Who are we?

Community Exchange Systems Ltd is a not-for-profit company registered under Section 21 of the Companies Act of South Africa.

For many years the CES was not formally constituted and in an effort to remedy the situation Community Exchange Systems Ltd was registered in October 2008. The reasons for registering the Company include:

To provide a clearer method of decision-making.
To provide a clearer method of incorporating existing and new exchanges into the CES community.
To provide for the appointment of a Registrar to act as the chief administrative officer of the CES and as the link between the CES and individual exchanges. The Registrar also performs certain functions in terms of any charter or other agreement with individual exchanges that may be adopted.
To provide for the involvement of a wider group of people as members of the new Company who will in turn be responsible for the election of directors and for approving major decisions.
To provide for continuity in the absence of the original developers and administrators.
To provide for the formal consent by the systems developer for the Company and individual exchanges to use the systems.
To provide clear administrative procedures provided by the Companies Act in place of an unwieldy constitution.

The first directors of the company are Tim Jenkin, a co-founder of CES, chief programmer, administrator of the CES and Ashoka Fellow; Don Northcott, a founder member and early chairman of the Cape Town Talent Exchange (CTTE) - out of which the CES grew; Dawn Pilatowicz, top trader and membership administrator of the CTTE; and Ken Meek, a member of the CTTE from inception, a top-ten trader and legal advisor to the CES. There are a number of additional guarantor members, all active traders in the CES community.

In 2014 Matthew Slater joined the team to assist with the upgrading of the software to a more modern platform. He brings a wealth of experience in building exchange software. Already he has developed a new platform for the CES software that is currently being used by Australian Timebanking.

Although the management and membership of the CES is drawn largely from CTTE, it is the intention of the Company to widen its membership to include nominees from participating exchanges, and Administrators of CES exchanges are invited to nominate suitable and interested parties. The function of the members is to attend annual or special general meetings, approve reports and accounts, consider major proposals, appoint directors and uphold the ethos of the system in general. Although the distance will be a prohibiting factor for many, it is hoped that AGMs can coincide with CES congresses and be occasions for the exchanging of views and friendships at an international level. There are now hundreds of participating exchanges from all parts of the world with inter-exchange trading facilities via the CES. Not all nominees will be able to be Company members but we would like to spread membership as far as possible within the requirements of the Act.

Tel: +27 74 463 3202
Email: admin@community-exchange.org