MINUTES OF THE 68th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE SINGAPORE ASSOCIATION OF THE VISUALLY HANDICAPPED (SAVH) HELD ON SATURDAY, 28 AUGUST 2021 AT 2.30PM VIA ZOOM VIDEO-CONFERENCE
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MEMBERS PRESENT:
35 members were present virtually through Zoom and telephone.
STAFF IN ATTENDANCE:
1. Mr Robin Lee Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
2. Mr Kevin Koh Head of Finance
3. Mr Kan Teck San Head of Compliance, PDPA, Cybersecurity &
Membership
4. Mr Tan Siow Huee Head of Operations Support and Security
5. Mr Chong Kwek Bin Head of Advocacy, Communications, Employment & Training
6. Ms Krishveen Kaur Dhillon Communications Executive & Minutes Recorder (outgoing)
7. Ms Liow Ai Vee (incoming) Communications Executive & Minutes Recorder
1.0 Preamble
1.1 At 2.30pm, CEO Mr Robin Lee welcomed all to the 68th Annual General Meeting.
1.1.1 He announced that the Executive Committee 2020/21 (EXCO) was in attendance. They were: President Michael Tan, Vice President Dr Goh Hock Huan, Vice President Ms Linda Teo, Honorary Secretary Ms Lyn Loh, Honorary Treasurer Mr Albert Ang, Assistant Treasurer Dr Anna Tan.
1.1.2 Members of SAVH EXCO in attendance were: Mr Andrew Chew, Ms Cassandra Chiu, Mr James Chiang, Mr Benson Loo, Mr Loh Teh Lin and Mr Victor Zhuang. Also, in attendance were Ms Tan Wei Ling from RSM Chio Lim Audit Firm and Honorary Legal Advisor Mr Adrian Tan who were there to observe the proceedings. He informed all that the AGM will be conducted in English.
1.2 He announced that the SAVH constitution required a quorum of 40 members, however, due to the consideration arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, votes were conducted through proxy means in accordance with the government’s COVID-19 temporary measure acts for AGM proceedings and members were allowed to submit a proxy form authorizing the Chairman of the AGM to represent their attendance in votes, which were received by an external third party vendor, Trusted Services Pte Ltd, for counting.
1.3 In view of the above process, CEO noted that as of the closing date 27 August 2021, 5 pm, a total of 71 ballot proxy forms were received comprising of 56 forms which were submitted through hardcopy mail, 2 were submitted through email and 13 were submitted through an online platform provided by the external vendor, Trusted Services. Out of 71 forms received, 65 were valid and 6 rejected. He confirmed that the valid proxy votes for each resolution were more than 40 and conducted a roll call at 2.33pm, which noted that 35 members were present virtually (through zoom and telephone) at the AGM, which formed a quorum for the meeting to begin
1.4 The CEO proceeded to list the ground rules that members needed to observe in order for the meeting to proceed smoothly with minimum disruption. He reminded all that there would be no live questions, only answers to questions submitted in writing as set out in the AGM notice sent out to members.
1.5 Following which, he highlighted that there will be a change in the order of the Agenda items for this AGM as it would be easier to present all the items which are listed in the proxy form in a continuous manner. The order of the proceedings is listed as such:
i) Opening Address by the President of SAVH
ii) Matters arising from the past AGM
iii) Any/and or other matters for which notice has been given in writing to the Honorary Secretary
iv) Confirmation of the Minutes of the 67th AGM held on 26 June 2021; to receive, consider and adopt the annual report 2020/2021 and the audited statement of accounts for the financial period of 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021.
v) Appointment of auditors
vi) The election of the EXCO Members for the period 2021/2023
2.0 Opening Address by the President of SAVH
2.1 CEO handed over the proceedings of the 68th AGM to SAVH President, Michael Tan for his opening address.
2.2 President welcomed members for attending the AGM and apologized for not being able to conduct physical AGM due to current pandemic restrictions.
2.3 President’s Message:
2.3.1 President Michael Tan shared that SAVH incurred a net profit of about $1 million of which about $600,000 came from the government job assistance scheme. He appealed for members to help SAVH get more donations in anticipation of a decrease in donations as the pandemic drags on.
