Attendance was open to all voting members. Members had the opportunity to forward nominations for a new SASA Executive Committee (board) during the weeks building up to the meeting, and a new board was elected at the AGM. SASA is a not-for-profit, membership driven organisation, established in 2011 to promote the sommelier profession in South Africa. After a warm welcome from current Chairman Neil Grant, Higgo Jacobs conducted the meeting going through the agenda starting with the financial report of the previous year and giving feedback on achievements. SASA’s involvement in industry related projects like the Bollinger Service Awards and the WOSA Sommelier World Cup, to name but a few, have been both instrumental and well received. 2013 has shown a steady growth in members, and SASA is positive about further growth, as more and more people are becoming aware of the importance of wine service in our growing tourism industry. The SASA website (www.sommeliers.org.za) is becoming more active with classifieds, tips, events and they are working on building in a calendar of events for 2014. Regarding the membership criteria, there are 4 groups: • Corporate & producer members • Professional members (internationally qualified sommeliers) • Wine advisors (trainee sommeliers and people with a formal wine qualification) • Wine enthusiasts SASA would like to encourage wine professionals and wine lovers to sign up as members and benefit from special promotions and specialised wine tastings. (Application forms are available on the website www.sommeliers.org.za) Without any objections the new Executive Committee for 2014 was elected with a unanimous result: Neil Grant –Chairman (re-elected) David Clarke – Vice-chair & Industry partners (newly elected) Kent Scheermeyer – Memberships (re-elected) Jörg Pfützner – Events (re-elected) Joakim Blackadder – Education (newly elected) Gareth Ferreira – Johannesburg (newly elected) Higgo Jacobs – External projects (re-elected) SASA extends a warm welcome to the three new members on the board and look forward to achieving more goals and creating a bigger awareness of wine service in South Africa in 2014!