Annual Report - AWA Board Activities 2020/2021 Key figures: - those in red to be amended

● 491 AWA members as per May 2021 (54 honorary, 437 paid) ● 78 new members from April 2020-May 2021, 359 renewals. Membership at its

lowest in 10 years

● 33 nationalities represented in the AWA, April 2021

● HK$1,512,002 awarded to 25 local charities and scholarships in cooperation with AmCham

● 1 scholarships for female students from School of Creativity for studies abroad (HK$25,000 each) and a total of HK$80,000 awarded to 25 students at VTC school

● No Asian Tours for the year owing to Covid-19 travel restrictions

President’s Report – Priyanka Agarwal Board 2020/2021 saw a very dedicated group of Board members working with positivity and a high level of commitment. All positions were filled for the whole of FY 2020/2021. Elected Positions Elected Positions President - Priyanka Agarwal (2nd term) (Singaporean) 1st VP Fundraising – Poonam Mahindre (1st term) (Indian) 2nd VP Membership – Tiffany Broeckleman (1st term) (American) 3rd VP Activities – Natasha Bochorishvili (2nd term) (Russian) Charitable Donations – Betsy Langberg (1st term) (American) Community Service – Lee Parr (6 months) (American) Education & Scholarship – Barbara Tengtio (2 months) (American), Helen Carruthers (10 months) (British) Recording Secretary – Morlene Page (1st term) (American) Treasurer – Alison Doran (3rd term) (British) Appointed Positions Branding & Marketing - Karen Gollob (German) WISE Liaison - Katharina Darrise (German), Priya Iyer (Indian) Publishing – Vasavi Seethepalli (Indian) Ex-Officio Board Member Director of Operations – Barbora Mayer (Czech) Main topics for the year AWA continued to face a challenging year with Covid19 pandemic and social distancing restrictions. Our membership numbers were heavily impacted and so were our Local tours and activities. We had to completely stop Asian Tours, most volunteering programs for the year and English learning programs.

AWA continued to explore how to support charities and be meaningfully engaged with its members, despite the odds. The key highlights for this year has been:

1. Formation of the AWA Foundation with Section 88 status confirmed 2. Project for the new Website began, headed by Director of Operations Barbora Mayer

with tentative launch in Jan 2022. 3. New collaborations established with HKCRF fund in partnership with American Pillars

raising 4 million HKD. AWA Foundation We finished the draft of AWA Foundation Articles of Association and got an informal approval from IRAS. The company registration for the Foundation was done in Jan 2021 and a Board of 7 members (including 3 AWA Board members-President, First VP Fundraising, CDC Chair) was set up. Ming Lai Cheung was elected as the Chairperson and the AWA Foundation Board put in the formal application for Section 88 status and opening of the bank account. The Foundation was granted Section 88 status within 3 weeks of its application and Bank account approval also came in early June. With this, the AWA Foundation is formally in place after 3 long years and will start its operations from July 2021. New AWA Website AWA members approved the budget for a new AWA website in last year’s EGM. Barbora Mayer, Director of Operations, took on the role of Project Manager in addition to her regular job responsibilities. She and her team have been working on the project since then. This new AWA Website is much needed and we hope to benefit from it by having more operational efficiency for both office and AWA members, better data management and in increasing overall better social media presence. New Collaborations AWA joined hands with the rest of the American Pillars (The American club, The American Club Foundation, HKIS, AmCham, AmCham Foundation) to form HKCRF fund. This fund used AWA CDC’s team expertise to shortlist 12 charities which were granted 300,000HKD each to help them cope with Covid19. HKCRF hopes to continue finding meaningful projects to work together with and AWA has been playing an active role in it. Board Development Day The new board held a Board Development Day in October 2020, facilitated by AWA member Penny Van Niel, with the objective to get to know each other as a team. This year, we used the Board development Day to brainstorm ideas asking three questions:

● How can AWA act as a platform to connect its members to each other? ● What can AWA do to connect to its members and be there for them? ● How can AWA contribute to HK in ways other than it’s already doing?

There were no task forces created. The ideas generated from this session are in this report. There was a July Strategy meeting held before the Board meeting. The notes from that meeting are in this report.

