to a drop in the interest rate. Total spend came to R32, This included accounting fees paid to the auditor, bank charges, stationery, meetings and conferences and sundry expenses. In 2011, OSALL paid for Keke Maidi and Fanus Olivier to fly to Cape Town to attend the February meeting at Juta. Fanus was nominated as the BIALL delegate for 2011 and the sponsorship money was released from the call account to cover the costs of his attendance at BIALL. 2

3 Money spent on meetings included gifts for the speaker and any additional gifts for retirees or those who contributed to OSALL s work. Fanus attendance at the Sabinet conference in 2010 was also paid for, as was Diana Riley s flight to the AGM. With regard to expenditure, the Committee has checks and balances in place to control spending. The profit for was not large, OSALL currently has R 7, available. A reminder about membership renewal has been sent out, and members will be invoiced as soon as the forms are received. Members must please convey the message to their employers that OSALL is not registered for VAT. Once Gill had finished her report, Fanus announced that she would be stepping down as Treasurer due to work commitments. He thanked her for contribution to the Committee. He announced that Mari Brightmore had been co-opted to serve on the Committee in her personal capacity, and that she would taking over the portfolio of Treasurer. 4.3 Listserv Mary Bruce was unable to attend the AGM, so Danielle Botha read the listserv report on her behalf. During the period, the listserv had 343 members. The Archive on Google Groups contains 6072 messages. Few problems were experienced on the technical front. Mary again asked members to use the same subject line when replying to a message on the listserv query. The s are grouped together by Google and it makes related s easier to find. 4.4 Website The OSALL website is keeping up with Web 2.0 developments. Mike Botha, from MACC Consulting, revised the website in November 2010 and in January The website now automatically sends messages to Twitter when anything new is posted on the site. By 2 August 2011, the website had 4,200 hits, mainly by visitors from South Africa and the USA. The website is now easier to maintain and update. Danielle noticed that the OSALL listserv had frequent requests for African legislation. If enquirers send her the information they receive, she will upload it to the website. She sent out a request for members to send her African legislation they received and was surprised by the poor response from listserv members. She appealed again to the members present to send her African legislation. Danielle also informed members that, with the co-operation of the SARS Library and Lara van Rooyen, explanatory memoranda to tax legislation have also been uploaded. This is a valuable resource because such a comprehensive collection does not exist anywhere else, not even at SARS. 3

4 Danielle noted that advertisements from the publishers were helping to fund the website costs and thanked them for their contribution. She also is willing to receive suggestions that members have for any enhancements to the website. 4.5 Newsletter Diana Riley noted that was her third year as newsletter editor. She extended a heartfelt thank you to the contributors and advertisers for contributing to the OSALL newsletter. Mary Bruce and Nico Ferreira were both thanked for their quality contributions to the newsletter. Margaret Cloete was thanked for her assistance with the editing of the newsletter. Diana s call for contributions on the listserv was successful. She also welcomes feedback on the content of the newsletter. She apologised for the delay in publication of the first newsletter of 2011, due to technical difficulties encountered with the new template. Issue no. 2 (May) will be sent out on Friday 5 August. Issues 3 and 4 will be sent out in August and November as usual. With regard to distribution of the newsletter, Diana has decided that it is more cost-effective to send it out in electronic format. She asked members to please advise her of any change in addresses they may have, so that the newsletter can still reach them. Thirty copies are printed and posted. 5. General 5.1 OSALL Awards Fanus Olivier presented the Awards. The Lifesaver Award - awarded to Annami Language-Van Zyl because she is willing share legislative developments with the listserv as soon as they happen. The Satellite Dish Award awarded to Lydia Craemer for the interesting snippets of legal and law related information passed on to the listserv. The Oracle Award awarded to Carol Clark for the knowledge and speedy service provided to OSALL members. The Best External Service Provider Award: awarded to Stefan Kruger for his support and help on the OSALL Committee and the creativity he brings to his portfolio. 7. Lunch 4

5 8. Speaker: Ms Nicky Campbell from Nicky Campbell Inc. Topic: Consumer Protection Act Ms Nicky Campbell addressed the AGM attendees on the new Consumer Protection Act. Fanus Olivier thanked her for her informative talk and presented Ms Campbell with a gift and flowers to convey OSALL s appreciation. 9. Lucky draws Lucky draws for prizes or vouchers were done by LexisNexis (represented by Carol Coetzee), Juta (represented by Stefan Kruger) and Red Pepper Books (represented by Philippa Mitchell) prior to the closure of the meeting. 10. Closure After the lucky draws, Fanus Olivier thanked LexisNexis for their sponsorship of the AGM. He thanked Juta and Red Pepper for their contributions for the lucky draws. He then declared the 2011 AGM closed. 5