Minutes of Committee meeting 11th October 2023
| Topic | Decision/Agreed Action | |
| 1. | Secretary’s report | It was decided that people who request to be added to the BR&RA Members’ WhatsApp group but do not provide names and surnames, will not be added. Dissemination of information to the community is to be shared between M. Stricker, C. Rothwell and M. Charter. |
| 2. | Treasurer’s report | Financials will be prepared for the AGM. Amendment of constitution: The amended version has been filed with CIPC by WL. |
| 3. | Chair’s report | The Ward 5 councillor and EM will write to the Municipal Manager and request detailed information about the proper public participation process in relation to the Memorial Hall. |
Minutes of Committee meeting 13th September 2023
| Topic | Decision/Agreed Action | |
| 1. | Website and social media | C. Rothwell, M. Stricker and L. Venter to meet before the next committee meeting, to discuss social media strategies. |
| 2. | Chair’s Report | A. Two environmental projects are contemplated, and will probably be handed over to Friends of Waters Meeting to implement. One is the establishment of a Thicket Botanical Garden – the only one in the world – at the revived Summerhill Guest Farm. This is dependent on getting agreement on an adequate water supply – from PGA and/or the municipality. The second is the transformation of the dam at the Boundary/Kowie Road junction into an exhibition wetland. This awaits formal approval from the site owners and the availability of a scientific advisor, currently completing a PhD.
B. The Bathurst Striders hiking club has started a roads survey of the Village. This has been temporarily halted, pending the establishment of a regular monthly meeting with the relevant municipal officials. The intention is to establish a record of all discussions with the municipality, and to follow up on progress each month. Once the meeting has been set up, we will be able to raise any issues we have about service delivery on a regular basis – buildings, roads, sewerage, water, street lights, dump management, commonage, etc. C. Commonage (including rubbish dump) management is coming to the fore. Tentative initial steps are being taken to establish the statutorily required Commonage Management Committee. This needs to include all users of the Bathurst commonage – walkers, birders, riders, 4x4ers, cattle farmers, vegetable growers, herbalists, amagqirha, municipality etc. Establishing a relationship with credible representatives of each group is likely to take some time. As is developing a working relationship with the Local Enterprise Development department of the municipality, which oversees commonages throughout Ndlambe. |
Minutes of Committee meeting 17th August 2023
| Topic | Decision/Agreed Action | |
| 2. | Membership fee | R150 per natural or juristic person per annum |
| 2. | Financial year end date | BR&RA year end is 31 August. Warwick to see the revised constitution accords with this. |
| 3. | Social media | BR&RA should expand its reach beyond the “Facebook Generation”, starting with an Instagram account. |
| 4. | Website | Create a website backup and discuss other security measures |
| 5. | Calendar / year planner | Decide on a calendar plugin so that members can check and arrange events on the BR&RA website |
| 6. | Roads | Make a list of roads that need attention, with reasons and possible solutions – first steep roads that wash out, and later, more or less level roads where mud puddles develop. |
| 7. | GM 20/9/23 | Arrange hall with Alan Pike |
Minutes of Committee meeting 24th July 2023
| Topic | Decision/Agreed Action | |
| 1. | Accounting Officer | Elizabeth asked if we have confirmation on an Accounting Officer appointment? Warwick said that Neill Pike has accepted the appointment. |
| 2. | Review of SGM minutes | Minutes of SGM were forwarded to Elizabeth and Warwick and posted on the Website as agreed. |
| 3. | Revised constitution | Elizabeth reported on her meeting with Chris Boyd and that it was agreed that amendments, as indicated at the SGM, will be made to the constitution to ensure that there is no abuse of voting by the juristic persons. |
| 4. | BR&RA Website & Social media | We also need to add the registration no. to the website. BR&RA Posters for the website need to be put up in strategic places. Maya to ask Chris Johnson for help with the other social media like Facebook, Instagram, etc. The same icon should be used everywhere. |
| 5. | Sustainability of projects | 1. Road survey is now underway by the Bathurst striders, which will be used to hopefully get the Municipality to do the necessary repairs.
2. The big pineapple is in need of some repair – Elizabeth reported that Summerhill has agreed to allow BR&RA to hold a pineapple festival in early December in order to raise some funds towards the restoration of our pineapple landmark. 3. Ensuring sustainability of our commonage (with Fiends of Waters Meeting). Rhodes students are doing a survey of various residents regarding the commonage, as a start. On 5th August Friends of Waters Meeting will have a panel discussion about the commonage. Hopefully, a commonage care group will emerge. 4. Alien vegetation eradication – (the village is drowning in lantana and other invasive aliens) – There is a possibility that there may be DEAT funding available for a start-up business to take this on. But it’s early days and a long road ahead. 5. Security / crime prevention: Elizabeth reported that she has asked someone if he would be prepared to take on driving this project, and we await his response. |
| 6. | Community meetings | It was suggested that we should hold three or four open community meetings a year, to take the opportunity to present interesting initiatives to the community and to encourage people to air their enthusiasms, opinions and concerns. |
| 7. | Membership | Membership recruitment needs to become a priority. In particular, we need to encourage business membership. |
| 8. | Future Projects | Projects for which we are looking for “drivers” – the burnt out hall, clearing invasive alien vegetation, possible wall art initiative, developing employability in Nolukhanyo youth, job creation, security/crime prevention. |
| 9. | Committee meetings | Elizabeth suggested that monthly committee meetings should be held and asked for input for suitable date and times. |
Minutes of Committee meeting 12th June 2023
| Topic | Decision / Agreed Action |
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Minutes of AGM held 19/4/2023 | Minutes have been agreed and are ready for posting. |
| 2. | Launch of the BRRA website | Maya, Grant and Warwick to meet 14/6 to assess readiness |
| 3. | Appointment of an Accounting Officer | Neil Pike to be approached by Warwick via email |
| 4. | The new draft Constitution | Changes were agreed. |
| 5. | AOB: SGM | Work out how to communicate with members re SGM Agree date with Lihani |