11.Presidents report: (Mr. Fadiel Hendricks – SANPO President)
Esteemed Members of SANPO
Welcome to the Annual General Meeting.
Many thanks to all of you for taking time off your hectic and busy schedules to attend today’s Annual meeting. Special thanks to Mr. Shane Gerber and his Team for their kindness and willingness to host this AGM.
I am always struck at how time flies.
Once again, we are meeting to reflect on our yearly journey. What successes have we made? Are we meeting our goals? Did we even have goals for this year? What sort of realistic goals can we come up with? Do we have a yearly plan on paper? How about a five year plan? Are we making any substantial progress? Where do we need to go now?
These are all important questions I want us to ponder as we meet today for our Annual General Meeting and for other subsequent meetings during this New Year. No organization will thrive without having a vision or a written plan. Having a sketchy idea of where we want to take this organization is a good one, but we cannot and will not settle for less. We have an enormous responsibility to take this organization to another level and to leave our footprints in the sand of time. I realize that we already have a lot of work ahead of us. Nevertheless, we must now begin the challenging process of creating a solid yearly and five yearly plans. A special committee can be created to perform such a task or we can set aside 20 minutes during our general meetings to work on our strategic plan. That way, we can be sure that we are inclusive of everyone’s thoughts and opinions.
As always, I am deeply grateful to all of you for your profound commitment to SANPO. Thanks to all of you for your kind words and encouragement during the course of this year. I will always remain grateful and humble during this process as president of this association. I ask that you all continue to offer your advice, sagely wisdom, and support to me so that we will continue to move this organization forward. Remember, we are all in this together for a common good.
As we embark on another year, I want each and every one of you to make a commitment to help the organization with one specific project. Ask yourself some profound questions that I am hoping will create some lasting impressions as well as some greater impact for this organization. What is my purpose with regards to this association? What project or cause can I take on within the organization? Is SANPO in need of my God-given talents? What will be my legacy in this organization? SANPO is forging ahead. How can we as an association help financially, morally, and spiritually? Where will our association stand in two, five, ten or twenty years from now?
THE 2016 YEAR IN REVIEW
I am elated to report that we are making some progress in some areas, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us. First, I am very excited to see some individual commitments and more involvement. I know we are a vibrant organization in terms of age and dynamics. Essentially, most of our members have older families including myself, however, we need everyone’s participation and involvement at all times, not just for specific events. If some of us are making things happen in spite of our own hectic lives, I don’t see why others cannot do the same, we have incorporated the telephone conference service that has helped us meet more often. With this service, no one can really complain about travelling, gas and transportation issues. Technology has helped us, However, Members still need to do better in terms of our attendance at our annual general meetings.
The board has been concerned with a trend toward reduced membership numbers over the past several years. In response, a new marketing brochure must be developed to promote SANPO at provincial, regional and national levels. A major move to all active members to encourage their continued membership as well as efforts to reach more individuals within each of our federations will be important. In addition, a recruitment strategy must be developed to reach out to prospective new members.
Perhaps my brief message to you here is that if we are true to ourselves we will succeed. I say this because in many ways, despite one or two small negativities, 2016 has been an overwhelmingly ground-breaking and successful year for us.
I am very grateful to Mr. George Le Roux our Vice Pres for his continued support, Mr Johan Pretorius our Secretary for keeping his hand on the pulse and doing exceptional work behind the scenes, Mr Gerhard Schack our Treasurer for all the hard work and dedication in keeping the SANPO finances in check , Mrs Janet Dorling our National Ring Distributor for dedication in providing an excellent service to all fanciers in SA. My Heartfelt thanks go out to my Management team.
To all the board members thank you very much especially to the chairman persons of all the different committees,
Shane Gerber, Des Humpel, Willem Van Wyk, Bossie Boshof, Pedrie Van der Merwe and last but not least Faunty Gillmer. Thank you very much.
To all the newly elected board members welcome, Joe Faul , Leon Meyer , Loui Hough , Piet van Zyl and not forgetting Peter Armstrong.
SANPO continues to work closely with national government departments and SASCOC to promote good legislation and are conveying the concerns of our members to them as well. A new agreement with the provincial dept of transports has led to a major breakthrough by giving our pigeon trucks preferential treatment at the weigh bridges firstly in the Western Cape. Discussion with SALGA, a national project to relook at the bylaws of our municipal systems regarding pigeon sports especially pigeon lofts.
Further discussions will be taking place with the National Dept of Roads and Transport regarding the cost of the toll fees which our members have to cough up, and adding to the ever increasing cost of transporting of our pigeons.
With the ground breaking work that our Chairman of our Clock committee Shane Gerber has carried out and reaching an agreement with clock manufacturer to have the cans of the clocks opened as from the 1st January 2017, only Bricon, Mega and the newly approved Ipigeon8 have come to the party the others have not, instead they have attached a cost to this, My appeal to those clock suppliers in SA is to reconsider the high cost to reopen the cans, Please. By adhering to the transformation charter and making the playing fields level for all fanciers across SA will be highly appreciated, I thank those that have taken this initiative.
The Ipigeon8 clock was tested and approved by SANPO.
I would also like to congratulate all the men and women who have received merit awards this year, starting with the Top Racing Pigeon Fanciers, Short distance race winners, Middle distance winners, Long Distance winners and the Overall winners, well done and Congratulations. You all deserve a round of applause for your achievements.
The Sanpo National Pigeon Show 2016 held in Port Elizabeth hosted by the EPPU was a very successful and great show. Congratulations once again to all the winners in the racing and show pigeon categories
We currently have about 490 active members on our mailing list. As many of you know, last year, I contacted a few to find out if they are receiving the SANPO news Letter, because it’s of at most importance that information from SANPO reaches the man at ground level.
I must remind you about what I said last year. Specifically, I said that “I know that in most organizations only a committed few make things happen, and ours is no exception.” However, we must not settle for less. I believe that we must continue to pursue and to press on towards the mark. All members must receive the information of SANPO and participate at membership meetings throughout the year.
I am still proposing that we continue with our Membership Drive/Campaign in order to increase our membership which will hopefully boost our financial resources as well.
Some members still owe this organization a lot of money. The treasurer and I have been very understanding. We have showed some love. However, we need to move our organization forward. Mr. Gerhard Shack and I will now begin enforcing the stipulations set in the constitution this year. We cannot run this organization without those dues.
I would be remiss if I don’t pay special mention to the board members that will be leaving SANPO Board, Retief Uys, Shane Gerber, Des Humpel and Faunty Gillmer who, like their other predecessors, are fine leaders with a very vibrant energy and relentless love for SANPO. I thank them especially for their encouragement and for the accurate information that they always provide me with when called upon.
I have already mentioned that we embark on a membership drive. Please feel free to discuss any ideas that you have to enable us to improve on our membership
Thank you, for these are only highlights of what had been achieved in the last year. A great deal of strategic planning has been done and there are a number of activities the team wishes to undertake. Moving forward, the board and the executive team at large will focus on members outreach. There will be a number of resolutions propose at today’s meeting so the team can spring into action. I look forward to those discussions and decisions.
And finally, to get back to my original point made in the introduction. In an era where some still dwell on our differences we need to remember that pigeons, our focus here, really don’t care who we are. Perhaps what we have to bear in mind is that maybe it’s not a question of worrying who we are, but what we are.
I thank you.
President of SANPO
Fadiel Hendricks
Proposed: Paul de Wet
Seconded: John Stannard
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