Ladies Circle 4 and Agora Amarula Club 1 from Louis Trichardt played host to Ladies Circle South Africa (LCSA) and Agora Club South Africa’s (ACSA) national annual general meetings (AGMs) the past weekend and history was made when, for the first time ever, four service organisations were represented.

Sharing the same vision, the service organisations were Ladies Circle, Round Table, Agora and the 41’ners Club. The weekend’s activities culminated in a gala dinner at Northgate Lodge on Saturday evening, during which time new national boards for both Ladies Circle and Agora were elected.

Outgoing national Agora president and former Louis Trichardt resident Laura van Zyl handed over the reins to incoming ACSA president Bongekile Mkhithi, while another Louis Trichardt resident, Sandy van Niekerk, was elected as national vice-president. Sandy also served as national president of the organisation in 2010/11. Inga Gilfillan, also from Louis Trichardt, was elected national treasurer of ACSA, while Laura will stay on as national Agora secretary.

As for Ladies Circle, the great honour of being elected national vice-president of Ladies Circle South Africa was given to outgoing Ladies Circle 4 chair Riana Otto. In the weeks leading up to hosting the national AGM for Ladies Circle SA and Agora SA, Riana and her fellow Circlers from Ladies Circle 4 (consisting of only four members) put in a lot of work to get things organised. In response, Riana thanked all who had made the event possible, including her parents Paul and Rosetta Otto from PD Otto Elektries, her better half, Kobus Klopper, who acted as MC and Men’s Tour host, as well as Agora Amarula Club 1 members and members of the local Roundtable, 41er's Club and Rotary.

Sponsors for the evening were also thanked. They included ACDC (Martin Potgieter), Agora South Africa, Agora Amarula Club 1, Art of Intimacy Club 1, Bantex (Estelle van Buuren), BoabaCare (Madelein), C Jay's Hair Salon (Connie and Nolean), CIP (JP Pretorius), Compro IT (Riaan Hamman and Sean van Niekerk), Daidas Beauty (Victoria), DJ Johnty Janse van Rensburg, EDEC Investments (Dave Farland), Greenfarms (Graeme Whyte), Incredag Pegs, Isis Décor (Donsie), KFC (Ricky Pesseguero), Macridge (Phillip Potgieter), Northgate (Anton Pretorius en Charmain Tait-Botha), Palm Drankwinkel (Nardus Barnard), Perfect Water (Dirk Meissenheimer), Sonel Lindique (photographer), Protea Farms (Danelle Fourie), Riaan Hamman, Roman’s Pizza (Christel Smith), Rootz (Kylie Henn), Steyn Staal (Jaco), Skins & Things (Tania Botha), Spar Louis Trichardt (Luke Enslin), Specialised Oil (Kevin Gilbert), U-Print (Sunelia Oelofse and Carin Fisser), Voltex (Kayur Premjee) and the Zoutpansberger.

“Lastly, I would really like to thank my ladies who assisted me with the AGM. We were four, but we did the work of eight,” said Riana. As for Ladies Circle 4’s new board, Cherise Hamman was elected as 2022/23 chair, with Tania Botha as vice-chair and Kylie Henn as secretary and public relations officer.