Minutes of the 73rd Annual General Meeting of the Cape Bird Club held via Zoom on 11 March 2020
Note: the meeting was brought forward 1hour 15minutes to avoid Eskom loadshedding. An emergency e-newsletter was sent out notifying members of the changed starting time.
Priscilla set up the meeting on Zoom and introduced members on how to use it.
Meeting Chair: Priscilla Beeton
Meeting Secretary: Gillian Barnes
Register of Members Present: A total of 49 members registered their attendance and a quorum (40) was declared. The attendees are listed below.
Apologies: Apologies were received from Mike Buckham, Stella Fogarty, Paul and Cathy Jenkins, Marilyn Metcalf and Peter Steyn.
- Welcome:
The Chairperson welcomed everyone to the 73rd AGM of the CBC. She thanked all who were present online for attending in these trying times of Covid19 and Eskom loadshedding and encouraged those members present who were using ZOOM to assist other members to familiarise themselves with it so that they could join the virtual CBC meetings during the year.
- Confirmation of Minutes:
The Minutes of the AGM dated 30th April 2020 were made available on the CBC webpage. They were accepted as correct. Proposed: Cheryl Leslie. Seconded: Mel Tripp.
- Matters Arising:
There were no matters arising from the 2020 AGM minutes.
- Chairperson’s Report:
Priscilla presented her report prior to the meeting. It was circulated in the CBC e-newsletter and will be published on the CBC website and in the July 2021 issue of Promerops.
- Financial Report
Joy Fish presented the Treasurer’s report for the period 1st January 2020 to 31st December 2020. She reported that the club’s financial situation is good, with a very healthy balance of funds in the bank. Income has been generated by members’ fees and donations as there have been no courses, camps or face-to-face meetings where books and other items are usually sold. A small decrease in member numbers year on year is evident but in spite of the lockdown there were 71 new members (57 from the website and 14 from a U3A course).
Our youth education programme had to be placed on hold and therefore no funds were spent on this initiative after February 2020. Donations amounting to R 60,299 were given to:-
SANCCOB: R 5,000 plus R 3,200 for membership,
SABAP2: R 20,000
BLSA Bird Guide Fund: R 10,000
BLSA Berg River Estuary Project: R 15,000
BLSA prints plus postage: R 99
Virtual Birdathon: R 5,000
Quasar Trust: R 1,000
Student: R 1,000
Joy thanked Mary Debrick for her assistance as well as Paul Slack and Angela Wilson from Fast Track who are our auditors.
It was proposed that we appoint Fast Track to continue as auditor for 2021. Proposed: Dave Whitelaw. Seconded: Cheryl Leslie.
The Financial report was adopted by the meeting. Proposed: Cheryl Leslie. Seconded: Dave Whitelaw.
- Promerops Awards:
Priscilla read the citations for Promerops Awards. The following members were cited for their extraordinary service to the CBC:
Felicity Ellmore
Margaret MacIver
Johan Schlebusch
- Election of new committee.
Resignation: Khanyisane Falake resigned due to work-related demands on her time. Priscilla thanked her for her contribution and wished her well in her career.
New Nominations: Penny Dichmont has accepted nomination to join the committee. Proposed: Peter Steyn. Seconded: Margaret MacIver.
Nominations of previous committee members: Priscilla Beeton, Johan Schlebusch, Dave Whitelaw, Joy Fish, Linda Merrett, Mike Buckham and Gillian Barnes have accepted their nominations. The meeting unanimously approved the appointment of the nominated members to the CBC Committee for 2021.
It was noted that the meeting had been recorded and that there was a record of attendance. There being no further business the AGM was declared closed at 19.15, whereafter Monique Du Plessis gave an interesting presentation on the research done on the effects of sugar feeders on Sunbirds and Sugarbirds.
Record of attendance:
Deona Andrag, Colin Attwell, Gillian Barnes, Richard Barnes, Ann Baumann, Priscilla Beeton, Nigel Cornfield, Heather Davies, Daryl De Beer, Lynette De Beer, Jacobus De Swardt, Sandra De Swardt, Penny Dichmont, Joy Fish, Simon Fogarty, Gill Ford, Christina Geddes-Elderkin, Alison Gilbert, Glen Cilliers, Dene Goodwin, Anne Greig, Dr Martin & Mrs Harrison, Jonathan Hemp, Marj Hemp, Helga Hill, Fiona Jones, Cheryl Leslie, Zoe Lunau-Johns, Margaret MacIver, Anne Mcleod, Linda Merrett, Rosemary Nathan, Patrick Normand, Yvonne Normand, Peter Nupen, Johan Schlebusch, Otto Schmidt, Sandy Schmidt, Rob Sieborger, Marilyn Sieborger, Shona Sturgeon, Grant Tarr, Diana Thomson, Mel Tripp, Mel Van Der Spuy, Harold Wesson, Dave Whitelaw and Gerald Wingate.