Another successful year for the society, following the excitement of the conference at Vic Falls, memorable as much for the adrenalin-charged rapids of the Zambezi as for the conference itself. The conference made a profit of R22 000 and once again the society finds itself in a happy financial position, and looking for worthwhile activities to support.
The main activity of the society this year has once again been its involvement in the Water Law Review, through the indefatigable efforts of Tally Palmer. The Principles have now been accepted by Cabinet, the White Paper has been drafted, and also accepted, and drafting the new law is now in progress. The prominence of environmental issues in the White Paper is due in large part to the efforts of Tally and other members of the Society.
Following the acceptance of the new logo, a new set of medals has been cast, and the dies are lodged with the National Mint - so hopefully they won't be lost as the original ones were.
Membership has increased a bit, we've got twenty new members and one new corporate member, while six members and three corporate members resigned. So the total is now 201 members and 38 corporate members -- a stable rather than a growing society. I think we should undertake a serious membership drive, aimed primarily at students, scientists and managers who should be members but aren't, and those north of the South African borders whom we haven't yet approached. A cause for concern is that the treasurer tells me that 100 members haven't paid their subs yet. Membership only costs R60.00, and we really shouldn't have to waste money and the valuable time of voluntary workers in chasing members for their subs. So please pay up!
Brian Allanson has done a great job in putting Volume 22 of the journal to bed, and tells me that Volume 23 is well advanced. He has asked to be relieved of the duties of editor after nine years, and we regretfully have to honour his wishes, and thank him for yet another major contribution to the society which he helped to found. We have started an initiative to marry our journal to the Marine Sciences Journal. This makes sense since we are a Society of fresh and salt water, and the Marine Journal has a very efficient and professional organisation to produce it. The issues to be resolved are: the name of the joint journal; a proportion of the costs of the journal to be born by SASAQS; and members of the editorial board. We need to appoint someone to negotiate with the Marine Journal on behalf of SASAQS.
Following the new provincial boundaries, the Society's Council has amended the constitution to now include twelve regions. Braam Pieterse has agreed to be the representative for the new North West Province, and Rob Palmer, now based in White River, has agreed to represent Mpumalanga.
This is the last year of the Grahamstown crew's tenure as council of the society, and next year we hand over to Chris Dickens, Mark Graham and Rob Hattingh, who have agreed to form the nucleus of a new Council based in KwaZulu-Natal. Our thanks to them for their bravery! This also means that it's time to elect or reelect the Regional Representatives and a new medals committee. In addition we'll need a volunteer to head up the editorial responsibilities for the journal, in whatever form that may take.
I would personally like to thank all the members of the council, for their work and support over the past 2½ years. Tally Palmer, Patsy Goetsch, Ferdi de Moor, Helen James, Alan Whitfield, and Christopher McQuaid, in Grahamstown, have all combined to make my responsibilities much easier. The society owes a huge debt to Bill Harding, for his continual management of the finances of the society. He really has put the society's finances on a sound footing, often in the face of a rather disorganised executive committee, and I don't know what we'd do without him. We need to find out, because we can't rely on his voluntary efforts forever, and we need to decide whether it isn't time for the Society to pay for at least a part-time financial and secretarial person. Because the other person who has been a heroine of the society for the past 2½ years is Gay Youthed, who works for the Institute for Water Research in Grahamstown and who has taken on the secretarial leg-work -- the administrative work that takes so much effort, like sending out notices to all the members.
Mandy Uys and Mike Silberbauer [and Geordie Ractliffe] have continued to do a great job with the Newsletter, which is such an important medium for keeping us all up to date with the affairs of the Society.
Next year's conference will be held in Bloemfontein, thanks to Pierre de Villiers, who has bravely agreed to convene a local organising committee. In 1999 Shirley Bethune has offered to organise a conference in Namibia, hopefully in the tradition of the very enjoyable and successful event which Shirley also organised in Windhoek in 1986.
This is my last report as President and I would like to say how much I've enjoyed the past 2½ years. It's a responsibility and quite a lot of work to take on the presidency of SASAQS but the compensations more than make up. For me, the help and support of colleagues, the fun of the conferences and the friendship of the members have been more than adequate rewards. Thank you all.
-- Jay O'Keefe