Cape Town, May 18, 2024 10.00am
Attendees: Margo Smit, Jack Nagler, David Jordan, Elisabeth Ribbans, Chris Elliott, George Claassen, Herman Scholtz, Steven Springer, Mineko Okamoto, Jason Cumming, Lars Bennike, Bjarne Schilling, John Daniszewski, Jesper Termansen, Ignaz Staub, Petar Jeremic, Timo Huovinen, Pierre Champoux, Amy Stockwell, Sandra Martin, Jane Patterson and Ruud Hendrickx.
1. Welcome
Margo opened the AGM by producing a small paper dinosaur fashioned from a menu from the previous evening’s end of conference dinner at Cape Town’s Westin Hotel. It was placed in the middle of the table by Margo as a symbol of what we learn about one another at conference. Margo said that many have experiences that others don’t have for it was made by Prof Guy Berger, who spent two years in prison under the apartheid regime, where he taught himself origami. He was the moderator in one of the first sessions in which ONO debated “Ethics and the big digital platforms: will they ever be regulated?”. She then went on to give thanks to George Claassen for a wonderful two days in Cape Town. George thanked his colleague Latiefa Mobara and the rest of the team at Media24 and the South African Press Council for all the work that went into the conference, which Margo described as memorable, and he thought had gone very well.
2. Conference
The AGM then moved to the main business and was declared quorate with 22 members present – 19 in the room and 3 on zoom. Approval of last year’s AGM minutes was proposed by Bjarne Schilling and seconded by Jack Nagler. The minutes were approved unanimously.
Jack asked whether he should send out a survey seeking members’ feedback on the 2024 conference as he had done last year for the London conference, which all agreed was a good idea. A brief debate followed on the 2024 conference, what went well and what could be improved. Bjarne said the problems with the mikes dropping in and out was the one problem that ran throughout the conference and should be addressed in future years. Chris Elliott said it wasgood to have our African colleagues taking part in so much of the conference. George said it was a ‘very significant move’ that African editors and media councils had come together at the separate conference organised by Latiefa on Wednesday, May 15, to form a pan-African movement to support freedom of the Press in Africa and resist governments’ attempts to undermine that freedom. Margo said that some of the editors had expressed a wish to become associate members of ONO and Elisabeth Ribbans said that the open sessions and closed sessions had worked well. She suggested that it may be a good idea to have a conference lasting two and half days, beginning on the Wednesday afternoon before the first full day of the conference on the Thursday. Margo then went round the table seeking comments. Sandra Martin said that as this was her first conference she felt that meeting colleagues aided professional development. Mineko Okamoto travelled the furthest and was thanked for making the journey by Margo. Jane Patterson thanked everyone for the warm welcome and the sense of collaboration. David Jordan said he thought it was ‘all good’ but pointed up the problem of the costs of getting to conference – there were only 22 ONO full members there in contrast to the 35 in London – in an increasingly fragile commercial atmosphere within the industry, whether print, website or broadcast. He said he wasn’t sure what can be done but was conscious of the difficulties colleagues have in persuading finance departments to pay for such trips.
Chris said we must thank the Politiken Foundation for their generous donation. He suggested that the $7,150 donation was crucial to make the conference break even and asked whether ONO should seek another modest grant from elsewhere to help some of the colleagues with travelling expenses in future years.
Timo Huovinen felt that having our African colleagues at the conference went well and that he also felt the closed sessions worked well too. Steven Springer said that he works alone at his job in the US and that it is a ‘comfort’ to come to the conference and that it had been an extremely valuable experience. Petar Jeremic found the sessions that touched on the war in Ukraine and the Palestine-Hamas particularly useful. Ruud Hendrickx hoped to see more presentations made using a zoom link as he had been unable to get to the conference. Jason Cumming regretted that the timing had not worked for him to be there but that he would check out the links. Steven said that the reality of budgets meant that not everyone could get to Cape Town therefore putting the conference online is a good idea.
3. Election of officers and reports
Executive Director’s report
Chris said that after six months in post he was enjoying the role but that it had been quite hectic supporting Margo, George, Latiefa and Elisabeth as well as George and Latiefa in getting the conference together. However, he had learned a lot and hoped that the process would be easier for all next year. He later expressed particular thanks to Pierre Champoux, without whom it would have been impossible to maintain the ONO website. Now the conference is over he promised to return to the plans for a technical upgrade of the site.
Treasurer’s report
Before Elisabeth gave her financial report, George thanked her for making the conference budget work so well. Elisabeth paid tribute to the work of Elaine Carlton, ONO’s assistant treasurer.
The finances of ONO are in a healthy state. Elisabeth said that we have75 full members and 8 associate members while 52 have paid this year’s current subs. She said we need a push on recovering the outstanding subs. Here is Elisabeth’s report:
The position as at 30 April 2024: ONO’s bank balance stood at US$80,918 This includes: US$14,000 (approx) still owed to the BBC for ONO conference 2023. It also includes US$4,574 paid in Cape Town conference expenses to date. In the past 12 months, we have seen:
● Income = $30,765
● Expenditure = $39,203 NB:
These figures reflect some final income and expenditure relating to the London 2023 conference (which took place 1-2 June 2023), as well as receipts and partial expenditure relating to the Cape Town 2024 conference. They also reflect some membership fees for the calendar year 2023 received after 1 May 2023, and those collected so far for 2024. ONO is not running at a loss and its bank balance provides a suitable cushion against unforeseen costs. ONO’s administrative costs over the past 12 months were $8,972, while income from membership fees was $10,603. Membership fees collected so far for 2024 (at 30 April 2024) = US$9,403 1 .
Expenditure for the next 12 months is forecast at $10,600. Conference budget Income for the conference is forecast to be US$16,400, including a generous grant from the Politiken Foundation of US$7,150. ONO’s expenditure for the conference is forecast to be in the region of US$16,000.
Margo said ONO doesn’t receive too much money but the finances have been stable for the last two years.
Election of board directors
Margo said that we currently have 13 board directors. ONO should aim to increase recruitment of new board directors as that would be healthy. To that end there will be a review of the ONO by-laws to ensure that they are fit for purpose. Miriam Lewin indicated at an earlier board meeting she is due to stand down at the end of this year. Margo suggested that as there have been no applications for a board place we could simply re-elect all 13 members. John Daniszewski said that as there isn’t anybody who doesn’t want to stay on the board, we could simply elect all of them. Jack said he would have to step down at the end of the year when his second and final term of office as CBC ombudsman ends. David proposed and Pierre seconded a motion to re-elect all 13 board members, which was unanimously accepted. Margo said that while it had not been quite finalised, it is hoped that next year’s conference will be hosted in Madrir and that is the reason for inviting Soledad Alcaide onto the board. Jack Nagler movedto make Soledad a board member and this was seconded by Jack Daniszewski and unanimously accepted. Margo, Jack and Elisabeth were unanimously re-elected as President, Vice President and Treasurer respectively.
Elisabeth said that she had been looking at the by-laws and that they had last been reviewed by a subcommittee of board members in 2019. It was proposed to set up a separate sub-committee of the board at the next board meeting, to look into the statutes and by-laws, and Bjarne suggested checking in which retired member Murray Greene for input. Greene was involved in the latest review.
Chris reminded everyone of the Shoptalk on May 28.
The meeting ended at 11.30 am.