Partnership with AmCham and AmCham Foundation This year again AmCham Charitable Foundation has been very supportive of our philanthropic efforts and contributed 520k HKD for 2020-21. This is consequently been the second year that AmCham has given an amount of 500k and more which shows their commitment to charitable causes and their trust in the AWA. 1st VP Fundraising – Poonam Mahindre

FUNDRAISING FOR THE YEAR: Total Fundraising for 2020-2021 through events and direct donations was HKD$1,013,419. It has been another challenging year for fundraising with the ongoing COVID pandemic. We had some serious challenges putting on fundraising events due to social distancing restrictions, yet we have found innovative ways to raise funds by moving events online and outdoors. We also received a lot of support from our members who rose up to the occasion and donated generously with the AWA receiving over HKD$250k in direct donations. While other members helped raise funds by hosting small, socially distanced, private fundraisers in their homes when AWA could not host large scale in person events. The Bazaar could not be hosted in-person and had to be moved online. It was due to the perseverance of the Bazaar team that it was a great success. We highlighted artists within the AWA community and delivered two successful Artist of the Month exhibits with photographer Monique Kozan and painter Margaret Goeden. AWA’s collaboration with artists - painters Monica Hemrajani, Sophie Tunik and poet Shikha Lamba delivered a successful Creative Encounters on Canvas exhibition. We also had some successes with vendor sales based fundraising with Cacao Chocolate Mooncake sale, AWA 65 year celebration Starburst bracelets & Hari Hotel Staycation. While our members initially were enthusiastic about this approach, our other offerings under the Gifts that Give campaign did not receive similar support hence it has been temporarily suspended. Our 2020 -2021 AWA fundraising dollars were raised by the following events and campaigns: Charity Bazaar – November 2020 (Chaired by: Tiffany Broekelman, Amy Goldman & Barbora Mayer) HKCRF 10K donation campaign- July to October 2020 (Chaired by Priyanka Agarwal) Cacao chocolate Mooncake Sale - September 2020 (Chaired by Poonam Mahindre) Pink Together - October 2020 (Chaired by Sarah Brundan & Poonam Mahindre) Creative Encounters on Canvas Exhibition - November 2020 (Chaired by Priyanka Agarwal & Poonam Mahindre) AWA Treasure Hunt Hiking challenge - March 2021 (Chaired by Barbora Mayer) AWA Artist of the Month Exhibit- April and May 2021 (Chaired by Tracey Lee Hayes, Annie Fifer & Rachel Bourke) AWA 65 year celebration Starburst bracelet - April 2021(Chaired by Priyanka Agarwal & Poonam Mahindre) International Dinner Private fundraiser hosted by Hiroko Nishikawa

Bollywood dance party private fundraiser hosted by Liana S, J’nee Easter, Ilene Levy & Poonam Mahindre

2nd VP Membership - Tiffany Broeckleman Yet another challenging year for the organization with the pandemic and ongoing restrictions greatly impacting the Membership. We have seen more members leaving Hong Kong than coming into the city, as well as some members choosing not to renew membership based on limited activities. As of the end of May 2021, we had 491 members compared to 602 total members (54 honorary) a year ago. We welcomed 87 new members from June 2020-May 2021. In that same time period, we had 359 renewals vs. 452 the previous year. We have the lowest membership in 10 years with the last 2 years steadily trending downwards. Although we continue to be a diverse organization, our nationalities represented have gone from 45 in early 2019 to 33 at the end of May 2021. The largest concentration of members continues to be the US at 46.2% followed by the UK at 19.5% and AU at 5.3%. Our membership continues to trend middle-age with 66.7% falling between 40-59 years old and 57% are currently non-working women. The highest member interest at this time is noted to be Community Volunteering at 28.6% as of May 2021. Our core membership activities were greatly disrupted this past year, but many have resumed within social distancing guidelines. New member receptions, Foon Ying, CHAT, OWL, the Buddy Program, and 2 of our Neighborhood coffees. There has been a need to replace many of the leaders for these programs to include Foon Ying, CHAT, and OWL, and more leaders are still needed. Only the Southside and MidLevel/Central coffee hosts have been active and many of the neighborhoods are now without a leader or have limited members living in those areas. The Buddy Program is on the lookout for members to be buddies for the upcoming year. Our key membership events for the year were changed or cancelled due to government restrictions. The usual Welcome Back Breakfast in September could not be held so a smaller event called “Fall Into Friends” breakfast with the reintroduction of all AWA programs and speed-dating table switching was done to help navigate restrictions. The event was well attended and had positive feedback. The holiday party that is normally held in December was not held due to strict restriction along with our June Thank You Reception for the Membership that in the past has been held at the Consul General’s residence. With membership numbers continuing to trend downward, we must continue to diligently work to spread the word and find more members. Ideas for promoting on social platforms have been discussed, but without summer activities happening, this will be put on hold until there is more to entice new members. For those current members, we will work to continue to offer social activities and opportunities for engagement that are meaningful. As the new year approaches, ideas for revamping the neighborhood coffees and possible monthly member receptions at the office will be explored. Ongoing push and help from the board to engage members and recruit is much needed.

