It is with great pleasure that I am able to report to the members on the affairs of the Electronic Security Distributors Association for the year ending 30 June 2023.

I would like to thank the current members who are part of the current committee for their ongoing support this year. It was quite the journey to take over the organisation from battling through COVID, we lost a lot of members and we can’t blame them, for those 2 years there was nothing going back to our members, some of them have come back on board, and the aim is to build back up and get more members, nonetheless the organisation is on the upswing and we are increasing our members slowly. We thank our existing members who have battled through the storm with us and that remained part of the organisation.

We can no longer blame COVID to be a factor, we are rebuilding and recreating from scratch, so we look at the future and the new ideas we have, we really want to put ESDA’s name back into the eyes and mouths of our security distributors. The aim of ESDA is to add value to our members and our 2024 line up looks promising now that we are back in full swing with national road shows, golf days, podcasts all included in the event calendar next year.

Finances

Our current reserves stand at R65 783 in our current account and R364 988 in our Market link account. This year we were unfortunately unable to get officially audited bank statements, but we will make it part of out clean up going forward. Our auditors Wayne Smith, we will keep them on for another year.

Media

ESDA remains active, we have recently redone our Facebook page and Website, we will now have more regular updates and hope to get some traction from all of our events happening next year. We now have a dedicated person – Jean who is maintaining the website and all other social media pages, and it should be more current than it has ever been.

We work hand in hand with Tech News, they help us with all of our printed marketing and getting the printed media out to all of our members, so we thank both Andrew and Tracy from Tech News for their ongoing loyal support.

Networking Events

ESDA Annual Golf Day
We would like to thank everyone who attended our Annual Golf Day Fundraiser that was held at Huddle Park, it was really an amazing day, we made it a success, thank you to our team who helped on the day and all of our sponsors. We managed to donate over R22 000 to the Edenvale SPCA and this is excluding the huge pile of food and blankets that were donated to the SPCA from the members who attended the golf day.

Expanding Membership & Benefits

We currently have 31 members. ESDA and its committee members remain committed to adding value to our members. Our primary focus will be to distribute pertinent Industry information and news on various topics via email and social media platforms. This will be done with the aim of keeping our members informed and up to date as well as growing our membership.

Newly Elected Committee Members

• Xarion Comoretto
• David Shapiro
• Jason De Freitas
• Brian Wynberger
• Shawn Deysel
• Andries Delport
• Johan Smith

General

As with all other organisations, it is key to have the correct people to steer the organisation where it needs to go. ESDA is only run by its committee members who take time out of their day to help run the organisation, it is important for the organisation that we have these regular meetings, and even more important that we all get together and network, and grow the organisation back to where it was.

Jason de Freitas: “What is our vision, mission and our goals? We need to live it and carry out our goals, and set achievable goals for next year. The biggest question is why do you join and what for? We need to look at it next year.”

David Shapiro: “This year marks 50 years of ESDA being part of the industry, it is sad to see how many members we have lost during the last couple of years, and it is because of the functions/events that have not taken place, hopefully next year we will carry out all events we have planned. SAIDSA will be having a few smaller reactionman events across South Africa that ESDA can be part of next year, get our members involved. Securex has always been brilliant for ESDA, but the last couple of years weren’t so good, so next year hopefully everything will be back to normal and we can start signing up a few people at securex.”

Thank you
Xarion Comoretto
ESDA Chairman

It is with great pleasure that I am able to report to the members on the affairs of the Electronic Security Distributors Association for the year ending 30 June 2018.

Firstly, I’d like to thank the committee members for their valued contribution. I would particularly like to thank David Shapiro, vice Chairman, for his ongoing support and involvement throughout the year, we really appreciate your commitment, support and participation. We have seen long standing members leave and we wish them well with their future endeavours. We have also been very fortunate to welcome new members to the committee. I agree with Gary Lowe (Past Chairman 2017), ‘new blood’ is vital to the Association, as these individuals give fresh ideas, ways to improve what we do and add value to our members.

