SAMRA saddened by MFSA's demise
SAMRA, the Southern African Marketing Research Association, is greatly saddened at the closing down of the Marketing Federation of South Africa (MFSA), which, after many yeas of working closely together, it had come to regard almost as a sister organisation.
The MFSA is to be wound down following a decision by its Board on Friday, 30 September. This decision came after several interventions by the Board to deal with management problems that arose during 2004.
Schalk Van Vuuren, Chairman of the SAMRA Council, commented: "Although the MFSA closing down isn't positive for the Marketing Industry in South Africa, we would like all marketing professionals to be aware that SAMRA is going to try to fill the gap left by the MFSA."
SAMRA is a professional body of individuals engaged in every aspect of marketing research - from planning, supervising and setting standards for the industry, to teaching and promoting professionalism in marketing research.
Shortly after Van Vuuren's election in September this year, he said of SAMRA, "We have seen tremendous support of SAMRA's initiative to increase the professionalism and general standards in the research industry, and I plan to continue with this course of action so as to further entrench SAMRA as the prominent industry body it is. I also plan to ensure that the organisation remains financially secure, enabling us to better serve our members via functions (you can expect one of the best conventions ever in 2006), benefits (through our own journal and regular newsletters) and protection of the business interests of corporate members (BEE charter) and users (via the guarantee of quality research)."
"Despite the MFSA's sad demise, SAMRA is stronger than ever, and is ready to offer help and advice to those looking to it to partly fill the MFSA's place," says Van Vuuren.
For more info, visit www.samra.co.za.