3rd VP Activities – Natasha Bochorishvili

It has been a challenging year with possibilities to organise activities opening and then

closing again. We never stopped trying to arrange at least some activities online, some

online events were reasonably well attended and successful, but everyone was tired of

zoom and was looking forward to the time when they could get together and enjoy live

events.

Activities have picked up in April and May, while the amount of participants per event has

been still restricted we could offer quite a range of activities, especially in May and June.

Kathryn Abbott was a great Chair of the LTA Committee, after her departure Natasha has

become a temporary Chair.

Some good news:

There are 7 new LTA Committee members, all very enthusiastic, offering and leading new

activities.

Helen Caruthers has joined the LTA Committee and has become a co-chair of the

Committee together with Natasha, also Teresa Arena, who has had a long and successful

experience of working with WISE has recently joined the LTA Committee. Natasha and

Helen see her as a potential Chair of the Committee in the near future.

Local Activities and Tours:

In May and June, we have arranged a number of events with our long standing partners:

Tour of the Pokfulam village and an indigo dyeing workshop with the villagers and a visit to

New Territories to see ecologically sound Hong Kong businesses recycling paper and wood,

arranged by Stanley; Sunset Survivors tours with Lindsay; Jason Wordie's history talks in the

office; a Hong Kong cemetery tour with Stephanie.

We also started afternoon movies in the office project.

There were quite a few activities combining an appreciation of art, sport, and food:

exhibition visits followed by lunch or tea, Burgers and Bowling at the Country Club, food

experiences with a Balinese chef, etc.

We were able to organise summer events on the water: Junk Boat on June 6th and

Aqualuna private sunset cruise on June 27th.

There have been a number of Art Lovers events offered together with Local tours, like the

visit to The Mills, to the ArtSpace K gallery and lunch, etc.

Issues/Concerns:

While there are currently 30 people listed as LTA Committee members, most of the

activities have been organised by just a few people, including new LTA members. And these

are the people who actually attend the LTA monthly meetings.

Some committee members are possibly leaving, or are currently away from Hong Kong. We

are thinking of reviewing the committee membership in September-October.

On-Going Activities and Sports: Clubs like Art Lovers Group, Book Club, Golfers, Hiking, Games ( Mahjong and Bridge) continue to be active and well supported with consistent coordination. The hiking group was coordinated by Kathryn Abbott for many years, now Tonya Roberts took over the role. Hiking has been ongoing all this time, organised at times in small groups with sub-coordinators. Art Lovers Group, coordinated by Natasha together with Tamara Gorgas Pacton, has been very active, there were events, art tours, visits to galleries practically every week. Book Club has been taking place every month in person when possible or in zoom. It has a new coordinator - Claire Miller. There are some groups/clubs that have not been operating for various reasons ( i.e. Galloping Gourmet, or Environmental group) we hope that the activities they used to do can be offered in the framework of LTA. Partnerships: We have been discussing potential cooperation plans with Asia Society HK, it can be attractive for members to be able to participate in/develop some events with them.

