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MDF National Chairperson’s report September 2007
National Chairperson’s report from the National AGM held at Makaranga Garden Lodge in Kloof, September 2007
1. Welcome
2. Funding
2007 is the first year that we have been in a financial position to assist the branches, enabling them to focus more on the needs of our members.
This is primarily thanks to Crossbow Marketing who has once again excelled in raising funds for us through the Annual Forward Planner and Motor Mate Handbook campaigns. We also need to acknowledge the phenomenal amount of awareness they have created for MD to the general public across South Africa through their sales calls.
The income from these projects has allowed us to invest the funds and finance the branches through the growth of these investments. Many thanks to Grant Raubenheimer, from Liberty, who keeps an eagle eye on our investments.
In the past year we were also very fortunate to receive R100 000 from the Weihann Trust in response to an application we submitted for equipment. This amount was divided evenly between the regional branches for member assistance.
In March of this year all branches, including the national office, submitted a combined application to the National Lotteries Board for funding. There are numerous projects that we would like to do, so we are holding thumbs for the approval of the application.
3. Conferences
In July Maxine Strydom represented the MDF at the Parent Project convention in the USA. She has been working with the Department of Education, Special Needs Division in KZN. They have agreed to print 200 information packs. They will incorporate the MDF logo, Parent Project logo and Dept. of Education logo. They have also agreed to a pilot project in which they will select 13 schools, assess them and turn them into centres of excellence. Each school needs to meet the physical and emotional needs of the children. This is for all disabled children and thereby incorporates those with DMD.
The Foundation also funded, in part, Kelly Loggenberg’s trip to the European Society Of Human Genetics conference in Nice, France in June, as well as her attendance at the conference in Drakensburg in March.
4. Research
In the previous Research Funding Cycle we had two applications for consideration. One was approved for funding. In the current cycle we have two applications, both from the Cape region. We wish to extend our thanks to the members of the GRC who have volunteered their time to share their expertise and advise our committee on the research funding applications.
5. Awareness
The magazine had gone from strength to strength, many thanks to the branches, professionals and members who contribute their stories, their news and other valuable information. The feedback has been very positive. We have gone from distributing 900 copies to 1200 copies in a year and hope to see this number grow even further in the year ahead.
DSTV has once again provided free airtime for our three television adverts. This year we were thrilled to receive airtime to the value of R300 000. Many thanks to Oracle Airtime Sales in Randburg for arranging this for us.
Primedia too provided free airtime for our advert on their radio stations to the value of R110 000! On request, they have agreed to produce another radio advert for us in 2008n provided we only air it on their stations. We look forward to working with them on this project.
6. Budget
In March our executive team put together our National budget for the year 2007/2008 at the Strategy Planning meeting. Included in the budget was funding for Parent Project, branch assistance and Gauteng’s fundraiser.
As Gauteng reported, for 6 months their fundraiser was contracted to work for both Gauteng branch and National. The contract ended on the 30th of September.
7. Database Project
Gauteng undertook this project in an effort to “clean-up” our database and make it more user-friendly. We hope that this will serve as a firm foundation the client contact system and will roll it out to the branches before year-end. We need to keep in mind that the reports drawn will only be as good as the information captured and hope that our members will be forth-coming in updating their information.
8. In conclusion
The work of the Foundation is dynamic and changes. We are always looking for ways to improve. With this in mind, we are going to be working on the MDF website, the database and client contact system, standardization and expanding the provision of assistive devices.
We have found it very beneficial to have a six-month review. We would like to thank our staff and Executive committee members for the time, effort, heart and soul that they put in to make this Foundation stronger.
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