MEETING HELD ON 09 NOVEMBER 2016 AT THE PICKELD PIG – PARYS

1. Opening and welcoming:

          The chairman did the opening and welcoming.

2. Attendance and apologies: ­­­­­­­­­­­­­

         Present: Christo Meyer, Bennie Pretorius, Carl Cilliers, Karen Addison, Ria Myburgh 

        Apologies:  Samuel Seleke, Hugh du Preez, Irene Mfeleng and Ester Ndweni.  

         The minutes (with a few corrections) of the previous meeting was accepted and signed by all present.

2.2 Action list:

Name                                                       Action                                                             Feedback

3.   Feedback:

3.1 North West Parks and Tourism Board – This department split and in future it will be the North West Parks Board and the North West Tourism Board. At the time of this meeting no feedback was received on the DGA inquiry regarding the contact details for the person/department that deal with grant application. If the DGA do not receive grants from North Wet Tourism Board and Cathsseta, then the DGA as an association have no right to exist. Grants are the life line and if the association don’t get it, training cannot be done. Subscriptions will not keep the DGA alive. Therefore it is of the utmost importance to pursue the matter with the North West Tourism Board and Cathsseta in getting grants.

3.2  Cathsseta – The fourth application for a grant was submitted. No further feedback was received from Cathsseta. A due diligence assessment was done by them and they seemed pleased. Cathsseta also switch over to a new system which make online application easy to use. Since the first grant that DGA received, no new grants for adventure guiding was allocated.

3.3 Website – None 

3.4 Financial Statements – The basic monthly expenditure goes toward the salary for a part-time admin-assistant, the website, accountants and a monthly contribution towards Andy Robins – Wild Life Conservation Trust. Expenditure is already kept to the bare minimum. A part-time assistant is necessary because there is always admin work to be done. DGA should get more focused and more aggressive in getting grants in order to keep going. DGA should also explore some other ways in obtaining grants, like culture or eco-tourism. DGA is knowledgeable enough to adapt to other fields of guide training. We should also think about changing our approach when applying for funding/grants – be more visible and do more networking and create a greater awareness in what DGA is all about. A proposal was made to give R1000 to Samuel Seleke and Ester Ndweni to represent the DGA at a tourism networking launch on 26 November 2016 in Mahikeng. Samuel Seleke must also see to what extent he can get names and contact details from persons/companies who the DGA could approach for possible funding/grants. He must also give some feedback during the next meeting and photos of the launch if possible. The Chairman will discuss the outing with Samuel Seleke and ask him to pay a visit to the Secretary in order to discuss it further and collect the R1000.

3.5 Badges – Gabriel…..(North West Registrar) contacted the DGA office to inform the Secretary that the badges will be available in three weeks. The company who is making the badges is situated in Cape Town. It is now past three weeks. A proposal was made that the Secretary should write a letter to Ms U. Pillay, detailing correspondence send and received during 2016 regarding the badges.

3.6 Grewer Ave – None

4. New matters:

4.1 Vice Chair: A new vice Chair person should be chosen. A proposal was made that it makes sense to appoint Samuel Seleke. It might also be the answer for him to be more involved with the DGA. A consensus was reached by the committee members regarding the proposal. The Chairman will discuss it with Samuel Seleke and the DGA awaits his acceptance or declination of the proposal.

4.2 Certificates: The idea was to hand over the badges and certificates by Mr Jeff Mabundo (Development Manager Tourism at the North West Tourism Board) to recipients during a special function with some publicity exposure in the local newspaper. Permission is given to hand over the certificate to Jayden Cilliers, who will attend a Summer Camp in the USA. Part of the motivation will be the printed confirmation of him being a qualified guide.

4.3 Advertisement Facebook page: People should pay a monthly fee to advertise on Facebook/Website. On the website a slider with ads will need minimum maintenance and will appear on all the pages. Graeme Addison already indicated that he will be interested to advertise on the website. Both the Facebook page and website could be linked to the Vredefort Dome website run by Rob Traubman. All this will be included in the fee of R600 for 6 months or R1000 for a 12 month period. Ads will be placed once a week. This will create funds to support the maintenance of the Facebook page and website.

4.4 The question was asked if there is any control over the licensing of boats that are being used on the river. Not all operators know about Samsa and that boats should be registered with them. DGM should act as a info centre regarding this type of information to create a greater awareness. Facebook and the website could be used for this.  

5.  Meeting closed at: 12.24  

6.  Next meeting: 18 January 2017 – 11:00 – Pickled Pig