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Home > About WISA > Reports & Minutes > WISA President's report 2001
 
DR RALPH HEATH
The
AGM during WISA 2002 conference in Durban marks the end of my 15-month term as
President of WISA. It has truly been an honour to serve the members of WISA.
Upon reflection WISA has borne the fruits of taking the plunge two years ago to
appoint a full time CEO, Willie Lötz. This decision has enabled WISA to
progress as a professional association beyond my wildest dreams over the past
year and has made my life as President a fruitful experience.
I believe that WISA as it is
today has responded to the challenges of the new millennium and of our Rainbow
Nation as the number of previously disadvantaged persons at WISA 2002 will be in
excess of 35% and slightly more than 20% of the participants will be female.
CHANGES IN
WISA OVER THE PAST YEAR
WISA is under constant threat of
becoming defunct by not keeping up to world trends, not supplying an efficient
service, not listening to our members' needs and through competition for
membership within the water, waste and environmental sectors. In order to meet
these challengers the Board and Council have made some bold moves over the past
year. I would like to
highlight some of the changes that I believe that will make WISA a more desired
and sustainable institute in the future.
Streamlined professional
organization
WISA's head office offers an
efficient administrative service to its members, Divisions and Branches. WISA as
a section 21 company has come on in leaps and bounds with respect to the
administrative services that we offer our members. These include the full time
Chief Executive, a dedicated administration of three people, a new look up to
date web site (voted WEF web site of the month during last year), an expertise
database, an up to date membership database, conference and workshop organising
capabilities, financial services for divisions and professional secretariat for
other water institutes.
Membership
grades
Worldwide water associations
such as WISA (IWA, WEF, AWWA, etc.) offer sense of community and that has always
been a strong foundation in instituting success, but a factor at present is the
younger generation. As Barry Norman (President of the Australian Water
Association noted 'Generation X - in marketing terms, is notorious for not
being a joining generation. We baby boomers seem to join up willingly and have
many affiliations' (Water, July 2001).
As
a result of the international and national trends, as well as a call from our
members, WISA's membership grades have been reviewed and are awaiting
approval. The new criteria have been as a result of the changing dynamics within
which WISA works in the country. The new membership grades have enabled WISA to
expand its membership without losing its professional status. WISA needs
to maintain our proud history of South African water - we need to find ways to
blend our 'intellectual capital' with the challengers of youth to ensure
that we do indeed have some for all in future.
If
the membership numbers of WISA are examined (1989 to 2002) the following trends
can be seen:
- There
is an increasing trend in membership numbers with a marked increase in 2001
(it must be noted that the 2002 figures are for 4 months of the year only)
- The
number of non-individual members has only shown a slight increase over the
past 14 years.
This
increasing trend is encouraging and upon further examination the individual
membership numbers can be attributed to the increased number of student and
affiliate members. These categories of membership are the future of WISA as
these are the youth who will be the water leaders of tomorrow.
The
Board is presently determining criteria for a Youth Member on Council, an
initiative to attempt to not only attract younger members but also give them a
say in plotting our future.
If
the 1998 and 2002 age groups of individual members are compared then it can be
clearly seen that the decisions made by WISA's Board and Council over the past
year to encourage youth are paying dividends. This encouraging trend of youth
membership should result in the sustainability of WISA.
If
the corporation members are analysed for 2002 then it can bee seen that WISA is
fulfilling its role of supporting the South African water industry with a blend
of company members (52%) and local authorities (30%). We need to continue to
service these members through regular communication.
OTHER
INITIATIVES TAKEN FOR THE PROMOTION OF MEMBERS
WISA has implemented some new
initiatives to entice members and at the same time offer a larger package of
perks such as an Attendance Fund, free membership for students, realigned our
bursary scheme, reviewing and increasing our awards and have a dynamic website
used for internet debates.
We
have also forged closer collaboration with DWAF, WRC and the Parliamentary
Portfolio Committee on water in the past year to ensured that we keep abreast
and in touch with the pressing water related issues that are shaping our
country.
WISA
2002 in collaboration with WRC will be producing a dedicated Water SA conference
edition that will enable the papers presented at the conference to have the
required international exposure.
CHALLENGERS FOR WISA'S
FUTURE
These increased demands on the
South African water industry such as privatisation, free water, fluoridisation,
increased areas of water and sanitations services, increasing quality assurance
and cost cutting (using international bench marking). Coupled to these demands
are also the new catchment levies and increased saleable price of water. These
increased demands on the production of drinking water will ensure that the water
service providers continue to strive towards efficiency and cost cutting via
sticking to their core business of water treatment and delivery. These debates
and increasing demands will continue to test the ability of the South African
water industry to meet the challengers of the future.
WISA has held several strategic
planning workshops with selected members, industrial leaders and Council to give
feedback into what their requirements are from WISA. This ongoing reassessment
has also resulted in a questionnaire survey that is currently being conducted
amongst our members Furthermore WISA is also reassessing the structure and
relevance of our Divisions and Branches. These initiatives will enable us to
revisit our aims and will be the start of a strategic realignment process that
will be communicated to all members. This initiative is geared at us actively
trying to become more responsive to out membership needs.
WISA's international role needs to be confirmed. The
weakening Rand has made overseas conferences a luxury. WISA needs to looking
more to its members who will be attending conference to assists in flying the
proud South African water flag internationally.
WISA's increasing profile in
the South African water industry comes at a price. It is predicted that WISA's
expenses will possibly exceed its income this financial year (a conference
year). This trend will continue if WISA does not look at alternative revenue
streams in the future. Some possibilities are more commercially focussed
conferences, becoming a possible accreditation agent for the water industry and
the possibility of using some of the retired WISA members to develop a series of
capacity building workshops.
MY THANKS
Thanks to Willie Lötz who has really come into his own
as WISA's CEO and who has been the main driver behind most of the initiatives
during by Presidential term. Thanks also the WISA office staff (Elaine, Gisela
and Evelyn) for your efficiency and who always accommodated my 'consultancy
hours' for meetings.
Thanks to my company Pulles Howard & de Lange for the
latitude that you gave me to serve WISA.
Lastly
thanks to all the members of WISA who are so dedicated to serving the water
industry in South Africa - I know that WISA will continue to play a leading
role in the South African water industry,
and not lose sight of its mission 'to promote dialogue and to serve the water
industry in South Africa'.
WISA
is indebted to all of you.
Cheers
Ralph
Heath (May 2002)
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