Chairman Lucas Rinken delivered his chairman's report
for the year January to December 2011
at the branch's AGM on 18 February 2012
 |
| Lucas Rinken delivers his last chairman's report. |
All in all we have had a reasonably good year.
In 2011 we celebrated the 10th year of the existence of our branch. Compared to other Branches, we are still very young, despite which, we can be proud of what we have achieved.
We still have one elected NEC member with another who was previously elected, but now serves as a co-opted member. Also co-opted from our branch is the National Editor of our quarterly magazine, Familia. André, Dennis and Richard, we are proud of you.
We have a good and growing branch library with excellent equipment available for the use of members. We have served the general public well during annual exhibitions at Hobby-X, the Genealogy and Heritage day in Pretoria and at the Museum in Roodepoort. We also exhibited in Potchefstroom and at the Vaal River.
We provide and, worldwide, sell our
e-SAGI database containing over 610,000 names.
Wonderful work has been done by Neels Coertze in photographing genealogical information from inscriptions in old Bibles. We offered a free service at the Roodepoort Museum day but the main focus was on the old Bibles made available to us at Museum Africa and the Johannesburg Civic Library. Neels was ably assisted by Giel Nel and Grahame Southey. Our sincere thanks to them.
We have again this year presented a Beginner’s Course in Genealogy. This was well received with positive feedback and should be repeated later in the year. The possibility of presenting an advanced course is again being investigated.
Our members, mainly Dennis Pretorius, have played leading roles in capturing data such as the Braamfontein Cemetery records and the 1984 Cencus lists. Dennis is also the owner of the Afrikaans Genealogical email list, SAGen which is so well supported and has become an invaluable tool in acquiring genealogical assistance.
We have our own branch Blog so ably provided by ex branch committee member Japie Bosch, now located at the coast.
We have a monthly branch newsletter AND Neels Coertze has collected same from over the past 10 years and published this in a magnificent book also available on CD. We have also published three other collections in CD format. Furthermore, John Stephens collected and published all the Branch Minutes of the last 10 years. Richard Ford put together a booklet containing details of present and past members. This was made available also in CD format.
However small your personal contribution may have been, are you not proud of these achievements?
The year was, however, difficult due to the health problems experienced by myself and our excellent secretary, John Stephens. Other members also experiencing health problems include Ruth Jobson, Ds. Hennie Le Roux, Barbara Bouwer, Louise Dick, Bob Saunders and Herman Esterhuizen. May the year ahead bring better health to all.
Management:
At the Annual General Meeting held on 20 March 2010, the following branch committee was elected:
| Designation | Name |
|---|
| Chairman | Lucas Rinken |
| Vice-Chairman and Recording Secretary | John Stephens |
| Vice-Chairman and Membership Secretary | Gerard Marloth |
| Treasurer | Dennis Pretorius |
| Assistant Treasurer | Barbara Bouwer |
| Events Secretary | Margaret Humphries |
| Librarian | Graham Southey |
| Assistant Librarian | Louise Dick |
| Editor Newsletter | Neels Coertse |
| Publicity and Blog Liaison | Penny Evans |
| Cemetery Recording Project | Giel Nel |
| Product Sales | Kriek Fourie |
After 6 years as chairman, and in the light of my health problems, I feel that it is time to hand over these duties to a younger person who will, no doubt, pick up the reins and drive the branch to new heights. It has been a pleasure and privilege to be involved at this level in both branch affairs and having sitting at NEC meetings and National AGM’s. I retain many fond memories and have made good friends with so many fine genealogists. I regard myself as having been extremely fortunate to have had these opportunities.
Oor die jare was ek voorsitter of het gedien op baie komitees. Nêrens het ek ooit ‘n beter sekretaris gevind as John Stephens nie! Soos reeds genoem, het John ook gesondheidsprobleme ondervind en moes verskeie groot operasies ondergaan. Met getroue Iris aan sy sy, het hy egter nooit enigsins nie sy verantwoordelikhede stiptelik en korek nagekom nie. Onder sulke moeilike omstandighede, was dit nie maklik nie en hy verdien ‘n word van groot lof, waardering en dank.