Media

We undertook to reinvent our website and that in my opinion has been a great success. We now have a very modern, clean looking website. It took a lot of effort and time and we thank Hi-Tech Security for assisting and guiding us, and ultimately creating a great new website for ESDA. We would like to thank Xarion Comoretto for maintaining and hosting the previous website. Having gone through the exercise of creating and maintaining a new website, we came to realise just how much time and effort is required, and so we thank you for your enormous efforts on the previous website.

Hi-Tech Security Solutions (HSS) magazine provides ESDA with a free half page full colour advert every second month. They also provide free exposure for all new ESDA members. Thank you, Vivienne Dorrington and your team for your valuable contribution to the committee and the Association. Your commitment and enthusiasm towards promoting all our events throughout the year are very much appreciated and we value the input you and your team give to the committee.

Exhibitions

Nelspruit Expo

ESDA hosted an expo in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga in March of this year, where we partnered up with SAIDSA. We had 15 ESDA member companies exhibiting at the event. Although some of our exhibitors were expecting a lot more from the event, there were those who felt that there was definitely potential to do some quality networking and business in the region. It comes down to the individual exhibitors to ensure they notify their clients in advance of these types of events and it also gives new members opportunities to explore new territories without incurring massive costs to their companies. The committee feels that these types of local exhibitions should be hosted every alternate year and we should select the regions with care.

Securex

Specialised Exhibitions once again gave ESDA a free stand at Securex, which saw many visitors looking to find out more about the Association. We signed up 8 new members at the show itself. A massive thank you to our committee members who assisted on the stand over the three days of the event, but especially to David Shapiro, Valerie Bingham and Debbie Lieberthal, who were there the entire time engaging with visitors and getting new members to sign up. ESDA Registered members who exhibited at Securex also received a discount from Securex, there were 13 companies. ESDA received a 2.5% rebate on the stands booked by ESDA members totalling an amount of R26 758.87. Thank you to Specialised Exhibitions for your generous contribution and to Sven Smit and your team for your ongoing support.

Namibia Expo

For the second time, ESDA hosted an expo in Windhoek, Namibia for its members on the 22nd of August. We were hoping for 15 exhibitors and we easily reached our target. The event was well attended, and our exhibitors gave great feedback. Once again, it is an opportunity for our members to showcase their products, with the benefit of reduced costs and the comradery of fellow competitors in unfamiliar territories. Our members were also very grateful for the information we provided on the new CRAN laws in effect in Namibia and this assisted them to make informed decisions and ensure that they were all compliant.

Networking Events

ESDA/SAIDSA Ladies High Tea Charity

ESDA and SAIDSA hosted the first of an annual Ladies only event at La Vie en Rose, Killarney Country Club on the 3rd of August. The committee wanted to honour the women in the security industry with the aim to incorporate it into Women’s month. We were aiming to have 100 ladies at the event, and on the day had 120 ladies present. The ladies were really excited and appreciated that the day was in honour of them and their contribution and achievements in the industry.

Not only did we have ESDA members, we also had SIADSA members and ladies from various institutions involved with Security. Thanks to the Ladies of Hi-Tech Security Solutions (HSS) who did the marketing and put the invitation together for us. The nominated charity was an organisation called Cornerstone Women, and the funds raised on the day were donated to them. Thank you ESDA committee ladies, HSS Ladies and SIADSA ladies for your collective efforts in making the event a success. Thank you also to our ESDA members for supporting this valuable event.

ESDA Charity Golf Day

The Golf Day was hosted at Benoni Country Club on the 20th of September. We had a total of 22 four-balls on the day. It was a great success and enjoyed by all who attended. As usual our members came to the party and generously donated some prizes for the day. ESDA also contributed a fair amount of the prizes on the day from our financial reserves. The nominated Charity was AMCARE and we can all agree that they were a worthy recipient. The ESDA committee once again stepped up to the plate in organising of this event, with special thanks to Debbie Lieberthal (ESDA Secretary) and Valerie Bingham (ex ESDA committee member) for their contribution and work on the day.

