Minutes of the RERA Exco January Meeting
Held at 102 Gazania Weg on 19 January 2024 Attendees: Achim Halpaap- Chair, Piet van Rensburg Vice-Chair, Lesley Lundie – Treasurer, Tom Baigrie - Secretary, with Ralph Pine representing REC. Apologies from Andre Roothman. Housekeeping: The meeting being quorate the agenda was approved. The appointments listed above were also approved as to be held until the conclusion of the 2023 AGM, which will be held on Easter Saturday, 30 March 2024 to maximise possible attendance. Until the reconvened AGM, Piet and Achim are swapping roles, with Achim serving as Chair and Piet as Vice Chair. Tom is serving as Secretary. Other functions remain unchanged. Furthermore, Christoph Weichsler, who kindly offered his services to work on a possible Special Rating Area on security with RESA, was approved as a coopted Member of Exco to support RERAs engagement in SRA work (see also below). Action: Achim to make arrangements for use of Pringle Bay Community Hall or similar, as well as online attendance. Action: Achim to contact Christoph Weichsler Action: Piet to ask Kay to reflect the above new appointments on our website and publish these minutes, as well as those of the 2023 AGM (in draft until approved at the 2024 AGM). Action: Achim to draft mailchimp to notify the village of the above changes and attach the meeting minutes. OM liaison: The meeting noted that while Piet has attended all the Ward meetings and liaised almost daily with OM on infrastructure and other issues, RERA had no representation on the Joint Operational Committee JOCOM or the CFP (Security) due to lack of volunteers. Piet will continue as the Ward representative until end of March, 2024. Action: Tom to ask Pierre to consider representing RERA at the JOCOM meetings again, and Frank Raymond to represent RERA at the CPF meetings Gardening and road verges: The Exco discussed that in order to free up some of Achim's time, a replacement should be found for the coordinator of community maintenance work. The new co-ordinator should be prepared to work within the Terms of Reference approved at the 2023 AGM. Furthermore, we agreed that Ruben will be kept on in his role at his present renumeration until 30 June 2024. Action: Achim to add the list of tasks the co-ordinator needs to do to the TOR doc. Lesley will explore with a possible candidate (s) and report back to the Exco. Nominations and candidates for the 2024 Exco: The meeting noted that an overarching principle in identifying candidates should be to achieve harmony and cooperation within Exco, no matter the differences in opinion represented, and that possible candidates should be identified who fit these objectives, and who are interested in taking responsibility for one or more of RERA’s Exco portfolios. Notwithstanding that the future Exco needs to make its own decisions, we noted that the following RERA Exco functions and portfolios need to be covered. 1. OM policy and relationships 2. Land use and Infrastructure maintenance 3. Finance/Treasurer 4. Secretary 5. Communication 6. Possible support of coopted members for topics such as:
The Exco discussed how flexibility and inclusion could be provided to allow candidates to stand for election at the reconvened AGM, taking into account the applicable clauses of the Constitution. The following points were confirmed: 1. Clause 3.6 of the RERA Constitution provides authority to Exco to terminate RERA membership, for example, when the membership fee is not paid. The Constitution does not, however, specify when membership fees are due. Taking this into account, the Exco considered that members paid-up in 2023 would not automatically have their membership terminated on 31.12.2023, but only when it became clear they were not going to pay the 2024 fee. This ensures that membership does not start at zero in a given year and it consistent with the practice of other organizations (e.g. REC). 2. Provided members pay the 2024 membership fee in advance of the reconvened AGM in March, they can vote in the 2024 Exco elections, in accordance with clause 5.c of the Constitution, which requires someone to be a paid-up member to vote. 3. In order to maximise the number of paid-up RERA members in time for election at the reconvened AGM, Exco will request RERA membership fees to be paid by 29 February 2024. Nominations for Exco election can then be made by 16th March, 14 days before the 2023 AGM reconvenes. 4. Should members not pay in time for the AGM meeting, they will remain members, though without voting rights. A fee reminder will be sent in early July 2024. If the fee is not paid by the end of July, membership will be terminated. 5. It was further confirmed that a voting (paid-up) member may control a maximum of 2 proxies at the reconvened AGM meeting on 30 March 2024. Action: Tom to draft a Mailchimp mailing to all villagers noting the above. Land Use matters: There is only one matter under current consideration, the planning consent sought on Erf 134, the farm on the R44 at the top of Rooiels Hill. Piet held a very positive and reassuring meeting with the owner, who recognised some problems how his advisers had presented his plans first time round. He will be lodging further submissions with OM and given those are now expected to demonstrate minimal visual impact from the road, RERA Exco will take no further action until we have reviewed those. Security: Regarding the SRA, we noted that a primary requirement is that any application is routed through a representative local body. Within Rooiels, RERA is the one required by OM. We also noted that Peter der Konig is Rooiels’ subject matter lead and is part of RESA, and RESA should continue to lead on this. In light of his expressed interest in assisting, the Exco agreed that Christoph Weichsler become a co-opted member of RERA to take the lead and liaise with Peter and support the process appropriately, as RERA’s representative. Action: Achim will attend a meeting with RESA on SRA with Christoph to be arranged. Ward 10: Ward 10 representation will continue as per 2023 until the new RERA committee is formed. The Minutes of the last Ward meeting in 2023 were circulated to Exco. They include a number of aspects to be taken forward in 2024. Ward 10 will have a closed Ward meeting, followed at 1800 by an open meeting without an agenda after their normal closed on 20 February 2024. Action: Tom to draft a Ward mailchimp to invite Rooielsers to the meeting and to contact Piet with any specific items they want him to raise at Ward level. Communications: All agreed that to speed up and simplify RERA communications with members and all in the village who are on our database, the following process would be followed: 1. The relevant member would draft the comms. 2. All would have a specified brief opportunity to comment. 3. A final version would be drawn up by the originator, with care to take account of any comments, and sent immediately. Constitutional amendment process: Achim presented a draft TOR for on the Constitutional amendment process. As per the adopted AGM Resolution, the first step will be to form a Task Team. This should be done by mid-February so that work can start soon after and be completed by 30 June, by when RERA members should vote on possible amendments. A discussion followed during which concerns were raised that a large Task Team of up to 15 members may prove unwieldy, but the desire to maximise inclusivity and diversity of opinion saw us agree to the number 15. The approach used for the Baboon Committee (Babco) in this regard was considered a valuable precedent. A communication will be sent out to the community to elicit interest and identify who may be interested to join the Task Team. Exco decided to nominate Achim to take the lead on this. Action: Achim with Piet to finalize the TOR and draft a mailchimp to inform the community about the process and share the TOR . Action: Ralph to secure a REC appointee to the constitutional Task Team . Next Exco meeting to be held at 19 February 2024 from 1300-1500. Meeting ends.
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