13 March 2025 at 17:30

 Sandbaai Hall

AGENDA

1. Welcome and Confirmation of Quorum
2. Confirmation of the Agenda
3. Minutes of the AGM held on 7 March 2024
4. Chair’s Report
5. Financial Report
6. Membership Report
7. Programme Activities for 2025
8. Election of the Committee for 2025/2026
9. Comments and questions

GUEST SPEAKER:

Prof Johannes Froneman emeritus professor of journalism.

Title: Why and how the media changed during the past century — and how it changed our lives 

Compact CV

Prof Froneman grew up in Durban, studied at Stellenbosch and became a journalist 47 years ago at the now defunct daily newspaper Beeld.

After various other positions in the media, he became a lecturer in 1991 at Potchefstroom University and retired as a professor in 2019.

He lives in Kleinmond and continues to do research and write, mostly on media history.

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Minutes of the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

                                                        held on 7 March 2024 at 17:30

                                                                 in the Sandbaai Hall

1  Welcome and Confirmation of Quorum

The chairman welcomed all the members and guests and encouraged them to join the U3A Overberg. He confirmed that there is a quorum present and that the meeting is duly constituted.

2  Confirmation of the Agenda

The Chairman read out the notice convening the AGM. The Agenda as circulated was approved.

3 Attendance and Apologies

Various apologies were received which were duly noted by the Committee.

4  Minutes

The minutes of the AGM held on 2 March 2023 had been circularised and were taken as read and accepted.

5  Chairman’s Report

The chairman welcomed our speaker for this evening, Professor Lizette Rabe of Stellenbosch University.

He then reported on the activities of the Overberg U3A during 2023.

Starting in the second semester of 2022 after the COVID pandemic we reduced our weekly lecture schedule to two per week from the previous three, and as we had hoped, our attendances duly increased somewhat during 2023. Our audiences are looking significantly better so far in 2024.

He gave an overview of the programmes featured every Tuesday and Friday over the previous 12 months. What has become a regular feature of our programme is that the opening lecture of the year is presented by the Executive Mayor, Councillor Dr Annelie Rabie. In February of this year, we also had two zoom presentations live from the UK.

Altogether a great start to the year, reflected by excellent attendances at the CCH.

In addition to the twice-weekly talks in the CCH, the U3A has special interest home groups namely Art Appreciation, Current Affairs, Food & Wine Pairing, Mahjong, Modern Novels, Music Appreciation, and 19^th Century Novels.  All the above are reflected in the Monthly Programme that all members should be receiving.

One major item of news from the beginning of 2024 is that the Hermanus History Society U3A has amalgamated with the U3A. Many of their objectives and indeed their members coincide with those of the U3A. It seemed sensible therefore, as a post-pandemic move, to pool our resources. Angela Heslop now serves on the U3A Management Committee, with Jackvan Dyk as her alternate, to look after what has become the U3A History Interest Group. U3A will obviously take over responsibility for maintaining the two historical information boards and eight plaques in the area, with some financial assistance from Overstrand Municipality.

The chairman thanked the following persons:

• The noble and talented speakers who give of their time to entertain and educate us.
• The U3A Programme Committee: Gert Claassen, Letitia Snyman; John Bristow, Hanns Bohle, and Philip Wassung from the Committee, as well as supporting members Prof. Caroline van Niekerk, Dr Phil Harries-Jones, and Barbara Pretorius.
• Publicity Secretary Gillan Bowie for the publication of our weekly newsletter and other communication work, as well as the organising of the drinks and snacks after the AGM
• Administrative Secretary Therina du Pisani for being such an effective and efficient secretary looking after the administration of running the meetings and producing all the documents.
• Membership Secretary Patrick Monaghan for documenting all the new U3A members and their information. The current attendances at the CCH are certainly encouraging.
• Commercial Secretary Roger Hendry, who with the assistance of Bob Hill, Pat Gaede, and other volunteers, collects and accounts for the entrance fees at the door of the venues we use. Roger also looks after our library of DVDs. They comprise material that U3A has bought over many years, individual documentaries as well as series. Roger is working on an updated list that will be sent to members shortly. The routine for borrowing DVDs: members email Roger with the titles they wish to borrow, he will bring them to the SANTA bookshop in town for collection and it is also the return point.
• Treasurer David Carterkeeps the books and records straight.  Members have received his annual financial report with the notice of this meeting. David made his apology for this AGM and the chairman gave a brief overview of our financial performance in 2023.
• Our able and steadfast technical assistant Joseph Ngoma and our technical expert, John Taylor who look after the audio-visual equipment, making our presentations such enjoyable experiences.
• James Peiser who provided the sound this evening as he does every year.

The chairman also thanked The Village News, our award-winning local paper, for publicising our weekly talks without charge, as well as including an occasional advertorial piece.