New Appointments

ESDA appointed a new secretary, Debbie Lieberthal, whom has done a sterling job so far. Shirley James who had been the ESDA secretary for a number of years retired and is enjoying time with her family. ESDA also appointed an independent Treasurer, Michelle Mclellan to take over the treasury function. We give our sincere thanks to Anika Petersen of Elvey for her contribution and willingness to assist us with all finance related issues.

Finances

Our Association remains financially sound, noting that it is not our intention to run the Association at a profit (save for the purpose of building reserves).  We ended this financial year with 37 members. Our current reserves stand at R257 7226.24 with our cash balances standing at R165 766.21. (Refer to the Treasurer’s report for more detail).

Expanding Member Benefits

ESDA and its committee members remain committed to adding value to its members. Our primary focus for the next financial year will be to gather and distribute pertinent Industry information and news about various regulators / stakeholders, legislation, and other valuable information to our members, with the aim of keeping our members informed and up to date.

I would once again like to thank the committee for all their effort and for the extra work they put into the Association.

Thank you, Debbie Lieberthal, ESDA Secretary, for your continued commitment and coordination of all our affairs.

Thank you
Leonie Mangold
ESDA Chairperson

It gives me great pleasure to report to members on the affairs of the Electronic Security Distributors Association for the year ended 30 June 2017 and, to an extent, on events planned to take place for the remainder of the calendar year.

I’d like to start by thanking the committee members for their valued contribution. Thanks particularly to Leonie Mangold who stepped in as Vice Chairperson for the last few months to replace the previous vice chairperson. Without your efforts and dedication, we could not have achieved what we have this year. I encourage that ‘new blood’ get involved in the committee, to share new ideas and ways of helping us meet our stated objectives.

Media & Communication

Website – Looking back, our website has come a long way. Thanks to Xarion Comoretto’s efforts, the new website is fresh and easy to navigate for existing and prospective members. The information on the website has been updated and condensed, but requires ongoing attention.

HSS magazine – Hi-Tech Security Solutions (HSS) magazine provides ESDA a free half-page full colour advert every second month in the magazine. They also provide free exposure to new ESDA members. Thanks to Vivienne Dorrington for her valuable contribution to the committee, and assisting with the promotional drive behind our initiatives.

Communications – We tend to send out newsletters every six months or so. A special thank you goes to Shaun Kaplan for putting together the very informative May newsletter.

Exhibitions

Securex SA – Specialised Exhibitions once again gave ESDA a free stand at Securex, which saw a fair number of visitors looking to find out more about our association (the great ESDA pens also helped). As a result, we expect that 3 new members will be joining ESDA. A big thank you to the ESDA committee who all chipped in to assist on the ESDA stand and pulling together, while Shirley was on leave.

Registered ESDA members who exhibited at Securex also received a discount from Specialised Exhibitions, totaling approximately R24,507. 13 of our members benefitted from this discount.  ESDA has since received its 2.5% rebate on stands booked by ESDA members. Thank you to Joshua Low at Specialised Exhibitions for their ongoing support.

ESDA Namibia Show – ESDA will be hosting a one-day exhibition at the Windhoek Country Club on the 23 August, which will provide a platform for ESDA members to showcase their security products and solutions to the Namibian market. The exhibition is limited to 15 ESDA member exhibitors. We still have some spaces available, so I encourage you to contact Shirley to secure your stand. The stands/shell schemes are 3 x 3 and it costs only R3,500 to exhibit – a huge bargain!

Kenya Show – We are in the process of negotiating with the organisers of Securexpo East Africa 2017, to have an ‘ESDA village’ available for those ESDA members looking to venture into this existing market. The show is from 7th to the 9th November 2017, at the Visa Oshwal Centre, Nairobi, Kenya.

