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AGM 2012

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Chairman’s ReportSeptember 2011 – July 2012

This report covers the following Council Meetings:• 20 October 2011• 8 December 2011• 9 February 2012• 19 April 2012• 21 June 2012

CONTENT

1. Treasury (Jan Wegelin)

• Annual financial audit statements received from ARB; no concerns raised.• The following topics are covered in the Treasurer's report and will BE presented

separately in the Treasury Report:• Budget• Banking practices• CEO Position• Bad Debts• SARS

2. Council Activities• The reporting period include a total of 5 Council meetings• The following Portfolio changes occurred during the reporting period:

• Chair of Corporate – Shirley Benny resigned and Alexan Carrilho was elected as Chair

• SAMRA Yearbook – Cletus Dube resigned and Elsa Thirion-Venter volunteered to take over the responsibilities until a new chair could be elected

• QSIG – Marna Kirchner resigned and Elna Smit was elected into replacement

• RUF – Grant Lindhorst resigned towards the end of the reporting period

• Membership Diversity – Mzwandile Khanya resigned towards the end of the reporting period

• Council approved the appointment of Leonie Vorster as CEO of SAMRA from 1 May 2012 for an initial period of 6 months to be reviewed for further appointment

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3. Membership Status (Kobus Badenhorst)• On 31 July 2012 SAMRA’s membership of paid-up members stood at 397 (incl.

13 Honorary members). This figure is almost the same as 2011(399) and seems to have stabilized after the strict removal of all non-paying members from the database.

• Suppliers: 266

• Research users: 59 (down from 2011)

• – Note 13 Other and 62 undetermined

13 Honorary, of which 2 is an Accredited Member214 Full Members, of which 65 Accredited Members & 13 Honorary180 Associate Members3 Distance Members2 Field Members

• Corporate members: 37 (6 down from 2011).

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3. Membership Status (cont.)

•Proposed Membership Restructuring:• The membership portfolio was tasked to conduct an investigation for

restructuring the membership towards an improved basis of representation and reaching more stakeholders involved in the research industry.

• The first report and proposal for suggested changes was tabled at the Council meeting of 19 April and approved in principle. Amendments to the proposal was suggested for further review.

• The amended Membership Restructuring proposal was tabled for approval at the Council meeting of 21 June 2012 – the following decision was taken:• Leonie Vorster will prepare the proposals for membership restructuring and

changes to Articles of Association and Memorandum of Association for the AGM to be held on 14 August 2012, with the assistance of legal counsel

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4. SAMRA Yearbook (Elsa Thirion-Venter):

• The 2012 Yearbook edition has been completed under the volunteered guidance of Elsa Thirion-Venter after the resignation of the former Chair – Cletus Dube

• It is planned to print 650 copies for 2012

5. SAMRA Journal (Schalk van Vuuren)

• Issue no 8 was published in July 2012 under the very competent guidance of Schalk van Vuuren

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6. SAMRA Conference (Kim Larsen)

•16 – 17 August 2012 – Crowne Plaza Hotel, Rosebank

•4 Guest Keynote Addresses• Andy Rice – Yellowwood• Andisa Ntsubane – Microsoft• Sifiso Mazibuko – Facebook National Account Manager• Will Goodhand – Brainjuicer’s Juicy Evangelist

•3 Opinion Pieces •2 Expert Q&A•16 Research Papers

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6. SAMRA Conference (cont.)

•ESOMAR Workshop (“Measuring Emotions” presented by Will Goodhand from Brainjuicer)

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7. Corporate Membership (Alexan Carrilho)

•The Corporate Membership responsibility handed over to Alexan Carrilho after resignation of Shirley Benny•One corporate meeting held late last year addressing corporate membership structure•The SAMRA Salary Survey recently initiated. Results can be expected soon, and report is available at a fee to both members and non-members from the SAMRA offices.

8. Research Users’ Forum (Grant Lindhorst)

•First RUF Committee meeting held 14th April 2012.•Plans to expand the RUF database – SAMRA Office must include SAMRA members and non-members in the research user stakeholder database.

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9. Fieldworkers’ Forum (Tanya Scates)

•The Fieldworker Forum held a succesfull Forum meeting where various aspects relating to fieldwork challenges were discussed in detail.•Addressing recognition and quality issues, as well as improving working conditions.

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10. Branch Activities

•Cape Town – (Juliet van Zyl)• Handover done from Stina van Rooyen to Juliet van Zyl• Peter Osmund resigned from SAMRA• Plans in place to increasing SAMRA awareness and raise profile at local

universities

•Durban – (Peter Highley)• Plans to increase SAMRA exposure in KZN• Plans to hold and “Open-Day” after annual conference

•Johannesburg – (Grant Lindhorst)• Plans in place to increasing SAMRA awareness and raise profile to JHB

members

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10. Branch Activities (cont.)

