Annual General Meeting – 16 July 19:00
MINUTES FROM THE
WELRIDGE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
16TH JULY @ 19:00
WELTEVREDEN PRIMARY
1. Welcome
• Opened the meeting with a short prayer.
• George Carney (Vice Chair) welcomed all members and non-members to the meeting.
• Introduced the Committee present with Tony standing in for Noreen to present the financials.
2. House rules
• George explained the house rules and those stipulated in the constitution.
3. Attendance
• As per signed registers taken in the foyer
• Very good attendance, if not the best in 20 years.
4. Apologies
• Dee Sanders, Nikkita and Floyd Preston, Charmaine Rowlands, Sharon Brown, Herman Potgieter, Esme Charburn-Arnott, Peter Burkimsher, Brian Whitebread, Anke Bonhage, Keith and Linda Lancaster, Gerrie du Plessis, Tracey and Wayne Booysen, Zayne and Cindy Alli, Annette Miller and Brian Briddle.
• Proxies 9 were received from the members whose names appear in blue above.
5. Acceptance of Minutes from the 2018 AGM
• Proposer: Pierre Smit’
• Seconder: Nick Vrachionidis
• 2018 Minutes accepted
Matters that were raised in the 2018 Minutes and answered.
• Devon from Biesie asked how we are handling speeding – Rudy replied by saying that we can’t do our own law enforcement but must get registration numbers and report to the relevant authorities or pass on the details to the RA. The RA has approached JRA and JMPD for assistance. We do have response from JRA in that speed bumps will be placed on Krinkhout and Hyacinth near the schools. But await the budget and no others were approved yet. JMPD have yet to respond.
• Gillian – responded to a question about what it is the bin pickers are looking for and said that they do not come for glass at all, but prefer cardboard and white paper, Tin and Hard Plastic. However, some do take glass. It’s best to place all recycle items in a clear plastic bag so recyclers can take what they collect with ease.
• Sarah from Biesie asked about the municipal recycling program and how that would affect the bin pickers, the response is we will just have to wait and see what is expected by the municipality’s initiative.
• Dee from Bauhinia stated that Pikitup is not picking up bin bags. Audrey would provide contact details for the query to be taken further. It was done in the week after the AGM
• Wally from Harebell stated that bin pickers do not take plastic caps and just remove them from bottles and throw the caps on the ground. These can be collected and dropped off either at the Spar or given to the recycle guys who sit at the junction of Wonderboom and Pershout.
• Liesl from Rankdoring said that Pikitup are no longer collecting their bins on Thursdays. Audrey would provide contact details for the query to be taken further. The Committee made contact with Region B regional manager and collections are on schedule.
• The switch over from WhatsApp to Telegram
• Switch over to telegram has been done. We are still struggling to get some members over onto telegram and some members do not wish to be on any social media which makes it difficult to communicate with them and they have to be individually contacted.
6. CSS Report Back (Greg)
• Spoke about his operation in January and that he has been between hospital and home for the last 5 months
• Thanked the community for the videos, messages and visits during this time.
• Crime was relatively good from June 2018 to June 2019.
• Unfortunately it has shown a marked increase this month (July 2019)
• Criminals operate in organised syndicates (mostly) and all over Johannesburg and so crime comes in waves as they shift their priorities in the greater Johannesburg region.
• CSS will continue to be there for Welridge community and members and provide for the security needs going forward.
• No questions were posed to Greg.
7. Chairlady’s report
• Will be posted on the website.
• Questions:
• …Gillian Tucker (Biesie Avenue) – how will the road closure at Hyacinth affect Biesie? – Answer it won’t as it’s the closure of Hyacinth at Jim Fouche – Hyacinth road closure – the survey was done by Rudi Brekelmans on behalf of the Committee and the affected residents have all been in favour of the proposed closure of Hyacinth at Jim Fouche’ intersection. A sub-committee needs to be formed under the guidance of the WRA committee to drive the project to finality.
• …Gillian Tucker – who should a resident report quad, bikes in the green belt to? – Answer: report to JMPD
• …Raymond Carter-Johnson – how many houses in the RA?