Networking events

ESDA Breakfast – We once again held a successful ESDA breakfast for our members and their invited customers/guests at Securex. The guest speaker, Emma Sadleir, gave an interesting and colourful presentation on the legal and reputational risks of social media within the business environment. Thanks to Specialised Exhibitions and fellow sponsors who made this event possible.

Charity Golf Day – This year’s ESDA Charity Golf day will be held on the 6^th September at the Glendower Golf Course. We look forward to another great day out with customers and fellow members, followed by a delicious and fun-filled dinner. The support of all members is appreciated, with this year’s chosen charity being the Soweto Animal Rescue.

Year-end function – We were investigating the option of holding a year-end function this year. Due to the costs of the venue, it was decided to postpone this until next year.

PSIRA and proposed training standards

With HSS’s assistance, we are arranging an interview with PSIRA, QTCO and ESDA (Electronic Security Distributors Association) regarding the proposed training standards for the security industry. The idea is to provide an opportunity for our industry, through ESDA, to ask questions and voice any concerns that they may have and to provide their input regarding training requirements. This is ultimately to ensure that PSIRA and QTCO put in place training standards that are relevant for the industry. We await finalization of interview dates.

Finances

Our association remains financially sound, noting that it is not our intention to run the association at a profit (save for the purpose of building reserves). We ended the financial year with 37 members, making a net loss of R34,154 for the year. Our reserves stand at R153,635 with our total cash balances standing at R192,862. (Refer to the treasurer’s report for more detail).

Whilst being registered as a NPO with the Dept. of Social Development, we continue to struggle with delays around the receipt of our tax exemption status from SARS. What further complicates the matter is the regular change in committee members when it comes to registration papers, etc. Our accountants (Wayne Smith & Associates) currently handling the matter appear also to have some internal issues, losing documents etc. Anika Peterson, who has been maintaining ESDA’s records and liaising with our accountants, will continue to work on having this resolved.

A special thanks to Anika Peterson for the work on the financials on a monthly basis.

Expanding member benefits

Establishing member benefit programs with key suppliers (Printing, Car Hire & Accommodation, IT services, Freight Forwarding, Logistics, Debt collection, HR Employee profiling, Kredit Guarantee etc.).

In closing I would like to once again thank the committee for all their effort and for their extra work that they put into the association.

To Shirley James our ESDA secretary, thank you for your efforts in coordinating and pulling things together for our ESDA member.

Thank you

Gary Lowe
ESDA Chairperson

I would like to start off by giving you a little background with regards to the Annual General Meetings over the past few years.

My term as Chairperson and our committee’s term has been a short one due to the fact that, for several years now, the late date, in the year, on which our Annual General Meetings were held was not in line with the constitutional guidelines. The reason why the AGM was changed, to later in the year, was because it is extremely difficult to get our members to attend our AGM and in order to try and get more members to attend our AGM we decided to hold our meeting on the same day as the SAIDSA AGM, which did assist in getting more of our members to our AGM.

According to our current constitution the Associations AGM should be held within four months of the financial year end, which is end February. In order to bring the AGM date back in line, with that of the constitution, the AGM has been brought forward and this has made the committee’s term shorter. That being said the current committee has served for 8 months.

However during the course of our term and under the guidance and advice of Gary Lowe, our treasurer, we have decided to register ESDA with the Department of Labour and to change the dates of the association’s financial year. In order to do this we are required to make changes to our constitution, Gary Lowe will brief you on the requirements. If the members find this acceptable the constitution will be changed accordingly.

The next AGM will be held later in the year in order to coincide with that of the SAIDSA AGM and hopefully we can continue to attract more of our members to our AGM.

Moving forward now, the current committee is made up of enthusiastic individuals, who have shown great commitment and dedication to the association. I would like to thank the committee members for their valued contribution. Without your support and dedication we could not have achieved what we have in this short term.

