Report from the Social Club Committee

First Quarter Report from the Social Club Committee

Opening of Social Club – 19 July 2009

Our Social Club in Windhoek was officially inaugurated on the 19th of July 2009. The outside building was renovated and made available to our Social Club during the previous months.

The opening of the club was a bittersweet day due to the fact that on this day we had to say goodbye to a long time employee and friend Esmé Trollip. Employed at BDO (or its founding firms) for over 30 years, she decided to retire and move to South Africa where her children reside.

Above we see Esmé with her manager Amelda Stols. In honour of Esmé’s loyalty and dedication throughout the years, we as the Partners and Staff of BDO decided to name the Social Club Lord Nelson. This is the name of Esmé’s African Grey Parrot that has been her companion for many years.

Year End Function – 18 December 2009

Our year-end function was not such a fancy affair as prior years. All staff got together at the NICE restaurant in Windhoek for a lunch. This was imitated throughout the other 2 offices in Walvis Bay and Oshakati, who also had a Christmas lunch.

Crackers, gifts, champagne and good food soon turned this lunch into a very nice social event. The last gift for the year was from the Partners, who took this opportunity to close the office for the year end break. Elated staff all over the country thoroughly enjoyed the last working day of the 2009 calendar year.

We all promised that 2010 was going to be a year in which we would ensure that we play just as hard as we work.

We started the year off with the new intake function, which was a great success, and after a few speeches we got the ball rolling with some good music a good old-fashioned braai.

In February the long anticipated Volleyball for All tournament was hosted at DTS fields in Windhoek. We entered a record 3 teams, which just shows how high the spirit, and camaraderie is in the office. Our teams did exceptionally well and we made a great success of a well-organized day.

We have started to open the social club every last Friday of the month to help all the employees blow off some steam and just relax after a hard month of crunching the numbers.

We are striving to provide everyone in BDO with a place where they can come and forget about work, but still forge a close bond with their colleagues.

There are still some great things to come this year, such as the Steak braai, potjiekos competition and the paintball day planned for later this year, We are also going for gold in this year’s ICAN volleyball tournament.

We are truly blessed to have the social club, and we hope to make a great success of it in the future.