Charitable Donations - Betsy Langberg Introduction The Charitable Donations Committee had an unexpectedly strong year in 2020-2021 considering the context of Covid. Our report will cover our activities and results for the year. Application Review and Priorities In 2020, the CDC reviewed and revised its application procedures, timeline, materials and vetting criteria. It was a thorough effort by a team of very experienced CDC members, meeting multiple times throughout the year. Our timeline was pushed back from July application release to December, with a due date of January 22, 2021. The application itself was streamlined and guidelines clarified with the aim of making it easier on our charity partners while still gathering the critical information we need to make decisions.

In light of the Covid situation, and in anticipation of reduced fundraising results, we instituted two changes especially for this year in an attempt to limit the number of applications. 1) We reduced the award ceiling from $100,000 to $75,000. 2) Our priority groups were limited to disadvantaged/low income women and disadvantaged/low income children/youth. Applications Even with these changes, we still received a high volume of applications; a total of 35. Due to disqualifying factors, two applications (Dialogue in the Dark and CCC Kei Chun Primary School) were eliminated from the pool and the team eventually vetted 33 applications. The total amount requested from all applicants was $2,068,622. We received two applications from new charities: Love 21 and Uplifters. All of the others were known to the AWA team leads; some of them very well known. The applications were received by January 22, and after a technical review for eligibility, the applications were assigned to the team leads. Vetting was to be completed and results entered by the end of March. Our initial full team discussion of vetting scores and charities was scheduled for early April. CDC Team and Vetting Process As usual, the CDC had an incredibly strong team with 28 members including 19 experienced and 9 new. We divided into five teams and organized our applications by theme for the first time this year: marginalized groups, general support for women, mental health, education and sexual health/support for disabled. For some groups, this grouping was very helpful, for others, not so much. In general, we agree we should try to group applications in the future as much as possible. Each team vetted six of seven applications. As most of the meetings were via Zoom, the scheduling and participation was much easier and allowed for greater participation in each meeting by team members. Teams were encouraged to try and do at least one vetting in person so that new team members could experience the personal visit. At the end of the vetting process, scores were tabulated, and the charities rank ordered for discussion. This year we moved from grade scores of A to F and instituted a numerical system based on 12 vetting criteria that aligned with our application priorities. The goal was to increase objectivity and uniformity across all teams. We learned that we still need to work on defining some of our terminology to improve uniform understanding among team leads. We will conduct a debrief of the process and make adjustments in the fall when members are back in town. Results After our April meeting, team members followed up on some questions raised during the discussion. The results of these inquiries did not substantially change our rank ordering or the amounts that the CDC team recommended for funding. In all 20 projects were recommended for full or partial funding totaling approximately $1.15 million. Our AWA Fundraising team was projecting about $800,000 in results of which $100K would go to support scholarships. These funds were either earned through our fundraisers or donated to the Charitable Donations Fund by AWA members or friends of the AWA. We received an early indication from our generous charitable partner, AmCham, that they

would contribute $350,000. In order to help AmCham decide which charities they would like to support this year, the CDC chair and AWA president presented seven charitable projects to them in mid-Mary with a total request of $522K. Our expectation was that they would pick a subset of projects totaling $350K. The trustees of AmCham Foundation surprised us though and opted to fully fund all seven projects. Their generosity allowed the AWA to fully fund the remaining 13 projects for a total giving in 2021, of $1,324,752. The average grant amount was $66,238 with eleven awards at the maximum of $75,000. The lowest award, for a computer purchase, was $16,000. Overview of the 2019 Grant Reports

Due to Covid, many charities who received funding prior to the pandemic in the summer of

2019, had difficulty executing their projects, especially those that required face-to-face

and/or group interactions. AWA reviewed projects on a case-by-case basis and worked with

charities to either redirect funds to alternate activities or extend the end date on the award

to enable them to use the funds as originally intended. As of this report, there are still five

awards in progress and due to complete by August 2021.

