Agenda for the 92nd Annual General Meeting of the Van Riebeeck Society for the Publication of Southern African Historical Documents (VRS), held at the Slave Lodge, Adderley Street at 18h00 on Thursday 3rd November 2011

1. Welcome & apologies.

2. In Memoriam.

3. Confirmation of minutes of the 91st AGM held on 27 October 2010.

4. Matters arising from the minutes

5. Treasurer's report.

6. Chairman's annual report.

7. A.O.B.

Minutes of the 92nd Annual General Meeting of the Van Riebeeck Society for the Publication of Southern African Historical Documents (VRS), held at the Slave Lodge, Adderley Street at 18h00 on Thursday 3rd November 2011

1. Welcome and apologies

The Chairman, Prof Howard Phillips, welcomed the approximately 60 members present. Apologies were recorded (as per the attached list).

2. In Memoriam

Members stood for a moment’s silence whilst the Chairman read out the list of members who had died since the previous AGM (list attached).

3. Confirmation of the Minutes of the 91st AGM held on 27th October 2010

The minutes had been displayed on the VRS website, while copies were available at the AGM as well. After a minor correction pointed out by Mr G M Wittenberg, acceptance of the minutes was proposed by Sandy Shell and seconded by Joe Coetzee. They were signed once accepted by all without discussion.

4. Matters arising from the minutes

None

5. Treasurer’s Report

Copies of the financial statement were available to all members. Since Mr Piet Westra could not attend the AGM, our accountant, Mr Sakkie Nieuwoudt, presented the report. He explained that the income of R310 075 was less than that for 2009 and that a loss of R74000 expenditure over income had resulted in 2010. Both publication costs and general expenses had risen, hence there was a gap between subscriptions and the expenses in producing the annual volume. Since membership subscriptions have been raised to R150 for 2011, he expected this gap to be satisfactorily narrowed. The cost of running the VRS amounts to about R150 000 per annum and this has to be covered by other income earned (such as sales of back volumes). The auditor is satisfied that the society is run as economically as possible. Investments and reserves are still healthy.

There were some questions from the members: what the average interest earned by our investments was (about 6.5%) and whether 2011 would again produce a loss (it is hoped not). There was also a request that accounts would be distributed earlier, before the annual meeting, so that members have a better chance to study them. A proposal that we should change the ending of the financial year closer to the AGM elicited the response from Mr Nieuwoudt that this would cause major upsets with the Receiver of Revenue and possibly take several years. The VRS has planned to reduce expenses and to effect several savings in order to balance the books.

Acceptance of the financial statement was proposed by Elizabeth van Heyningen and seconded by Jan Truter, and it were signed by Prof Howard Phillips after the members approved it without further discussion.

6. Chairman’s annual report (attached)

After Professor Phillips had presented the annual report for 2010/2011, a question from the floor elicited that the highest membership figure had been recorded in 1974/5 (1600 members) but that this number had dropped to 832 in 2003. There was also a question as to how old publishable material had to be and the answer was that it need not be very old, vide the Paton volume which included letters into the 60s of the last century. Dr S Craven proposed accepting the report and Tanya Barben seconded the proposal. The proposal was approved by the meeting. Sandy Shell moved a sincere word of thanks to the chairman of the Committee, Prof Howard Phillips, for his inspired and inspiring leadership of the Society, which was heartily applauded by those present.

7. Any Other Business

Mr Wittenberg proposed that the VRS should continue publishing documents in their original format without necessarily paying attention to “political correctness” of language and content. There was a question from the floor as to whether the Society had thought about publishing its volumes electronically. Prof Howard Phillips replied that Google had scanned in certain portions of volumes older than ten years. Moreover, 27 letters not included in this year’s volume had been made available on the VRS web page. However, at this stage, formal electronic publishing was not on the agenda as yet.

The meeting ended at 18.30.

Signed

Chairman……………………………………….

Date…………………………………………….

Apologies

John Plummer

Margaret Lenta

Piet Vorster

Mary Burton

Digby Sales

Deon Viljoen

Nigel Penn

Mrs M Corbett

Piet Westra

Mrs Jean Webber

Mrs P S Pickstone

Dr Anton Ehlers

Prof Pieter Kapp

Mr A Faria

Prof Robert Shell

In Memoriam 2011

Mr J F Preller

Dr Desmond Berkman

Mr Nathan Bloch

Dr Owen Ovendale (a ready helper at our functions and the husband of our longstanding Friday volunteer, Doreen)

Mr P Alberts

Ms J Kenyon

Dr P J J Ackermann

Mr G A D Thornton

Dr J C Linde

Mr C Hofmeyr

Mr M L Wilson

Mr L H Walton

Mr P R Cullinan

Judge A P Burger,

Mrs J Z L Thesen;

Mr D C Hauptfleisch

Justice J N Hugo