CallingtheCape Highlights Newsletter - November 2005

Dear Stakeholders,

We have a number of events planned for the rest of 2005 which are mentioned under Key Dates below. There are still more to come and you will be informed as the details are finalised. Please check our website www.callingthecape.org.za regularly under Upcoming Events.

If you have any suggestions or views that you would like to share please forward them to rhomeez@callingthecape.org.za .

(i) CallingtheCape 2006 Board Election

Doesn't time fly? The time has come once again to select new private sector Board directors to represent the different industry silos of CallingtheCape.

The election is a key process that ensures transparency, fairness, inclusiveness and stakeholder buy-in to the work we are doing to develop the BPO industry in Cape Town. The election is designed to be a level playing field that enables industry stakeholder to nominate the people they think best suited to represent the various different industry silos.

Last year a record 4 000 individual votes were cast in this election but the industry has grown since then, the number of stakeholders playing roles within the organisation has grown, and we are sure we can and will see an even bigger and more open election this time than in previous years.

Stakeholders need to give particular thought to the kind of person that they would wish to represent them. Silo directors need to have real integrity, know their silos inside out, be capable of ensuring growth in membership, and need to be able to assist with both our job creation and transformation goals. Read the manifestos when they are published and vote with care! This is your organisation and it needs your input.

While the process is pretty much the same as in prior years, the Board has approved some significant changes to the election that you should be aware of to enable a Board that is duly authorized, expert, representative and capable of carrying out the mandate of the organisation as a whole and of the individual industry silos.

The entire rules are published below and can also be found on our website, but the major changes this year are:

(i) There will be 7 silos rather than 6 to vote for. The old BEE/SME silo has been split into two - a Transformation silo and an SMME silo.

(ii) Silo directors are voted for a 2 year term rather than a 1 year term to enable them to carry out their mandates more effectively. Only fully paid up members (incouding professional affiliates) of CallingtheCape may nominate or be nominated.

(iii) The Chair and Vice Chair (who have already been appointed) will not stand in the election.

(iv) The overall target for the Board is 50% male/female and 50% black/white (versus 30% in 2005). Accordingly, we strongly encourage PDI and women candidates to enter the election and similarly encourage companies to ensure that representative candidates are nominated.

Timings

All dates refer to close of business on the day concerned:

Opening date for nominations - 31st October 2005
Deadline date for nominations - 25th November 2005
Deadline date for addition of nominee CVs - 9th December 2005
Publication of nominations - 9th December 2005
Opening date for voting - 12th December 2005
Deadline date for voting - 20th January 2006
Ratification of new nominees - 26th January 2006
AGM - announcement of new Board - 7th February 2006

Thank you for participating in the election and we look forward to welcoming the new Board for 2006 at our AGM in early February 2006.

You may start emailing your nominations for the silos to nicky@callingthecape.org.za.

Best regards,

The CallingtheCape team.

Please read the rules below carefully:

CallingtheCape 2006 Board Composition & Election Process

This notice explains the Board composition and election process for the CallingtheCape Board for 2006. Please read carefully and take particular note of the election timings, outlined at the end of the notice.

Board Composition

The Board has agreed that Directors be split into the following categories:

(i) Appointees
 
Appointees are appointed by the Board. Non-executive appointees serve a 1 year term. The appointees are the Chairperson, the Vice-Chair and the Executive Director. The Chairperson is separate from any silo representation. The Chair and Vice-Chair are appointed annually at the October Board meeting according to criteria such as experience, integrity, knowledge of the industry, and history of Board service and time availability.

The Board has agreed that, for 2006, the Chairman shall be Sipho Zungu of Old Mutual and the Vice-Chair shall be Birgit Thuemecke of Lufthansa Global Telesales.

(ii) Invitees

Invitees include representatives of the Provincial Government of the Western Cape and the City of Cape Town, plus representatives from Wesgro and SACCCOM. The Board can also decide at any time to invite suitably qualified members of the public or Government or industry to join the Board. For 2006, the Board intends invite at least one further representative of the local industry.

(iii) Electees

Electees are local industry representatives and they are elected by their peers in the process described below, in order to represent their silos. Electees will serve a two year term (i.e. from January 2006 until December 2007).

The electees are elected according to industry silo, as follows:

  • Corporate sector
  • Recruitment
  • Training
  • ICT
  • Transformation
  • SME
  • Outsourcing

Demographic - Gender Balance

CallingtheCape believes that the Board should reflect the demographic mix of the Province. For 2006, the target is for a Board which of which 50% should be women and 50% PDI. In addition, a percentage of the private sector industry directors (those both elected and invited) should also contain a percentage of women and PDI. This percentage will be finalised (after further consultation) by end December 2005 and will be taken into consideration in the final adjudication of votes (in January 2006).

