It is with great pleasure that I present my report for the 2007/2008 year for SABIO.

SABIO has had a busy year and I hope that 2008 will continue on a positive note. No organisation ever runs like a conveyer belt production line and dialogue and disagreement are all essential as healthy signs of lively interest from members. SABIO is no exception to this rule but it seems that we have identified weaknesses and strengths now so we need to focus on actually implementing changes we regard as priorities in order to maintain positive growth for the industry and realise benefits for members.  I believe that this congress has the potential build on this exploratory work and I am extremely excited about feedback from all of you, which will indicate what we need to do to make SABIO serve you better.

As we have heard agriculture faces all sorts of challenges and we have the option of hiding away in a negative shell refusing to change and adapt to challenges – or we can explore avenues that can accommodate change with our heads up and show that we can be competitive under any set of political pressures.  After all, people are politics not the other around.  Bee farmers have a huge contribution to make to our country’s economy and the value of the bee for food production is better understood since the arrival of ccd as the threat loosing bees has made people realise how important they are for food production.

There were four full Board Meetings last year with two telecon meetings.  Other meetings were with bottlers and a special meeting was called and held in Stellenbosch in October to discuss the Journal. The focus of Board Meetings has been to organise administrative details such as work contracts, bank signatories and finance. These have now been sorted out.

Other special areas of attention have been the web page, the journal, food safety, mentorship and training and meeting with role players such as bottlers to try and provide feedback on tariffs and rebates. The other huge priority has been to come to grips with the NAMC Report and its recommendations. I shall leave further discussion about the report for this Beecon. Potential Bee farmer’s Co-op’s are becoming reality and there are three close to being registered in the Western Cape. The web site is up and running.  It does require some attention but visits to the site increase weekly and we need to do our part to keep it up to date if we are to utilize its full potential.  Links to other sites are essential as well as a decision what to provide for members in the logon section - the former is easy to arrange, the latter slightly more difficult.

I am happy to report that the mentorship scheme, funded by the DoA, is up and running and in spite of a slow start will prove to be of value in assisting many projects which were simply not making progress and floundering after an extravagant start. An interesting spin off for me has been to see how much my mentors have learnt in the teaching process and the pride that develops between mentor and mentee as they help each other. I think this also may be true of the learning curve for Master Mentors, who often find themselves sorting out issues quite remote from beekeeping. Training in general remains a priority and I am sure will be a focus of further discussion at this Beecon.

The issue of funding remain a problem we need to come to grips with.  It is remarkable how generous members are when approached about specific projects but the organisation needs to be able to rely on a regular source of support in order to function effectively.  Board members give extremely generously of their time and should not, I feel be expected to have to fund travel and accommodation from their own resources.

The Journal is a vital means of communication with members and we are grateful for the support it has received from Douglas Honey Farms.  I am keen to resolve issues, which remain unresolved concerning content, language and general presentation.  I think that we need to move in the direction of an ‘African Bee Journal’ and propose that we print one using a team I have in place to see if we can obtain funding for a long term project.

Finally I would like to thank members of the board for their service and support.  They have been generous in the time they have devoted to the SABIO cause.  I would especially like to thank those who are leaving the Board – Liddy, Nico, Hennie and Lavious. 

Thank You

John Moodie