•Pretoria – (Elsa Thirion-Venter) • Very succesfull Young Researcher 2011 function was hosted under the

completion of the previous Chair (Adré Schreuder), where cash prizes were sponsored by Consulta Research

• Function held with Prof. Bernie van Zijl from the Riskflow Institute about the Cost of Reputational Risk

• Pretoria young Researchers Award in planning process

•Namibia – (Liza Burmeister) • Promoting Market Research in the Namibian business environment • SAMRA Namibia is alive and well and going from strength to strength in the

future. The branch grew to 16 members and emphasis will be placed during the year ahead on involving more clients and students and so further build the membership.

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11. Training & Education (Noluvuko Mathibe)

•“Dealing with subjectivity in data interpretation” training done in February 2012 and well received by attendees•“Introduction to ethics” webinar held in May•Several webinars and training events planned for the remainder of the term

12. Services SETA (Elsa Thirion-Venter, Adré Schreuder)

•Nominations for the Services SETA Accounting Authority submitted on 23 April 2012. Nominations were unsuccessful. SAMRA decided not to submit any new nominations as the successful nominees will carry fiduciary responsibility as part of the Services SETA Accounting Authority.•The Services SETA portfolio will be managed by the CEO from 21 June 2012

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13. SAMRA Accreditation (Alex Kessel)

•The CPD System is finalised and now on-line. The Application/Renewal process was updated in November 2011 •A total of 65 SAR members by the end of July 2012 as well as the CPD membership renewal of the first candidates•Meetings were held to discuss the planned SAR Exam with two academics from University of Pretoria and Prof Adré Schreuder & Elsa Thirion Venter

14. Code of Conduct (Leonie Vorster)

•The webinar format worked well for the Introduction to Ethics session on 11 June 2012 and will be continued. Ethics snippets/circulars will be prepared and distributed every two months, instead of monthly, or as the need arises.•Several complaints about sugging was addressed and submitted for further investigation and action to the Direct Marketing Association

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15. Communicaiton

•External Communication (Anina Maree)• SAMRA office sent out the Golf Day invitations at the end of June 2012; Golf

Day will contribute to the SAMRA Bursary fund. • Press releases issued:

• Restructuring high on SAMRA Agenda• SAMRA Conference release• Adman Andy Rice to set scene at 2012 SAMRA Conference• Early Bird bookings

•Internal Communication (Monique Greenland)• SAMRA Newsletter distributed at the end of June 2012. • Instead of having four (4) newsletters a year, there will be three (3) (March,

June, September), with newsflashes on an ad hoc basis.

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15. Communicaiton (cont.)

•International Communications (Salomé Barnard)• SAMRA supports an investigation of participation in the Global Research

Business Network (GRBN). • An ESOMAR training workshop for members on the day before the SAMRA

Conference in August.• Pursuing and/or solidifying relationships with international organisations to

ensure that we strengthen SAMRA’s international profile

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16. Membership Diversity & Special Interest Groups

•Membership Diversity (Vacant)• Mzwandile Khanya is no longer chair of the portfolio. Council to reconsider the

role and viability of this portfolio

•Special Interest Groups• Establishing and maintaining special interest groups to cater for specific

membership segments:

• Qualitative Interest Group (Elna Smit)• Branch-level mini-conferences about current qualitative issues are scheduled

for September 2012.• Position QSIG as an event-based initiative that that will liaise with local

SAMRA committees to allow for greater sharing and involvement.

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• Special Interest Groups (cont.)

• Research Freelancers/Small Business Special Interest Group (Leonie Vorster)

• Provides a forum for research freelancers and small enterprises to share ideas, learning, resources, projects, and to support one another. Currently consists of 29 members.

• Membership processing underway.• Fieldworker Forum assistance provided.• Plans underway to:

• Set up an electronic directory facility on SAMRA website where freelancers and micro-enterprises can list their services.

• Launch electronic learning activities • Start a newsletter for the forum

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17. New Initiatives

•CPA (Leonie Vorster)• We were advised to firstly request that research be exempted from the Act and

secondly to get our codes accredited at the NCC.• Documention was prepared and contact was made with the DTI to start the

process. • Received written confirmation from DTI that market research is exempted

from CPA in March 2012.• Approval of Code of Conduct and Articles of Association changes (if relevant) by

the Directors, the chairman’s Council and the AGM.

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18. Administration and Office Management

•The office continued to ensure that the SAMRA database stay up to date (non-paying members and expired membership details removed).•Thanks to SAMRA’s Office manager - Nadia Cassim, our administrative capability has continued to improve. Nadia is supported by Desiree.•Nadia is now also responsible for updating our website as and when required

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THANK YOU

To each and every Council member for your volunteered support and commitment during the past year. Thank you to all members contributing to constructive improvement of our industry. Thanking all sponsors of events, prizes and functions.

A special word of thanks to the Council for their tolerance and strategic guidance with the very significant changes that our organisation had to implement in 2012. The strategic planning of 2011 was put into practise during 2012 and I believe sets the scene for growth and expansion of our stakeholder mandate.

A special thanks to the Council members, Elsa Thirion-Venter with advise and experience as past chair, as well as Jan Wegelin with his support and alligned vision as incoming Chair from September 2012