Dear IOBSA Member
2023 Report Back
As the first quarter of 2023 has concluded, we continue to seek ways to add value to our members.
Our financial situation is stable with both Critical Skills and NCA Income over budget and a small profit YTD.
- Our Membership Portal launched in December 2022. Take up has been much slower than anticipated and the team are following up on those who have not yet set up a profile and renewed their memberships. Invoices have been sent out and the team are available to assist. The profile set up on the new portal is a once off set up and once documents are loaded the first time, this will not need to be repeated unless members wish to upgrade their designations.This portal and the ability to pay online is part of our digitisation journey.
- CPD continues to appeal to members who are working to develop themselves and for the first time we have implemented an audit to check a percentage of members CPD progress (this is a regulatory requirement). We currently have some 174 courses with 13 providers available and are adding links to each course for ease of access/registration and refining the platform as we go along. SAQA were quite impressed at the demo of our CPD platform in February.
- Our first webinar of the year, a joint branded effort with Standard Bank was to have taken place in March but was unfortunately postponed by Standard Bank. We are now working on our own webinar for May this year. We continue to add various webinars to our website, sourced from the Banking sector for the interest of members. The topic we are considering is “Career transitioning – how to manage planned/unplanned career transitions, in new or existing organisations, new or existing fields”. Should you have suggestions as to preferred panellists, please do contact me ( ).
- From an Operational perspective, we have recruited an Office Assistant who will take over all meeting preparation, minutes and support the team with projects such as retention. Sixolile Mahlangu joined us on 3 April 2023.
- We met with SAQA in February to complete our re-registration requirements and await their feedback.
- Our auditors are wrapping up the audit (no adverse findings)and the financial statements will be signed off next week, upon which we will begin the AGM planning.
- We continue to represent on various committees such as SAQA, Bankseta, FSCA, DHET Career Forum, IBPF etc, ensuring that our members and the industry’s interests are always carefully considered.
- From a Collaboration perspective, we continue to approach other institutes in Africa and globally.
- Our Mentorship Scheme launched in September 2022 however take up has been slow. I would like to encourage members to set up a Mentor/Mentee profile in order to benefit the industry as a whole. Having a group of experienced mentors to mentor the new talent is important for the industry as a whole.
- We are planning a face-to-face Stakeholder event and Member event for 2023 and will keep you all posted.
- We have relocated our office from 150 to 96 Rivonia Road on 31 March due to aircon and other issues. Our landlords have been very proactive about seeking new offices and the team settling well.
How you can help the IOBSA:
Membership Growth- membership income comprises some 60% of our income. If each member could introduce ONE new member, this would make a huge difference and provide more income for membership benefits. We are a Non-Profit Company and rely on membership income to keep us going. If you require flyers for your colleagues, please contact Dani or Nomzolo ( and )
Content
We continue to seek interesting articles on our website so if you wish to refer us to your media department or in fact if you wish to write an article for publishing, feel free to contact Dani on
Q2-Q4 of 2023
Our focus will be on continuing our webinar series, collaborating globally and continuing to approach banks and higher learning institutes for membership opportunities-please help us by facilitating introductions to your Learning or HR departments in this regard.
As always, I encourage suggestions as to what you would like to see from us as well as ideas you may have to appeal to the younger generation of bankers.
Once again, our Team (myself, Juan, Dani, Nomzolo and Xoli) thanks you for your ongoing support, it is truly appreciated.
Regards
Sharron Veldsman – CEBP(SA)
Chief Executive Officer