Dit is dan ook verstaanbaar dat John nie verder in hierdie pos beskikbaar sal wees nie. Die nuwe sekretaris sal dit beslis moeilik vind om hierdie groot skoene vol te staan.
Van my persoonlik, en van die tak, John, ‘n BAIE GROOT DANKIE vir wat jy vir ons beteken het. Ons gun jou ‘n ruskans en bid jou steeds beterwordende gesondheid toe.
Membership:
We seem to have no difficulty in obtaining new members but retaining same has been a problem for many years. Despite renewal reminders having been sent out, many members simply neglect to renew membership thus, even with 17 new members, our membership slumped from 67 in 2010 to 58 at the end of 2011!
As our membership secretary states: Processes have been put in place to follow-up and determine the reasons for this and to understand how the branch can better meet the needs of new and old members. Our thanks to Gerard for all the work he has done in this regard.
Also disappointing is the response to invitations sent to people who have signed our visitors book at Hobby-X.
Meetings:
10 Branch meetings were held, attended in total by 228 members and 27 guests - an average per meeting of 25 members and guests. This against an average of 29 for the previous year. It is pleasing to note that 22 members attended at least 50% of meetings.
In January, the branch meeting, as already mentioned, took the form of an exhibition, at the Roodepoort Museum. Our Branch AGM was livened up by a talk by Mr. Jack Holloway. Two meetings were visits to cemeteries where the gravestone inscriptions were recorded or photographed. The first was on the 5th February at the “Eye of Africa” at Alewynspoort and the second on the 17th September was at the Panorama Cemetery.
In May, the Branch visited the LDS Family History Centre in Parktown where members were shown the ropes by the more experienced members. In October we hosted a workshop where members were divided into groups to discuss problems with group leaders endeavoring to give assistance.
Verder het Ds. Kobus van Tonder ons vertel van die wedervarings van die Dorslandtrekkers, Richard Ford het die nuwe GGSA Grondwet bespreek terwyl NUK lid, Dirk Bloem, die nuwe GGSA Webwerf aan ons voorgestel het. Marius Smit het sy kennis van die drukkuns met ons gedeel.
Dit is verblydend dat sy dienste later deur Neels gebruik is vir die druk van die 10 Jaar Nuusbrief uitgawe en dat hy besonder behulsaam was aan Bob Saunders met die druk van die Begrafnisbrief vir sy moeder se begrafnis.
Dan het Johan Barkhuizen met ons gesels oor “Genealogie geïntegreerd met Geskiedenis en Navorsingsmetodologie op Skool”
Over and above main speakers, branch members Hennie and Marie van Aswegen, Petro Meyer and John Stephens gave short discussions on their own fields of research.
Laastens, was ons November vergadering weer ‘n afsluitingsgeleentheid “Bring en Braai”.
Dit was ook die viering van ons 10 jaar bestaan. Neels het by die geleentheid die 10 Jaar Nuusbriefuitgawe as” geskenk” aan die tak oorhandag terwyl verdienstelikheid sertifikate aan lede oorhandig is. Hierna is die spesiale verjaarsdagkoek wat deur Minnie Pretorius gebak en versorg is gesny en deur almal geniet!
Obtaining speakers for our meetings is not easy – but John Stephens excelled as per usual and handled this onerous task and the organization involved, with aplomb. Once again, our thanks to this stalwart!
Sewe komiteevergaderings is gehou en gemiddeld was 10 uit die 13 lede teenwoordig. Samewerking was, soos in die verlede, uitstekend.
Once again, we manned a stall at the Genealogical Day in Pretoria organized by GSSA stalwart Isabel Groesbeek. This very successful event again allowed us to sell our e-SAGI DVD’s and we again used the proceeds to purchase further books for our library.
Projects
Neels Coertse continued the good work with monthly newsletters conveying information about our branch meetings and welcoming new members joining. Articles by members continue to be included and have been most interesting. Again our thanks to Neels and also to Gerard who handles the actual distribution of same to our members and other branches.
As often previously mentioned, Japie Bosch started the blog on his own initiative a few years ago and it was quickly accepted by our committee as the main “voice” of the branch. Despite moving to the coast, he has continued to provide this service and we, once again, owe him a debt of great gratitude for his excellent work.