The CDC team will be recruiting new members for the 2022 awards through the end of

2021. Anyone with an interest in helping out should contact charities@awa.org.hk

Community Service – Lee Parr 2020-21 was a difficult year for community volunteers as our programs were put on hold due to Covid19 restrictions. Soup kitchen, Ronald McDonald House birthday parties and reading/crafts for the children, Center for Refugees were not open to volunteers. HK Society for the Blind kept open and volunteer slots were filled successfully! We also started up a new program for members, Mother’s Choice Hearty Meals program providing meals for carers at the center on Bowen Road. Both of these programs have been successful as they are for the individual volunteer rather than involving groups. We are reviewing our community volunteer opportunities and hope to resume in autumn 2021. Thank you to the program coordinators and AWA volunteers for their hard work and dedication during such a difficult year. Highlights for this year include: Members were able to participate in the Feeding HK food drive at Chinese New Year and we look forward to getting more involved with the FHK team in the future.

Education and Scholarship – Helen Carruthers

Education Sadly, the AWA had to continue with the suspension of its 7 English education programs due to Covid19. For most of the school year, Hong Kong students were taught online by their teachers to minimize social contact. Extra-curricular activities such as our programs had to be paused as schools struggled to maintain timetables and help pupils cope with extraordinarily challenging circumstances. During the autumn one volunteer went into CCC Kei Chun Primary school and, along with another volunteer, made some storytelling recordings. However, generally, it was felt that online teaching would not be effective when students already had to do all their learning remotely. Students only returned to ‘in person’ teaching towards the end of the school year and for limited periods. We were also mindful that we had a duty of care to ensure the safety of both our volunteers and students by minimizing social contact. Going forward, it is hoped that the AWA will recommence its English programs in the autumn with the rollout of the vaccine providing protection to the community. However, three of the 7 programs need new coordinators and all of the programs require more volunteer resources. It will be essential to have a recruitment drive at the ‘Welcome Back Coffee’ to encourage members to join the existing teams. It may also be necessary to run some “volunteer training” sessions. There are materials and resources compiled by past coordinators available in the AWA office. Scholarships It has been wonderful to be able to award several substantial scholarships to young people from low-income backgrounds. We have been delighted to award another scholarship of $25,000 HK dollars to an outstanding female student from the HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity. This scholarship is given in memory of Pam Kavanagh who was an active volunteer for the AWA education program while living in Hong Kong. In due course, we look forward to hearing about the progress of this scholarship holder. The funding of $80,000 HK dollars awarded to the Vocational Training Council (VTC) remains unchanged this year with 25 students receiving scholarships from the AWA ranging from $2,000 to $4,000 HK dollars. This money will be used for educational books and equipment as well as additional tuition and courses. Since the beginning of the program, the AWA has helped more than 500 students – a fantastic achievement! We very much hope that next year’s report is more positive with the recommencement of our English volunteer programs. Over the years, the work done by AWA volunteers has greatly enhanced the learning of numerous local young people in their educational journeys.

Recording Secretary – Morlene Page

One of the primary duties of the Recording Secretary is to ensure the AWA files all required documents with the Hong Kong Company Registry as well as our bank, HSBC. Other duties include creating agendas and minutes for all Board and General Meetings. T

The ND2A was filed on 2 July 2020 to change the names at the Company Registry of all departing elected board members to the names of the new board members. After the paperwork was accepted, the new board members were registered with HSBC as directors. An additional ND2A was submitted on 9 April 2021 to reflect the new Volunteer Chairperson. An ND2B was submitted on 27 April 2021 to reflect the change of address of one of the Board Members. An amended ND2A was submitted on 3 June 2021 to correct the ID of one of the Board Members.

The NAR1 (Annual Return), the document that accompanies the submission of the Audited Financial Statements, for the financial year ending on the 30th of June 2020 was filed on 14 April 2021 with the Company Registry.

Our General Meetings for the year were held on 23 September 2020 at the American Club and on 14 April 2021 and 7 June 2021 on Zoom Conferencing Technology due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

In addition, an Extraordinary General Meeting was held on 8 December 2020 (on Zoom Conferencing Technology) to approve spending for an update/refresh of the AWA website.