Exco

The Exco shall consist of either the Chair or Vice Chair (subject to availability), the Executive Director, the Outsourcing Director, the BEE/ Transformation director, one Public Sector Director (if available), and one or more other directors who wish to serve and have time available, with the final composition of the Exco to be determined by the Board when it meets for its first session of the new term, with an emphasis in the Exco being given to BEE and SMME issues.

Election Process

The main objective behind electing this committee is to ensure and encourage as much participation from the local call centre community. There needs to be full participation, transparency and inclusiveness, which should naturally equate to full commitment and support from all players in the call centre community in the Western Cape. At the end of the election, 7 directors should be appointed to represent the relevant industry silos (described above).

The election process will be divided into four stages:

i. Nominations
ii. Votes
iii. Ratification
iv. Announcement and After

The purpose of the election process is to end up with silo representatives on the Board:

  • That are Expert
  • That have been fairly and transparently elected by the largest possible number of stakeholders
  • That are in accordance with the Board's demographic and gender targets

Nominations

  • An announcement requesting pre-submission of nominations and the process of election will be circulated to the entire list server of CallingtheCape.
  • A strict deadline will be placed on the submission of nominees' names (see time frames below)
  • Receipt of late submissions will be treated as null and void.
  • Upon receipt of these names, CallingtheCape will list the nominees together with number of nominations on the website.
  • Any stakeholder in the CallingtheCape community shall be permitted to nominate any ONE candidate per silo, provided that only stakeholders who are from companies that are fully paid up members of CallingtheCape will be allowed to nominate or be nominated.
  • Nominations must be received (with full contact details of nominating person and nominee) by email to nicky@callingthecape.org.za.
  • No stakeholder may nominate himself / herself.
  • Any candidate nominated for multiple silos shall be allowed to choose to stand in any silo for which he/she has been nominated but must elect to stand in only one silo. Candidates who have been nominated in more than one silo are entitled to consult with CallingtheCape as to which silo would be preferable for them.
  • CallingtheCape reserves the right to nominate specific individuals in specific silos if there has been inadequate nominations in a particular silo.
  • CallingtheCape reserves the right to disqualify any nomination on the ground that the nominee has insufficient experience in his/her chosen silo or if the nominee is not a bona fide practitioner in the call centre/BPO industry.
  • Nominees must submit a CV and a brief manifesto for the silos in which they have been nominated. Any nominee that fails to do so may be disqualified. Manifestos should include targets around memberships in the silo as well as plans to increase participation in the silo and drive transformation.
  • The final list of nominations will be published on the website and by email to the stakeholders. Once the list of nominations has been published, no changes to the nominees or the silos to which they have been nominated will be permitted. After this point, nominees may not change silos.
  • Existing Board members (other than the Chair and Vice Chair) need to stand for re-election and go through the whole process alongside new candidates. Existing Board members do not receive any preferential treatment.

Votes

  • Stakeholders will be invited to vote for nominees. All votes are counted equally, with the exception that votes from companies external to the Nominee's company are weighted at twice the weight of votes from the Nominee's company.
  • Only votes from stakeholders that provide full name, company name, and either a valid cellphone number or a valid email address, will be accepted and counted.
  • Voting must be through the voting section of the CallingtheCape website.
  • Nominations are also counted as equal pari passu with votes.
  • The Board will only accept one single Board representative per legal entity company.
  • Stakeholders will only be allowed to register one vote per silo.
  • The proposed cut off date for voting is published below and NO late votes will be accepted after this point or at the AGM.
  • The aim is for the whole election process to be completed in order to finalize and announce the CallingtheCape Exco for 2006 at the AGM in early February 2006.

Ratification

  • Once the votes have been tallied, weighted and counted, the current Board will meet and review the votes counted in each silo (this may happen electronically).
  • Based on the results of the election, the Exco will recommend, and the Board will ratify, the candidate to be appointed in each silo. All other things being equal, the candidate with the highest weighted votes score will be appointed for his/her respective silo.
  • However, the Board reserves the right to promote candidates subject to the final pre-adjusted racial composition of the new Board being in his/her opinion insufficiently representative of the demographics of the Western Cape and/or the Board's diversity targets. Such promotion may occur either when candidates have equal scores or when candidates have unequal scores. However, only nominated candidates may be appointed to the Board.
  • The Board will also consider the experience of the candidates being proposed by the election, their suitability to be Directors, and (where relevant) their prior attendance and the assessment of their prior performance. The Board reserves the right to appoint someone other than the person who won the most votes. However, this should only be done in exceptional circumstances and with the approval of a majority of Board directors.
  • Any Board directors who have stood for election are recused from the debate.
  • The Board reserves the final right of sign off on the new Board, which will be carried by consensus or by majority voting if necessary.