2.3.2 President announced new and upcoming programmes to help our clients.
a. Reintroduce Home Care Programme – proactively reach out to clients who may be confined to their homes due to the pandemic.
b. Enhance and Improved Day Care Centre: Digitalise some of the Day Care Centre activities so that they can participate virtually from their homes.
c. Introduced Life Support Scheme this year: Clients who have lost their jobs to contact SAVH social workers for assistance.
d. In March 2021, SAVH arranged for clients to get their vaccination at SAVH premise with the help of a pool of volunteers and staff.
e. To work with EXCO Assistant Treasurer Dr Anna Tan of SNEC to create programmes for care givers and educational programmes for SAVH social workers.
On that note, the President called the meeting to order and proceeded with the rest of the Meeting’s agenda.
3.0 Any other Matters
President apologised that members were not be able to ask questions in person. However, they can still email their questions after the AGM to Honorary Secretary. He proceeded to read out the following questions which were sent in earlier and responded accordingly.
3.1 Question 1: Given the current COVID-19 situation, have SAVH been able to proactively identify clients whose well-being is greatly impacted – for example due to loss of job; and/or financially burdened, etc? (sic)
Answer: President responded that SAVH has a Life Support Scheme which was crowd funded. Affected clients are to contact their social workers to tap on this scheme.
3.2 Question 2: What are SAVH’s efforts taken to assist clients to ensure that they can continue to sustain themselves financially? This is especially critical for clients who are living independently; sole bread winners; parents with children; etc? (sic)
Answer: Clients can tap on the Life Support Scheme. Volunteers and social workers will call and check on SAVH clients over the next few months and offer them relevant assistance via government financial grants.
3.3 Question 3: Does SAVH have any assistance in place for clients who are unable to work due to the COVID-19 restrictions (i.e. buskers, masseurs and ad hoc jobs, etc) We understand that these clients are mainly earning base on commission and may not qualify for COVID-19 relief packages offered by the government as generally they do not have CPF contributions. What are the initiatives by SAVH to assist these groups of clients. If there are already assistance available for clients to tap on, appreciate if SAVH could kindly elaborate in detail so that clients who are not aware could tap on the assistance available? (sic)
Answer: President shared that SAVH would like to introduce assistance schemes in phases. SAVH hopes to introduce Phase 1 over the next 6 months. For a start, SAVH would try to get cooperation with tripartite partners like unions and companies and clients and also to tap on workforce development grants and other grants. A small support group will be formed to move things forward so as to help our clients further.
3.4 Question 4: What are SAVH detailed initiatives to ensure that clients are able to cope with the evolving health and economic uncertainties and are able to adapt to the situation due to COVID-19? (sic)
Answer: SAVH will explore how our SAVH support group can contact clients to see how they can help but we will need to adhere to PDPA guidelines. However, President wanted all to note that our government only funds 4 programme – namely the library, braille production, low vision clinic and social services. For other areas, SAVH will need to source for external funding.
3.5 Question 5: What are SAVH’s initiatives or already existing programmes in place that focus to enhance the scope of employment capabilities for clients to be more marketable in the workforce in Singapore. Taking to consideration the client’s existing job experience, qualifications and clients’ capabilities, regardless of race, age, religion, etc. If there are already programmes in place, how does SAVH assess and quantify that the programmes benefited the clients. Additionally, what are SAVH’s plans to ensure that the programmes are continuously improved to ensure visually impaired clients could stay relevant and are competent in the workforce? Personally, I believe this would also be helpful to clients who were recently retrenched due to the current economic situation. (sic)
Answer: Where employment is concerned, it is under the domain of SG Enable who has a comprehensive plan in terms of training, retraining and job opportunities for all Persons with Disability. SAVH refers such clients to SG Enable who have government funding for employment. However, SAVH is also exploring other initiatives such as reviving the Call Centre to train them in basic Call Centre management skills. President appealed for more time to work out the mechanics of such initiatives.
