Minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee ofThe Society of Master Mariners South Africa held at the offices of BMC Africa (Pty) Ltd, 1 Argo Road, Ottery, Cape Town at 16h00 on Thursday 31st March 2016.

  1. Opening: The meeting was opened by the President at 16h00.
  2. Present: R. Whitehead (RW); K. Burchell (KB), D. Henwood (DH), A. Nicholas (AN), S. Pearson (SP).
  3. Apologies: Received from: C. Kingon, L. Merriman.
  4. Minutes of the previous meeting:
  5. Minutes of the last were accepted – proposed by KB and seconded by DH.
  6. Matters arising from the last minutes. Nil
  7. Financial matters:
  8. Central Fund account balances: RW reported the balances in the Central Fund accounts as follows: Current A/C – R946.01; Call A/C – R30,415.83.

5.2.Income: RW reported that a number of arrears subs will be chased up this month and the new invoices for the 2016/2017 year will be sent out shortly.

5.3.Expenditure: The President advised the committee that he needed to attend the Branch AGMs in April and would need to incur travel and accommodation costs. The committee unanimously authorized him to proceed.

  1. Membership: Nil
  2. Branch Matters:
  3. PE Branch had sent copy of a letter from the Acting Terminal Manager of PE’s Transnet Port Terminal attempting to enforce Transnet’s retirement age on service providers to Transnet. Certain other related information was tabled and discussed. The Society will seek legal opinion and in the mean time a letter would be written to the CEO of Transnet Port Terminals bringing his attention to the matter and the Society’s objections.
  4. Branch AGMs are to be held as follows:

Cape Town – Fri 8th April;

PE – Mon 18th April

Dbn – Tues 19th April

RB – Wed 20th April

  1. Benevolent Fund report: RW reported that the Benevolent Fund had continued support Nicole Stohr and she had asked the Society to pass on her sincere gratitude to everyone who had contributed to her support.
  2. Bursary Fund report: RW reported that the Bursary Fund was supporting a student at CPUT on an interim basis but would be reviewing this support at mid year once the mid term results were at hand.
  3. A proposal had been received that the SOMMSA Bursary Fund should consolidate its activities with those of the GBOBA Fund. The Society would be sending out an explanatory email to all members to canvass opinion on this proposal.
  4. National AGM:
  5. Venue and date of National AGM: The National AGM was confirmed for Friday 19th August 2016 in Cape Town. RW would consult with some of the local maritime law firms to see if we could use one of their venues for the AGM. Alternatives would be Lawhill or CPUT.
  6. Items for submission to National AGM: Exco needs to finalise whether the Branch and Excoshould consolidate their activities so as to reduce the amount of time taken up by meetings. In the mean time, it was agreed that Exco should use technology to its maximum and that “meetings” should be held as follows:
  7. Issues of a routine or urgent nature will be dealt with electronically by Excoas and when they arise.
  8. More formal quarterly electronic meetings will be arranged by Exco which will focus mainly on the business/financial situation of the Society.
  9. A physical meeting of those members of Exco available to meet will be held annually prior to the commencement of the Branch AGMs in March/April each year.
  10. Liaison with other Organisations:
  11. NSRI: Nil to report
  12. Mission to Seafarers: Nil to report
  13. SAMSA/DOT: RW reported that he had been following up on progress with the amended STCW CoCs and that SAMSA had advised a Marine Notice was about to be issued to address the issue. Exco once again expressed its concerns that time was running out given the large number of potential CoCs that needed to be issued before the end of the year. Exco also offered to assist SAMSA in processing the issuance of CoCs should they need help.
  14. Education and Training:
  15. SAMTRA: The new CEO of SAMTRA was still being investigated and no announcement was forthcoming yet.
  16. Lawhill Maritime School: The SOMMSA Bursary Fund would be making a donation of new computers to Lawhill.
  17. CPUT: Nil to report
  18. DUT: The report of SOMMSA’s representative on the DUT Advisory Board meeting of the 17th March was tabled and discussed.
  19. IFSMA Matters: RW reported that the letter of resignation had been sent off but no response had been received yet. RW would follow up with a request for confirmation of receipt of our letter.
  20. Correspondence: Nil
  21. Other Business: Nil
  22. Next Meeting: to be advised.

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