Penny Evans continues to feed Japie with photographs and reports making the blog much more interesting also with the inclusion of our branch newsletter and invitations to our monthly meetings.
Once again, the branch managed the stand on behalf of the National Executive. This year was not as good as last year. Turnover was R 6280 as opposed to R 9050 with only 4 new members enrolled as opposed to 18. We sold 28 e-SAGI DVD’s as opposed to 33 with sales of a further 10 GSSA CD’s..
The stand drew much attention mainly as a result of our again using a projector to
show genealogical data on a large screen as opposed to just computer screens used in the past. Many queries were handled data obtained from visitors amazed to find family members in our database and gladly adding further generations.
And again Bob Saunders did most of the work in setting up and dismantling the stand. His contribution greatly contributed to the success of the stand and he needs to be especially thanked. Kriek’s assistance in dismantling was again greatly appreciated.
A word of thanks also to all branch members who assisted and to members who visited from far afield.
Our e-SAGI database continued to expand, showing over 610,000 individuals at year end. Once again sales of same was the major source of revenue for the branch allowing us to buy further items for our library including a new computer and printer/scanner. The assistance of Bob Saunders and Gerard Marloth in this regard was invaluable.
Bob also provided a new external hard drive and installed our collection of CD/DVD’s on to same where this wealth of genealogical data can be accessed by members. It is a shame that not enough members avail themselves of the opportunity. We always have a committee meeting at 12 noon before our monthly meetings so come early and go down to the library and make use of what is available.
Ons moet ongelukkig meld dat ons taklede, met enkele uitsonderings, nie baie behulpsaam was met die “Olifant Opeëet”-projek nie, die invoer van name uit sensuslyste. Meer hulp word dringend benodig. Gesels aseblief met Dennis Pretorius, die Nasionale GGSA projek kordineerder.
As already mentioned, we again presented a course. My personal thanks to stalwarts Dennis Pretorius and Richard Ford who were excellent presenters again and also handled the part usually my responsibility. Due to my illness, I was just not up to doing my bit!
Our branch is still happily using the Church complex of the N.G. Congregation of Ontdekkers Park. We again thank the “Kerkraad” for making these facilities available to us and to Moira Kennedy, our contact lady in the Church office for her helpful assistance.
Our library is still steadily growing by donations from members and purchases of selected items.
Most books have been numbered and inserts recording donations affixed. The recorded lists are available on application.
- Branch celebrates one decade
Our branch was formed on the 10th February, 2001! As already mentioned, this was celebrated during our year-end function and the three envisaged projects completed.
Branch Committee
Last year I wrote: “I write this every year but the truth will out! I cannot but, once again acknowledge the loyal support and assistance of all Committee Members. Their contribution in Branch Management Meetings and in performing allocated duties has always far exceeded expectations. My sincere thanks to one and all.”
This year, even greater thanks are due. My illness placed great strain on all committee members particularly, Bob, John and Dennis. But they rose to the occasion and kept the ship on course despite their own personal problems/commitments.
I have no hesitation in personally proposing
Bob Saunders for the position of Branch Chairman. I am proud that I brought him into the fold a few years ago knowing, even then, that he would be a better chairman than I could ever be and that he was at the right age to bring younger and more vigorous leadership to the branch.
Without
John Stephens, the committee will be the weaker. I know that other members would also like to be rested feeling that they have other commitments and have done their share. But losing two top members will require new members joining and continuity IS important. I consequently urge these members to PLEASE reconsider and to stick it out for another year!
In closing, may I wish the Branch and indeed the entire society, everything of the very best for the year ahead and far into the distant future. I reiterate that I regard the opportunity I have had
to serve as your chairman as a highlight in my life.
I had the daunting task of following in the footsteps of giants, not only in the branch and the society as a whole but in the National genealogical scene. Dennis and Richard, you were a hard act to follow but you were always available with assistance and advice and I knew I could always rely on you. Thank you for being there for me.
To all who have served in the committee with me and so ably assisted in your various fields, my sincere thanks. You made my task easy with your co-operation, indulgence and forgiveness of an old man’s failings.
To every individual member, past and present, my thanks for your support and particularly your thoughts and prayers during my illness.
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