New Board of Directors

Over the past year there have been important changes to the BRACe Board, culminating in the appointment of new directors at the AGM last month. The new Board comprises Waseem Ebrahim, Lapo Dlamini, Remo Torrente, Jackie Williams, Steven Freemantle and myself, Davy Ivins.  I have been appointed Chair with Waseem and Jackie as co-Deputies.

The directors are broadly representative of our community, and we will look to expanding the Board in due course to supplement our skillset and representivity.

New Vision

I am very pleased that our directors have unanimously committed to a 'One Buccleuch, Together' vision where all residents are empowered to collaborate and work together for the benefit of the suburb and all who live it. To fulfil the One Buccleuch, Together vision we are engaging with BSC to find common ground on the way forward.

New Governance & Name

The AGM also adopted significant governance changes that are incorporated in our new Memorandum of Incorporation, which is effective immediately (download here). Members also agreed to change the name of BRACe to the Buccleuch Residents and Ratepayers Association.

Plans and Objectives

The new Board held our first meeting on 30 May to begin mapping out our vision, identify priorities and allocate responsibilities. We have made a start operationalising the outcomes, which are summarised below.

* One Buccleuch, Together

We have many passionate people who are committed to Buccleuch. What we need is a vehicle to engage them and encourage their support. Only through a strong, broad-based cohort of volunteers, and sustainable funding, can we do the things needed to make our suburb a better, safer place to live in.

It seems self evident that to successfully achieve positive change in Buccleuch we need to work together as a community and not as separate, opposed groupings. There is a pressing need to look ahead and not be limited by past differences.

As mentioned above we have formally approached BSC to find common ground on the way forward. Our preference is to form a single unified Residents Association. BSC has responded positively and we are scheduling a meeting as soon as possible after Eid. I am cautiously ​optimistic that we can quickly reach agreement on a positive way forward, together.

* Focus and delivery

There are many initiatives that our community would like their Residents Association to address. But with limited resources we need to be ruthless in focusing on what matters most, and what can be realistically achieved. We can all attest to past initiatives that have not been sustained due to lack of ongoing interest or volunteer support.

We have identified a number of immediate focus areas, and plan to host a facilitated Residents' Strategy Meeting to test that we're on the right track, identify other items that deserve attention, and develop empowered volunteer teams to help make things happen. We anticipate that will happen in the middle of next month.

The focus/activity areas include:

Security
We have identified three immediate initiatives:

• Guardian Programme and CPF: Waseem's direct involvement has provided a unique insight into our suburb's security challenges. We plan to maintain and grow our support for the CPF and Guardian Programme.
• Access Control into the suburb: Lapo Dlamini will be the Board liaison on investigating access control measures for Buccleuch. Nirosh Lutchman has agreed to spearhead the initiative, an​d​ Mike Maile has volunteered his support. I met with Duke Attorneys who have helped many other suburbs and have identified other residents' bodies we can turn to for guidance and advice. Rob Gibbon from Duma has also offered to share his insights from being involved in a number of successful and unsuccessful road closure initiatives,.
• Licence Plate Recognition Cameras on all entrances, linked to security companies: Our plans are well advanced on this front and we have earmarked funds to purchase cameras that will be owned by the Residents Association. Remo and Waseem are spearheading the project and we should see finality very soon.
• Bridge shopping area and surrounds: Remo and Waseem are working on plans to address this area. There has been successful engagement with the shopping centre owner and with Spar head office, and attention is being focussed on the informal vendors who are operating illegally. Remo's clean-up initiative funded the installation of road barriers to prevent access into the disused slip road alongside the river that was being used as a dump. Remo has just completed a draft plan to address public loitering and drunkenness.

Infrastructure and development:
We need a team to proactively identify legitimate and illegal new developments in and around Buccleuch, and respond quickly. Some of this will require eyes and ears in the suburb, as well as a reliable pipeline of development announcements from the City. We have access to legal, town planning and project management resources via the new Board, and envisage developing a set of 'templated' response mechanisms that we can roll out quickly e.g templated letters, residents surveys and petitions, etc. Lapo will help drive this process.

Our initiatives include:

• Balwin development: Steven has engaged with Balwin and will (hopefully this week) announce a public meeting for affected residents to meet with Balwin regarding their development and its impact on Buccleuch. He has already developed direct contact with the site management who have been supportive and responsive.
• Baseline survey of surrounding areas: Waseem is working on a plan to document the state of the suburb (roads, lights, developments etc.). This can be used to identify development needs and security issues, and also provide a means to hold developers to account for damage they cause to our infrastructure.
• Fibre and connectivity: There have been numerous failed attempts to drive interest in fibre for Buccleuch. It is clear we need a coordinated, suburb-wide drive if we are to get the necessary support to make it happen. Wihann Boucher (supported by Waseem, Remo and myself) is leading this initiative and has completed an initial investigation. Suppliers have been identified and meetings with them started this week. Waseem has also been in contact with Telkom regarding fast VDSL connectivity, but distance to the Telkom Exchange is still a stumbling block.
• Frankenwald: we are watching developments. Jackie's experience in property development will be invaluable.
• City and Councillor engagement: we are disappointed by inadequate support from the City. We have agreed to embark on a positive engagement strategy with our Councillor and the City, in the hope that we can support the Councillor to deliver greater value for Buccleuch. If this approach fails we will need to take more assertive steps. Steven and Jackie will be driving this initiative.

Technology
This topic encompasses the technology we need to help us become a successful residents' body.

• Between the BRACe and BSC websites, email systems, Whatsapp groups and Facebook pages we have a solid starting point for communicating with (some of) our residents. But we need to do more to engage with the majority of Buccleuch.
• Behind the scenes we have implemented a comprehensive CRM and database system for membership management, events, bulk and targeted emails (and SMS), and donor support. We will investigate a Volunteer Management addition to the system, and need to identify compatible tools to help facilitate, track and manage the diverse activities of numerous volunteer teams.
• We will shortly implement an online membership sign-up process, and tools to allow residents to manage their own information and preferences on the system. In the meantime you can get member information at http://www.mybuccleuch.co.za/join-now
• We have a debit order system in place, and will implement an online payment system for EFTs, credit card payments etc.
• Membership and funding:

As soon as we have support for the One Buccleuch, Together initiative, we will:

• Embark on an aggressive membership and funding drive. Johan Swanevelder has offered to drive this once we have agreed a common future with BSC. We envisage using email, Whatsapp, Facebook, printed flyers and house2house visits in the campaign.
• Initiate targeted funding initiatives (like we did for Remo's River Cleanup Project) where residents can donate funds that will be ring-fenced for specific causes. We will make our finances and accounts transparent for members.
• Apply for Public Benefit Organisation status that will make the Association tax exempt and render donations tax deductible for the donors.

We have a huge backlog of issues to address. To reitterate an earlier point: If we are to make real progress in Buccleuch we need residents to work together and step up and support. I hope we can count on you to be part of that journey.

Sincerely
Davy Ivins  |  Chairman