Plumbing Africa PA October 2018 | Page 19

ASSOCIATIONS 17 IOPSA report In August 2018, the national executive of IOPSA held a meeting at PLUMBDRAIN Africa 2018 at Nasrec, Johannesburg. In this edition of Plumbing Africa, we publish an unabridged version of the report on what transpired and was discussed at the meeting. By Brendon Reynolds, IOPSA executive director The past five months have gone by so quickly and it really is great to take a step back and look at all that we have accomplished over the past few months. Below are some of the highlights from the past few months: • Update of constitution. • Introduction of the Transformation Policy. • IOPSA print newsletter. • Relaunch of the jobs portal. • Survey of logo use. • Revision of service provider and consultant contracts. • Attended meetings in Gauteng, Western Cape, Border. • Single website. • Funding of single label scheme. • Amended management accounts format. • New interest-bearing Money Market account. • Formal accreditation process for training providers. • IOPSA inspectorate. • Annual national plumbing survey. • PLUMBDRAIN expo. We are introducing a much more structured and planned approach to how IOPSA conducts its business. We are much more selective of what we involve ourselves in and are ensuring that we complete tasks fully before embarking on new ones. We have also introduced a key question that must be answered before we embark on any project: “How will our members benefit?” If we are unable to answer this question to our satisfaction, we will not take it on. IOPSA continues to function well and we will continue to build on the strong foundations set by my predecessors. IOPSA NATIONAL FINANCIAL POSITION (FOR NOTING) IOPSA is in a much better financial position than last year. We expect the improvements to continue, especially with the additional income from inspections and membership growth. www.plumbingafrica.co.za Revenue for the year to date is up by 86%; this is largely due to three factors: 1. Good collections of outstanding debt from 2017. 2. Increased membership numbers and reduced cancellations. 3. Increased income from projects. Expenses have only increased by 11%, which is mainly due to tight financial controls and the technical manager position being vacant for several months. The use of consultants remains a large expense; we are working hard to create internal capacity and reduce our reliance on consultants. Cash flow remains very positive but, as in previous years, we expect the last quarter of the year to be challenging as normally, very few new members join during this period. DEBTORS (FOR NOTING) • Membership fees outstanding as at 2 August 2018 = R446 500 • Project debtors as at 2 August 2018 = R377 736 IOPSA MEMBERSHIP Membership is a huge concern for me. We are finding it challenging to attract enough members to be truly representative of industry. We are doing better than last year, but we still have a long way to go (see strategy below). New membership versus cancellations: FINANCIAL YEAR Full year 2017–2018 2018–2019 to July 2018 New membership 59 41 Cancellations 36 17 IOPSA NATIONAL STAFF Steve van Zyl has been appointed as technical manager. Van Zyl has a wealth of knowledge and is both a qualified plumber and a qualified electrician. He has massive passion for the Continued on page 19 >> October 2018 Volume 24 I Number 8