Announcement & After

  • The existing Board will be dissolved.
  • The new Board will be announced at the AGM, with newly elected members alerted beforehand that they should attend.
  • The New Board will be formally welcomed at the AGM and the AGM will pass a motion of endorsement of the new Exco.
  • The new Board will be sent a Directors Welcome Pack, including a Code of Ethics, and the current Business Plan.

(ii) Executive Coaching Workshop, 3rd - 6th November 2005

The South African College of Applied Psychology in conjunction with the Process Work Institute presents Process Work in Executive Coaching Sessions.

The facilitator is Dr. Stephen Schuitervoerder, Clinical Psychologist (Dips), an international consultant, lecturer and facilitator based in Portland, Oregon.

Venue: The Learning Centre, The Longhouse, Dreyersdal Farm Road, Bergvliet 7945, Cape Town

Date: 3rd - 6th November 2005

Time: 9am - 5pm

For more information please contact Zulaka De Waal at +27 83 442 7106 or email zulakascon@mweb.co.za.

(iii) Recruitment Silo Breakfast, 17th November 2005

We'll be hosting our second Recruitment Silo Breakfast on 17th November 2005 at the Wesgro offices in Cape Town.

All players in the recruitment industry are welcome to attend.

Venue: Doega/ Wesgro Boardroom, 12th Floor, Waldorf Arcade, 80 St. George's Mall, Cape Town.

Time: 8h30 for 09h00-10h30

Please RSVP by emailing rhomeez@callingthecape.org.za ASAP.

(iv) Membership & Affiliate Feedback

CallingtheCape membership renewals will be starting soon. A customer satisfaction survey will also be sent and membership certificates to all companies that renew so that we can get your feeback and improve the service we provide.

Please email rhomeez@callingthecape.org.za for further details.

The CallingtheCape newsletter is sent out in the first week of every month. It currently reaches 4 024 (as at 01/09/2005) industry practitioners, financial professionals, investors, and representatives of the media across the globe. The readership is around 80% domestic and 20% international - the international readership comprises mostly of industry practitioners and investors considering South Africa as an investment destination. The readership is predominantly at management level (CEOs, MDs, contact centre managers). The database is made up entirely of industry contacts of CallingtheCape. Please e-mail rhomeez@callingthecape.org.za if you would like to take the opportunity to reach our thousands of subscribers every month by sponsoring our newsletter.

This month's new Corporate Members & Professional Affiliates are:

You may visit their websites by clicking on the links above.

If you are interested in joining CallingtheCape please contact Rhomeez at rhomeez@callingthecape.org.za .

(i) Call Centre Empowerment Showcase, 13th October 2005, 15h00 - 17h00

CallingtheCape together with the City of Cape Town and the Black IT Forum, hosted a Call Centre Empowerment Showcase at the Arabella Sheraton on Thursday, 13th October 2005. The showcase introduced and promote the top black-owned companies who are potential call centre service providers to corporates and government bodies in the Western Cape.

The showcase was part of our drive to increase the number of black-owned call centre companies in the Western Cape. We aim to provide growth opportunities for new and established companies that are founded, owned and managed by black South Africans, in line with the goals of broad-based black economic empowerment.

(ii) Team Leader Development Workshop, 20th October 2005

We will be having a series of Team Leader Development Programmes - one to be held each quarter. These development programmes are being organized because we recognized the need to dedicate time, effort and resources into the development of our team leaders.

The first workshop was held on 20 October.

Contact person is Nicky Floris who can be emailed at nicky@callingthecape.org.za.   

(iii) Cadet programme - Round 2

CallingtheCape will shortly be recruiting up to 200 school leavers for learnerships and Department of Labour sponsored training programmes as part of our highly successful CalingtheCape Cadet programme. These programmes are only available to unemployed matriculants. If you would like to be assessed for either of these two programmes, please email or fax your CV to project manager Sonja Lawson at sonja@qhelisa.co.za or +2721 715 7232.

The CallingtheCape Team is ready for the challenge! Have a great month.

Rhomeez Hendricks
Communications Officer
Telephone No: +27(0) 21 487 8655 : Switchboard No: +27 (0) 21 487 8600
Fax No: +27(0) 21 422 3744 : Mobile No: +27(0) 82 927 8021
Email address: rhomeez@callingthecape.org.za  Website: www.callingthecape.org.za


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