At the beginning of this calendar year (2021), the AWA Foundation was incorporated. The Recording Secretary for the Club was appointed as the Recording Secretary for the Foundation. The initial application (NNC1G) for incorporation was filed on 17 November 2020, corrections submitted on 20 January 21 and it was approved on 28 January 2021. Section 88 Application (charity status) was applied with the IRD on 8 April 2021 and approved on 23 April 2021. An ND2B was submitted on 27 April 2021 to reflect the change of address of one of the Board Members. Amended NNCIG’s were submitted on 28 April 2021 and 24 May 2021 to correct the spelling of the last name and ID number of two board members, respectively. The Foundation had five Board Meetings and its AGM was on 6 May 2021.

Treasurer – Alison Doran

During the year the preparation of the monthly financial reports were completed by our external accountant Cheng Ming Kei Accounting and Consulting Co. and reviewed by Alison Doran, our Treasurer. Alison presents the Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash position analysis to the AWA board at the monthly meetings. In the Spring of 2020, the budget for the Financial Year Ending 30 June 2021, was prepared with input from the board.

Financial Analysis for the Year Ended June 2020. The 2019/20 Annual Financial Statements have been audited and approved by the auditor, Cheng Ming Kei Certified Public Accountant. The audited accounts were presented to the membership at the April 2021 AGM and approved by the membership at that meeting.

We made a loss of 678k for the year compared to a very small profit of $59k in FY19:

The two main contributing factors to this loss were: 1. The reduction in our fundraising surplus by $171 compared to FY19, however we still donated to our chosen charities and presented scholarships totalling $1.5m. This $1.5m was $114k more than the fundraising surplus which added to the deficit for the FY20 but this was the balance brought forward from FY19 fundraising not distributed in FY19. 2. The reduction of the surplus from membership by $273 due to the decline in membership fees received during FY20.

Please see below extracts of the audited financial statements:

Publishing – Vasavi Seethepalli Took over the reins from Stephanie and J’nee. Started as a Publishing Chair June 2020. Published 6 issues of AWAre. We signed Partica (Flipbook and Responsive site) for our online digital publication. Sent out monthly e-Newsletter from June 2020 - May 2021 including WISE e-Newsletter and eDMs. Used Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Canva softwares including Word to carry out the tasks at hand. I am in the process of withdrawing from Partica completely – it served as a good transitory medium from Print to Digital for AWAre Magazine.

Branding & Marketing - Karen Gollob 2021 Marketing Objectives

1) 65 years AWA celebration campaign 2) increase AWA brand awareness

3) gain new members 4) successful launch of AWA foundation

Audio Story

Together with our host, Regina Larko, we will tell meaningful, connecting stories about the

AWA in an intimate, authentic way, so it resonates with our community and helps us gain

new supporters.

3 selected members (Beth McNicholas, Tiffany Broekelman, Karena Belin) will share their

personal story of why this organization (and, of course, its members) plays an integral part

in their life.

launch date: September TBD

platform: AWA website, Spotify/ Apple Podcast TBD

Interview Series

Our Behind the Scenes interview series is focusing on the operations ("WHAT AND HOW") of

each board function and enables us to create a better understanding of their meaningful

work and find new volunteers.

launch date: May, July (TBD)

platform: Facebook/ Instagram/ LinkedIn, AWAre magazine

Social media

Social media is one of the most cost-efficient digital marketing methods used to syndicate

content and increase your business’s visibility. Implementing a social media strategy

together with a standardized look and feel will greatly increase your brand recognition since

you will be engaging with a broad audience of consumers.

Wise Liaison - Priya Iyer The primary objective of AWA WISE are:

1. To build a community where professional women and women entrepreneurs discuss

their issues in a trustful and non-judgemental environment and lean on each other

for guidance, support and help.

2. Be the Go-to Forum for its audience by serving as the hub for knowledge and

information dissemination.

3. Encourage AWA WISE members to become AWA members.

4. Build a strong brand that tie in with its stated values.

In previous years we hosted live events that included workshops, panel discussions, and

networking events to achieve these objectives. The unexpected and virulent nature of the

pandemic precluded us from hosting live events. WISE re-thought operations and decided to

host networking events and workshops using virtual platforms like Zoom.

