Page 42 - CAO 25th Ann Coffee Table Book

Scenario 3: The FWG supported this scenario where the Association was maintained, subject to the following:
• The primary mission of the consortium should be to focus on the provision of needed services to the member institutions.
It was agreed that the Association would continue and would be reassessed after a period of three years to ascertain whether esATI, with its new set of roles and new Secretariat, was adding value to the region. The issue regarding the location of the Association was also settled.
By 2005, it was accepted that esATI would not continue as an association that encouraged inter-institutional co-operation, shared expertise and resources and made use of economies of scale.
The Regional Institutional Co-operation Project out of which esATI grew, was set up to tackle issues of resource sharing and to identify areas where the institutions could make savings by working together. The greatest benefit provided by esATI has been the ability for inter-institutional projects to make a united approach to funders under the Reciprocity Agreement and the Tubingen Project. Institutions have drawn extensively on the skills and expertise of the CEO of esATI in the compilation and submission of three-year plans and in the negotiation.
The esATI secretariat comprised three staff, (one permanent and two on contract until 31 December 2006). There was also a post of CEO, which was filled on an acting basis.
On the other hand, the CAO was by now realising a turnover in excess of R6m and had a core staff of 12 (on contracts up to 31 December 2005 in most instances) with up to 12 casual staff at peak times. The CAO had just distributed Handbooks for the 2006 cycle. The earliest date at which it could have been closed, should the institutions have so wished, would have been in September 2006. It was still, however, operating as a project of esATI.
During March of 2005, Professor John Volmink, Chair of esATI Board of Trustees, received the following letter from CAO’s Steering Committee (see right):
In the face of the strong support for the continuation of the CAO by the Steering Committee and stakeholders in the community, the Board decided that on the dissolution of esATI Trust, the CAO would register as a Section 21 Company.
The Executive Officer of the CAO reported that preparations for the 2007 cycle was underway and that the new landscape format of the Handbook, first used for the 2006 entry, had been very well received.
In 2006, esATI was finally dissolved.
For the 2007 entry, application fees were to remain at R150 for on-time applications
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