6   Membership Report

Currently we have a total recorded membership of just over 500, of which just under 400 have paid their 2024 subscriptions before tonight.

We still aren’t quite back to the pre-pandemic levels, when we had over 500 paid up members in 2019, but as membership fell to just over 300 during the lockdowns, we are moving well in the right direction.

The chairman mentioned that those members who haven’t paid their subscriptions by the end of April will stop receiving weekly newsletters.

7   Financial Report

On behalf of the treasurer, who made his apology for this AGM, the chairman gave the following overview:

We have received R55 000.00 in subscriptions in the 2023 calendar year, implying around 400 members.

We took R57 000.00 at the door for our presentations, mainly in the Church Hall, which was a huge improvement over the R43 000.00 we took in 2022.

Our direct costs, most of which are to remunerate Joseph, and pay the Church for the use of the hall, along with travel reimbursements for our out-of-town speakers, came to R67 000.00. When we add overheads (mainly insurance and the cost of this event) of R24 000.00 left us with a surplus in 2023 of R29 000.00.

That represents a R50 000.00 turnaround from the R21 000.00 deficit we recorded in the previous year as we emerged from COVID.

Our attendances have continued to rise, and new attendances in 2024 are looking even better than 2023. 

With R158 000.00 in cash and deposits as at the end of December, having grown to over R170 000.00, the chairman stated that on behalf of the treasurer he can say that U3A is in good shape financially. 

We don’t spend much of the income on social functions and entertainment, except for the AGM and a small end of year get together. At the end of November 2023, we had a wine-and-snacks evening in the CCH, which was well attended, and gave members a chance to socialise.

8 Programme Activities for 2024

Gert Claassen, as chairman of the Programme Committee, gave a brief overview of some of the programmes that can be expected during the course of the year. Categories that are always very popular and well attended are talks on travel, medical, music, geology, and science.

9  Election of the Committee for 2024/2025

Pat Gaede presided as election officer during the election of the Committee. She reported that the U3A Constitution makes provision for 12 committee members. Twelve nominations have been received that were duly signed by proposers, seconded, and were accepted by the nominees.

They are Hanns Bohle, Gillan Bowie, David Carter, Gert Claassen, Therina du Pisani, Roger Hendry, Angela Heslop, Pat Monaghan, Helen Naudé, Rod Pringle, Letitia Snyman and Philip Wassung. No election was therefore required, and the nominees were duly elected.

GUEST SPEAKER

Gert Claassen introduced the guest speaker, Prof Lizette Rabe emeritus professor of journalism at Stellenbosch University.

Prof Rabe holds a DPhil degree from Stellenbosch University. She began her journalism career at Naspers in 1979 and ended her career of more than twenty years in industry as editor of a Media24 magazine. She was appointed as Head of Department of the postgraduate Stellenbosch Journalism Department in 2001. She was the first woman to be appointed as editor of an Afrikaans publication at Naspers, and the first woman to chair the Department of Journalism. As an activist for mental health awareness, she founded the Ithemba Foundation, a non-profit organisation that focuses on raising awareness of depression and related diseases as biological diseases.

Amongst others, Prof Rabe has published two children’s books, both available in English and Afrikaans, to help a next generation to hold on to a moral compass to ensure a better future for all. These publications were available for sale afterwards, as well as her book on writing as therapy, Om tot verhaal te kom. All royalties are donated to the Ithemba Foundation.

Dr Rabé’s topic was: Of the macro and the micro, the global and the local and the media and you. 

The focus of the talk was on our macro-environment and micro-environment, the global and the local, and the role of the media in all of this. Plus, of course, the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

It has already become a cliché that we are experiencing a watershed period in our Anthropocene era, and this year has been described as a global watershed year. South Africa is tilting on a democratic cliff, a fiscal cliff, and a moral cliff – on the brink of an even more unstable period in our country’s history. It has already been described by the biggest wealth manager firm in our country “as a year of above-average political and social risk”.

What should we as ordinary citizens do? If the media is the watchdog of government, then we as media consumers should be the watchdog of the media – and we can do it by keeping a sometimes-desperate media, with their focus on sensationalism, on their toes. Because only a responsible, ethical, free media, can ensure a prosperous tomorrow – especially in a country with so much potential as South Africa.

The evening ended with a social event with snacks and wine.

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NOMINATION FOR 2025 MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

Nominee: ………………………………………………………………………………………

Proposer: ………………………………………………………………………………………

Signed: ………………………………………………………………………………………….

Seconder: ………………………………………………………………………………………

Signed: ……………………………………………………………………………………………

I accept this nomination for the Overberg U3A Management Committee for 2025/2026

Signed: ……………………………………………………………………………………

Date: …………………………………………………

Please return this form to Mrs Therina du Pisani

[therinadupisani@gmail.com] by Friday 7 March 2025

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FINANCIAL REPORT 2023 – 2024