We build community and enhanced skill sets of professional women by hosting the

following events through the year -

1. May 2020 – Networking event 'Let's Reconnect'.

2. October 2020 – 'Mastering a Mindset for Change' by Brigit Rappold and Liad Nyman

of Rappstone Professional Coaching. Target audience – professional women and

entrepreneurs.

3. December 2020 – Networking Event titled 'Laughter and Gratitude' around the

theme of Christmas and giving, and urging our audience to donate to The Giving Tree

event of the AWA.

4. February 2021 – Funding 101 for Small Businesses by Nicole Denholder of Next

Chapter Raise educated entrepreneurs on goal setting and fundraising basics.

5. March 2021 - Networking Event titled 'Reimagining Possibilities' celebrating

International Women's Day 2021.

6. April 2021 – Workshop titled ‘Land that Job: Storytelling for Job Winning Interviews’

by Renee Conklin of RC HR Consulting. She coached career women on how to give

their best interviews.

7. May 2021 – Workshop titled 'Podcast Like a Boss' by Regina Larko of Hashtag Impact

who gave an overview of how to start podcasting.

Encouraging AWA WISE women to become AWA members -

● We highlighted the merits and benefits of joining AWA at every AWA WISE event.

● We priced tickets for AWA and AWA WISE members differently.

● We highlighted charitable activities and fundraising efforts of the AWA at the AWA

WISE events and cross-promoting these efforts across AWA WISE social media

platforms such as our Facebook page, LinkedIn page and our Facebook group.

AWA WISE brand awareness -

1. We made consistent efforts to increase our social media reach -

a. FB Page (@awawisehk) - 651 likes / 711 follows

b. LinkedIn page (@awa-wise-hong-kong) – 198 followers

c. We also relaunched a closed FB Group (@AWA WISE Hong Kong), and

membership stands at 145 members.

2. AWA WISE members and facilitators of our events and community partners have

regularly contributed to articles in AWARE magazine.

3. We strengthened existing relationships with our Community Partners (CP) and

brought in new partners to join in with us. Some of our CPs are -

4. We highlighted the achievements of our members in AWARE magazine.

Director of Operations – Barbora Mayer

During 2020-21, the office team continued to consist of 2 members of staff – Director of Operations Barbora Mayer (BM) and Membership Representative Joanne Lam (JL). The working hours remained reduced to a 4 day week due to insufficient income. Due to Covid-19, staff took turns to work from home to avoid being each other’s close contact and potential quarantine.

The main duties of the two employees are to ensure smooth day to day office operations; to work closely with event coordinators to make sure all registrations, payments, and necessary documents are prepared on time; provide general office support; follow up on members/ coordinators/ chairs requests; accounting; updating the content of the website.

Additionally, the office staff was closely involved with:

EVENTS

- Fundraising events - Virtual Charity Bazaar (BM co-chaired), BM developed a new fundraising event ‘Take a Hike, Change a Life! - Charity Treasure Hunt’

- Membership events (Fall into Friends, AGM, and Charity Awards)

ADVERTISING

BM developed several advertising campaigns to coincide with thematic Aware issues. JL led the project once the concept and mailing list were finalised. These campaigns generated the following income:

Virtual marketplace $10,400 Entrepreneurs $26,200 Education $19,000 Total income $55,600

FINANCE

- Audit – BM prepared all financial reports required for our financial audit and worked closely with the auditor during fact gathering and audit stages

- BM completed Salaries Tax return for FY 2020/21

- BM prepared the Office budget for FY 2020/21

FOUNDATION

- BM was involved in the drafting up of the Articles of Association and subsequent correspondence with IRD.

- BM created a Policies and Guidelines document for AWA Foundation.

- BM organised the opening of the HSBC bank account.

- BM prepared the MYOB accounting system for the start of the financial year - 1 July 2021.

- BM arranged a credit card processing facility set up with Global Payments.

- BM applied for the Friends Of Hong Kong Charities partnership

WEBSITE

- BM completed website functionality map in preparation for web redevelopment

- BM contacted and briefed 5 web developers, reviewed proposals, interviewed a selection, appointed Jump. Project kick-off Jan 2021

- BM worked on researching and selecting a payment platform for the new website

- BM is the project lead on design and wireframe development

- Projected website launch Q1 of 2022