Monthly meetings have been well attended and progress has been made. ESDA no longer have an office in Benoni. It was decided that Shirley will run the ESDA office from home. Rotation of the venue, for committee meetings amongst committee members, has worked well.

The goals set by the committee continue to be based on membership benefits.

The committee continuously strive to meet the objectives of the association. This can be seen by the numerous industry related matters that have been communicated, to the members, either by email or in the newsletter.

• ESDA’s written objection to ICASA with regards to the Draft Radio Frequency
  Spectrum Assignment Plans as Published in Government Gazette No. 38213
• Notification to members of the Radio Frequency Spectrum Regulations 2015
• QCTO (Quality Assurance Council for Trades and Occupation – Scoping
  meeting updates)
• PSIRA Amendment Bill progress has been communicated to members

A special thanks goes to Shaun Kaplan for putting together the very informative April newsletter.

The Cape Town ESDA road-show will take place on the 29th July at The River Club. As was the case, previously, the Cape Town roadshow will be held in conjunction with the SAIDSA Western Cape region’s breakfast. The venue is centrally located and as in the past great turn out to the breakfast is expected. We expect that the visitors attending the breakfast will visit the ESDA road-show. There are 11 stands still available, and 4 Members have already booked stands.

This year’s Golf day will be held on 13 August 2015. Modderfontein Golf Club have been approached for pricing. The new committee will continue to pursue this.

Specialised Exhibitions Montgomery, once again gave ESDA a free stand at Securex. Popcorn was handed out in an effort to draw attention to the stand. Many visitors and members visited the stand. There were obviously visitors who had no interest in ESDA but in the popcorn, however, I believe that the popcorn did the job it was intended for. A big thank you to Linda Glieman, Shirley James, Rory Webber and Xarion Comoretto for their effort in arranging, manning and breaking down the stand. Committee members took the opportunity to visit members on their stands, introducing themselves and meeting the members. Shirley James is following up on some prospective new member leads.

The negotiated discounts to ESDA members who exhibited at Securex totaled approximately R58 000.00. 17 of our members benefitted from this discount. ESDA will shortly be receiving the 2.5% rebate, from all ESDA member booked and paid for floor space, at this year’s event.

Thank you to Joshua Low and Sven Riddle at Specialised Exhibitions Montgomery for their ongoing support.

We would like to thank Hi-Tech, one of our leading security journals, for their ongoing support with the Association page, where ESDA gets a free half page full colour advert every second month in the magazine. Thank you to both Vivienne and Laura Dorrington for their valuable contribution to the committee.

For many years the ESDA committee and ESDA members, alike, have worked closely with SAIDSA, the South African Intruder Detection Services Association. Many ESDA members are affiliate members of SAIDSA and have been co-opted onto the SAIDSA the committee and various subcommittees. ESDA members have had the opportunity of working alongside SAIDSA committee members and have contributed to the various technical subcommittees, which have been tasked with updating numerous By-laws and minimum standards.

For a while now the website has been of concern. The info on the website has recently been updated and condensed, to a point, but still requires some work. The committee has been working on options to have the website redesigned in an effort to make it easier to keep updated and add value to members. I would like to suggest that the new committee continue with this and have the website redesigned and updated as a matter of urgency.

In future certificates will be issued with a date of issue as well as an expiry date. These will then be emailed to members which can then be printed. New ESDA branded banners, gazebo and branded chairs etc. were purchased as the old material had reached the end of its serviceable life. The new material looked  really good and helped to portray the association’s professional image on the stand at Securex. These will be used for other events in future.

In closing I would like to once again thank the committee for all their effort and for their extra work that they put into the association. A special thanks to Anika Peterson and Gary Lowe for the work on the financials on a monthly basis.

To Shirley James, a special word of thanks, for putting in the extra hours and for always being so accommodating and for making the minutes available so quickly after the meetings.

Thank you.
Outgoing Chairperson, Lee-Ann Andreka.