3.6 Question 6: Understand that SAVH has been communicating with clients on latest announcements via the info line – Had SAVH consider tapping on technology (i.e. via email, closed group in Facebook, Telegram, etc) instead so that clients who are more tech savvy would be able to access information regarding SAVH and its initiatives much promptly and effectively? (sic) Comment: On a personal note, I hope SAVH could stay proactive and come up with more comprehensive and extensive initiatives to ensure our visually impaired clients are well taken care of especially in times of current crisis. While there could be restrictions imposed in the physical movements, there are alternative means of communication and I believe SAVH could proactively step-up to show care and concern to our clients even more in moments like this. (sic)
Answer: President will take note of the points raised and be more empathetic on how we can help. He suggested mobilizing SAVH volunteer and support groups to call clients twice a year to assess their needs and discuss possible solutions. He added that a client survey was conducted in March to find out what clients’ challenges are and how SAVH can be of better help.
4.0 Confirmation of the Minutes of the 67th AGM held on 26 June 2021; to receive, consider and adopt the annual report 2020/2021 and the audited statement of accounts for the financial period of 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021.
4.1 Passing of Ordinary Resolution 1 – Confirmation of the 67th AGM minutes held on 26 June 2021.
The President declared that the resolution was passed based on the simple majority proxy vote comprising of 45 members who voted in favour of passing the motion, 13 who voted against passing the motion and 7 who abstained from voting. Percentage of votes in favour: 77.59%
4.2 Passing of Ordinary Resolution 2 – To receive, consider and adopt the Annual Report 2020/2021 and the Audited Statement of Accounts for the period 1 April – 2020 to 31 March 2021
The President declared that the resolution was passed on the simple majority proxy vote comprising of 38 members who voted in favour of passing the motion, 13 who voted against passing the motion and 14 who abstained from voting. Percentage of votes in favour: 74.51%
4.3 Passing of Resolution 3 – Appointment of Auditor. To appoint Tan Chan and Partners for FY 2021/2022
The President declared that the resolution was passed on the simple majority proxy vote comprising of 44 members who voted in favour of passing the motion, 12 who voted against passing the motion and 9 who abstained from voting. Percentage of votes in favour: 78.57%
5.0 Election of Executive Committee Members For the Period 2021-2023
5.1 The President read out the list of Nominees for both Visually Impaired and Sighted candidates.
Visually Impaired Candidates:
1. Mr Chew Hew Jeow, Andrew
2. Dr Goh Hock Huan
3. Ms Hong Hui Qin, Serene
There was no contest for the three visually impaired Members of the EXCO as three nominations were received for the three positions.
Sighted Candidates:
1. Ms Ong Siew Tee, Angela
2. Mr Tan See Hai, Michael
There was no contest for the two sighted Members of the EXCO as two nominations were received for the three positions.
6.0 68th SAVH Executive Committee Members
The President declared the members of the 68th SAVH Executive Committee 2021/2022 as follows:
Visually Impaired Members
1. Mr Chew Hew Jeow, Andrew
2. Mr Chiang Soo Koon, James
3. Ms Chiu Mei Mei, Cassandra
4. Dr Goh Hock Huan
5. Ms Hong Hui Qin, Serene
6. Ms Loh Pui Peng, Lyn
7. Mr Low Teh Lin
Sighted Members
1. Ms Ong Siew Tee, Angela
2. Dr Tan Cheng Sim, Anna
3. Mr Tan See Hai, Michael
4. Ms Teo Geok Sung, Linda
5. Mr Zhuang Kuan Song, Victor
7.0 End of AGM
President announced that the AGM is over. Thank you and goodbye.
There being no other matters, the meeting ended at 4 pm
Recorded by: Mrs Liow Ai Vee
Communications Executive
Vetted by: Mr Kan Teck San
Head of Compliance, PDPA, Cybersecurity & Membership
Mr Chong Kwek Bin
Head of Advocacy, Communications, Employment & Training
Mr Robin Lee
Chief Executive Officer
Reviewed by: Ms Lyn Loh
Honorary Secretary
Approved by: Mr Michael Tan
President
Dated: 10 January 2022