It was Febru-hurry for us this last month, and there is no sign that we are slowing down.
And our AGM in February, which we are required to do in terms of our Constitution, showed that – despite the lingering effects of lockdown and the frightful economic conditions – we performed even better than before. This is entirely due to our tireless volunteers who step up and perform miracles almost daily, and our absolutely amazing donors who selflessly give us funding to continue. .
OUR AGM was held online.
Present: Lindsay, Niki, Barbara, Carol, Cathy, Farhana, Janine, Jay, Nella, Jenell, Keshnie, Lesley, Zaheera. Apologies: Tasmia, Rodney, Yasmin, Cecily. Sai-Anne.
We lost two committee members and we have had no offers to replace them, but we still have enough committee members to form a quorum: There were no elections because there were no new nominations, the incumbents continue in their positions.
Chair – Niki Moore
Secretary – Zaheera
Deputy Secretary –
Treasurer – Lindsay Bisset-Collins
Social Media – Karen Lotter.
Huge thanks to the committee, who kept the organisation afloat.
Annual report-back:
We managed to break all our records this year with 2 200 sterilisations, which is a huge increase over our annual average of 1 500, This is entirely due to tireless work from our volunteers, who have gone way beyond the call of duty to help people with cats. This record is even more remarkable as we have done this with diminished funding as we were not able to sell diaries this year.
Speaking of diaries, we are planning to print diaries for 2024, but we have to change our modus operandi. In the past we had to pay the printer upfront and then redeem our funds from sales. In 2022 we did not have the funds available to make that upfront payment. So for 2024 we will have to take orders upfront – we will be letting you know through this newsletter when you can order.
An appeal – we would really appreciate the help of an accountant to help us get our books in order. Our treasurer puts in a lot of time and energy and does an impeccable job, but we still need to get our financials signed off by an accountant, and every year we have to beg someone to help out. So if anyone knows of an accounting firm that can possibly help us out, please put us in touch.
We also need more volunteers – for trapping, transport, fund=raising, admin. If you would like to help, please send us a mail.
Financial report:
We started the year with a balance of R44 675.68, received donations of R199 7511,07, and paid out R200 559.29 to vets. We raised R5 900 from a market stall that we held at the Hilton Arts Festival – a huge thanks for cat lover Sue Clarence, who runs that very succesful arts festival and gives us a stall every year – and we made R5 300 from membership fees.
We have waived membership fees this year, as we have stopped sponsorship for members and we know that our members will be spending that saving on cats anyway! We ended the year with a healthy balance of R26 582.89. Our administrative incidentals were paid out of our sales of Cats of Durban shopping bags and key rings.
Financially, we have managed to adhere to our mandate, in that none of our donations are spent on anything but vet fees, and our volunteers donate their own time and money to do their extraordinary work. Our other undertaking is that we never spend money we do not have, in other words we raise the money before we spend it.
This means that we are always able to pay our bills immediately and in full, and this has led to our extremely strong relationship with our vets. These two undertakings have made Cats of Durban an extremely strong, credible and reliable NGO.
We have enough assured funding to hold two more mobile clinics this year, and we have decided to have one in May and one in July.
We have three communication groups for Cats of Durban: one is for members, one is liaison with rescuers and one is for food purchases.
We also have three groups for our Monday clinics, where we pre-book discounted sterilisations with three participating vets. These have been very successful this year.
The future is looking bright for 2023. Thank you to everyone for your hard work and dedication. It is quite difficult for outsiders to grasp just how much our volunteers do – they all have full-time jobs and yet they still manage to trap, sterilise and release these extraordinary numbers of cats! And I must also say a THANK YOU to our members for making us a happy and conflict-free organisation this last year. It was a pleasure working with all of you.
Sincerely,
Niki Moore