• Answer: Including both sides of Dale Lace there are 776 houses with 327 of those being members.
8. Financials and Budget
• See Tony’s attached report
• No questions were posed to Tony
9. Election of Office Bearers & Succession of Committee
• Nominations from the floor – Susan Bricknell
• Received a nomination form for Peter Burkimsher
• Current Committee will continue with the addition of the above two.
10. Projects
a) Vumatel boxes on pavements
b) Fire Hydrants
c) Electrical Mains Boxes
• See George’s attached report regarding the above projects raised
d) Cameras
• Rudy presented info on the Vumacam project and the contract that Vumacam had proposed to us for rental and monitoring over 36 months.
• Raymond Carter-Johnson asked what this would cost per member at the current membership – a basic answer was approximately R90 per member per month.
• Rudy then presented a model based on the initial pole set up outside Warren’s house and the costs involved in that.
• Raymond Carter Johnson questioned the maths regarding the monthly contribution towards Vumacam. Asked who would monitor the cameras? – answer CSS.
• Riaan from Veerbos asked would there be more costs involved for CSS monitoring?
• Karen from Sycamore – would it help if people paid their fees upfront for the year – yes that would help, but would not be mandatory.
• Deon from Blouhaak – what are the issues regarding the upgrade of the cameras. Answer – cameras would not be needed to be upgraded if they are good cameras for at least about 5 years.
• Gillian – what happens if everyone doesn’t say yes? That’s what we will vote about? Furthermore: will I only pay R300 once off and not pay like R1000? Only R300. – Answer – No it will be a once off, but non-members and businesses will also be approached.
• Tim – could the levy be split over a few months? Yes.
• Tim from Biesie asked why 7, if we close Hyacinth? – Answer – A camera will be situated on Hyacinth greenbelt covering the fence opening on Jim Fouche
• Ralf Steel – do we need any approval from City Power – no because it is powered by the residents.
• Where will they be situated? – See the map at the back. – Map will be sent out.
• Gillian from Biesie – Can’t we just have 4? No, need to cover 6 entrances.
• Jaco from Wonderboom, why so few LPR. He also said he wants the cameras to be proactive. Answer – one LPR (License Plate Recognition) for every entrance is all that is needed. They will be enough to cover in and out movement.
• Tom asked can we not start earlier with the money is reserve funds. Answer – Need to get commitment from members and non-members not present. If we do not get at least a 60-80% willing contributions, project cannot be tackled in one project and will have to be staggered.
• By a show of hands the majority were in favour of the camera project.
• Residents present filled out voting slips indicating their support for the camera project.
• Info will be posted on the website
11. Security
• See Rudy’s attached report.
• As for posting about crime incidents – we want as many facts as possible before accurately posting about incidents in our RA.
• Presented crime statistics from CSS – also posted on the Telegram group.
• A public meeting with Brigadier Maharaj will be requested in conjunction RiverWell and Panorama.
• Question asked…Ralph Steel – do gate motors fall under theft? – Answer is yes, hence the high number of incidents of theft in 2018/19.
• Tips on making your house more secure and other important information was shared by Rudy and has been posted on the Telegram group.
• We have had a domestic watch meeting and we will arrange for more of those in the near future, hopefully at least two meetings in a year.
General
a) The road surface finish of JG Strijdom – this is been dealt with and in conjunction with the other RA’s.
b) Closing off roads at night – Road closures – Raised by Erika from Sycamore – requesting the closure of Rankdoring and Harebell – doubt whether permission will be granted due to practicality of access in emergencies and who will be tasked with opening and closing?
The cost of closing a street is approximately R20 000. So Rankdoring and Harebell is just not feasible.
Rudy thanked Iron Mask Entertainment for the provision of audio-visual equipment to assist the meeting
Meeting adjourned at 20:55
We omitted to mention that Gareth Lingens was not standing for re-election to the Committee and we would like to thank him on behalf of the Committee and the community for his dedication and service to our community over the years.
We wish him and his family much success in their future plans.
