My thanks to all the members who participated in the activities and supported the aims of the Trust this past year. Thank you to the Exco and all the Task Teams for their dedicated voluntary hours of work.
The Exco operation has been challenging, without a Deputy Chair. You will have noticed a decline in the number of members meetings, this due to lack of organising ability for these events with all of the other activities and responsibilities the Exco deals with.

Membership
Membership is currently around 230, with a few outstanding members still to pay at the AGM. The membership is increasing with new members to the area. Welcome to them, and we hope you become active participants.
Thank you to Ken Williams for looking after the Membership database and regularly updating it with the help of the Exco members.

Admin and Finances
Thank you to Gerrard Wigram for introducing new methods, our monthly reporting is probably the best it has been in our ZVT history. The complexity has increased in the last few years. He has also managed to integrate and update the invoicing system for membership with the help of Ken Williams and Lucia Rodrigues.

ZIMP

• The ZIMP Botany group continues with its excellent work Thank you Robin and Pat Burnett.

• We need more volunteers to record rainfall data, see the website.

• We need fishermen to participate with their catch records for the management of the Estuary Reserve.

• Again, is there anyone to sponsor a small weather station?

Environmental Education
Thank you to Cherry Giljam and Sharon McCallum who continue to help Mark Arendse. They need you to assist the young groups on outings. It can be very rewarding. 
The long awaited canoes were bought (with Woolworths donation) for the use of the children.
The children were taken on a number of day outings and evening outings to the Masque Theatre as well.
A successful Muizenberg Festival (March 2008) interactive stand was great fun for all.

Westlake Wetlands Garden
Thank you to Una Hartley for the work she continues to put into the garden. She has employed gardeners from The Link this last year. Thanks to Sharon McCallum and Dianne de Villiers who has helped source some monies from the local shop owners to help fund the gardener’s wages. 
Una has received a WESSA grant to plant indigenous plants in the garden area.

The BOSSIES (Biodiversity On Suburban Sidewalks for Indigenous Ecosystem Sanctuaries)
Neil Major has taken over the project. He successfully built the propagation room, bagging shed and the hardening area at the Nature Reserve last year in June. In July and August he and his team planted a large shaped dune in Vrygrond (Capricorn Park).
Neil has received a WESSA grant (Lotto money) to grow and plant indigenous plants in Box and Ermington Roads Muizenberg. This is in conjunction with our annual Arbour Day on 16th June.
He has also submitted a number of tenders for other projects.

Friends of Bokmakierie Park and Grysbok Park
The members of the local group monitor the park daily and have helped eradicate invasive and overgrown vegetation to make it a safer and more user-friendly commuter facility to use. They also monitor the parks for illegal activities, together with the Muizenberg Neighbourhood Watch.

Newsletter
Marian Shinn has taken over the Newsletter and has done an excellent job of giving it a new look. Paul Perton has taken over the layout of the Newsletter and this is done from his Rooiels office.
I wish to thank all the advertisers who have continued to support and advertise in our magazine. I appeal to you to please support their businesses.

Rehabilitation
The small group has worked on Park Island, Bokmakierie and Grysbok Parks removing invasive shrubs and clearing and bagging much dumped litter. Thank you Una, Bowen Boshier and Leif Petersen.

Website
The website receives over 45,00 hits a month. It is used for reference by many schools and various local and international organisations, even local government departments. Please contribute to it.

Auditor
Thank you to Ian Mackay based in Kenilworth. He has undertaken to audit our books and we thank him for this honorary audit. In exchange we have advertised his business in our Newsletter and web site.
If you require an auditor please contact him.

GZENR (Greater Zandvlei Estuary Nature Reserve)
Please continue to support and consult with Cassy and her staff on the matters related to GZENR. We are grateful to have a permanent Reserve Manager at Zandvlei.

Sand River Catchment Forum (SRCF)
Is up and running under the Chairman Martin Thompson. We are progressing and have had interesting meetings to date. We hope to include more of the Constantia valley bowl NGO’s and community organisations.
See the minutes of the meetings on the website www.zandvleitrust.org.za

Zandvlei Action Committee (ZAC)
This Committee addresses practical issues relating to the management of the vlei for and by the various user groups. The minutes are also on the website with the SRCF.

Development monitoring
There are more than 11 current EIA’s being addressed, this takes many hours of reviewing documents, attending meetings interacting with the consultants, developers and officials to gain an understanding of the impacts these proposals will have on the Catchment and Zandvlei.
Thank you to Bowen Boshier for the enormous amount of time and effort he has put into the monitoring the developments in the Muizenberg area.
If you care, please get involved.

Arbour Day
A successful planting took place near the estuary mouth. Thank you to all.

Water / River Day cleanup
In March 20 members and volunteers collected 30 bags of rubbish on Park Island in 2 hours.

Networking
We network with many other Environmental Groups and organisations on a daily basis.

Zandvlei Sports Club
On behalf of the Zandvlei Trust, I thank the Sports Club Committee who continue to support us, by allowing us to use their facility every month.

We need your help
We need more new members on the Exco prepared to work to further the aims of the Trust.
Speak to any Committee member or myself.
We have chosen to live in the area and have to accept that the City will not meet all our needs. We also have to take responsibility for our own needs and make the improvements and changes we need, in consultation with the officials.

Gavin Lawson.