Due to the newness and lack of professional development of coaching and mentoring in South Africa, by early 2004 it had become clear to most of the experienced coaches and mentors in South Africa that the two disciplines would benefit from professionalisation and self-regulation. In light of developments internationally, it was thought that this could include the development of benchmark standards of professional competence, a code of ethics, networking opportunities, and the sharing of research and professional knowledge.

Accordingly, in February 2004 a group of experienced executive and life coaches agreed to open discussions with all interested coaching and mentoring practitioners and other concerned stakeholders on establishing a relevant and credible professional body for the disciplines in South Africa. From the outset, it was agreed that the proposed body should be as inclusive and over-arching as possible, and all interested stakeholders were encouraged to attend meetings and help to establish and define the approach of the new association.

• To be the recognised umbrella professional association representing and providing for regulation of the coaching and mentoring professions in South Africa.
• To develop the credibility and awareness of coaching and mentoring as professions, and to promote the roles of coaching and mentoring, among all potential stakeholders.
• To ensure that the coaching and mentoring professions effectively empower their clients.
• To develop and implement, and provide for member compliance with, standards of professional competence and a code of professional ethics.
• To provide a central location for formal and informal research into coaching and mentoring, and to facilitate access to such information by members.
• To monitor and promulgate best practice trends in coaching and mentoring.
• To provide a forum within which coaches and mentors may network, share ideas and values, and develop a sense of community.
• To achieve and maintain affiliations to relevant national and international organisations involved in the development of coaching and mentoring.
• To facilitate and support the development of minimum training standards for coaches and mentors.
• To develop and implement mechanisms to support the active supervision of practising coaches and mentors.
• To maintain and administer a central register of members available to prospective clients of coaching and mentoring services.

• Professional accreditation of members.
• Lending of funds to members or other persons.
• Provision of professional liability insurance.
• Employment broking or acting as an agent for members.
• Setting of professional fee or tariff structures.

The development and empowerment of people through coaching and mentoring had clearly been an implicit focus of COMENSA from the outset. By mid-2005, however, the Steering Committee had spent considerable time and effort explicitly exploring the full significance of the concept of 'empowerment' for COMENSA. It was noted that coaching and mentoring are fundamentally about empowering people: they result in a nation of empowered individuals, who can think for themselves. This point is particularly crucial in the South African context - in the past, the politically dominant race group in effect did the thinking for the non-dominant groups, and the negative impact of this should not be underestimated. In a very real sense, therefore, COMENSA's role and responsibility is the development of the coaching and mentoring processes that will ultimately empower all individuals for the good of the nation.

It was agreed that to fulfil COMENSA's mission effectively, empowerment should be viewed in terms of a positive ideal towards which the nation is striving. It was not sufficient to view 'empowerment' as dealing with only the symptoms of the legacy of South Africa's past, as being a response solely to specific political-historical acts. COMENSA was therefore focusing on empowerment as a core positive ideal and mission, not merely as a short-term political process. In this regard it was noted that best-practice coaching regards the coach and the client as inherently equal; and this approach in itself provides the foundation necessary for the real empowerment of individuals.

Empowerment was therefore seen as a fundamental focus of the way that COMENSA does business, and of the business that COMENSA does. It was important to ensure that COMENSA remained committed to serving this positive and inclusive empowerment ideal by continuing to motivate and develop best-practice processes in coaching and mentoring. In this regard, the empowerment initiative developed by COMENSA would in one sense act as the organisation's professional conscience. Further, it was considered essential to articulate COMENSA's approach to empowerment clearly, so that all observers are fully aware of COMENSA's conscious, explicit and ultimately effective commitment to the development of a nation of empowered individuals.

This concern was instrumental in leading the Strategic Purpose Committee to define COMENSA's Vision as:
"Empowering people to achieve their full potential in a consciousness of sustainable well-being".

Early in the discussion process, stakeholders suggested that a constitution should be developed for the proposed body. In the interim, a national steering committee was constituted, and regional committees were formed in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban from volunteers located in each centre. The steering committee was intended to co-ordinate the work done by various functional committees to develop COMENSA and fulfil its objectives.

Liaison between the Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban stakeholders was soon recognised as a priority issue, and it was agreed at a stakeholders' meeting in Cape Town in March 2004 that regular liaison meetings would be held between the Johannesburg and Cape Town groups. However, it proved more feasible to have one stakeholder on the Steering Committee act as National Co-ordinator between the various regions, the steering committee and the functional committees.

The national Steering Committee had the following primary aims:

• to provide a forum within which the heads of functional committees would report back on the work they were doing in developing and formalising key aspects of COMENSA;
• to take decisions and provide policy guidance to the national body based on the outputs of the committees; and
• to supervise and co-ordinate the roles of the functional committees, particularly in respect of:
  - definition of professional ethics,
  - recruitment and support of members,
  - development and maintenance of a website, and
  - setting up the section 21 company and drafting a Constitution.

• definitions;
• code of ethics;
• standards of professional competence;
• criteria for membership;
• disciplinary and complaints procedures;
• marketing and promoting COMENSA; and
• international affiliations.

Accordingly, functional or portfolio committees were constituted from volunteers with an interest in each of these areas, and began work, as outlined in the following sections. In May 2004 it was agreed that for expediency these committees would be established in both Johannesburg and Cape Town, and perhaps other cities later, to conduct the majority of the work required. The committees would represent both centres, and communicate via e-mail to ensure co-ordination. Committee chairpersons were responsible for arranging meetings.

It should be noted that this work was contributed entirely pro bono by the stakeholders concerned, as the Association was not yet a legal body receiving membership fees from registered members, and so had no funds. In addition, several stakeholders personally funded certain direct expenses incurred in developing COMENSA, for example in registering the Section 21 company (see Section 4.2 below).

There are many types of coaching and mentoring being practised in South Africa, applying a wide range of different terms. The Definitions Committee surveyed stakeholders for the terms they used in their own practices, and conducted internet research for definitions being used worldwide in universities and the commercial/corporate environment. A large list of coaching and mentoring definitions was compiled, which was used to develop high-level or umbrella definitions of coaching and mentoring which could accommodate the various sub-types within them (executive, ontological, professional, business, NLP, career, life, sport, etc.), as follows:

Definition of Coaching: Coaching is a professional, collaborative and outcomes-driven method of learning that seeks to develop an individual and raise self-awareness so that he or she might achieve specific goals and perform at a more effective level.

Definition of Mentoring: Mentoring is a partnership in which a mentee is assisted in making significant advances in knowledge, perspective and vision in order to develop their full potential; the mentor's wisdom is utilized by the mentee to facilitate and enhance new learning and insight.

These working definitions will be used as COMENSA definitions until further research requires change. The next step will be to define and describe different types of mentoring and coaching.

As is clear from Section 2 above, a major objective of COMENSA was deemed to be the development of a code of ethics for coaches and mentors, and this task was given high priority by stakeholders. Volunteers in both Johannesburg and Cape Town participated in the Ethics Committee's work on this critically important document. Research was conducted into the ethics codes of many local and international coaching and mentoring practitioner organisations, including the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC), contemporary psychological practitioner institutes, and training and development institutions. Salient results of this research were combined and assimilated into a single draft Code of Ethics.

The draft was distributed to stakeholders for consideration and comment in August 2004. The review process was made as inclusive as possible, and participation was actively sought from both buyers and providers of coaching and mentoring in South Africa who had not yet had a chance to participate.

Thereafter, two stakeholder forums were held in Johannesburg and Cape Town in March 2005 to brainstorm and create a final recommended Code of Ethics. The draft Code was very generic, and not specifically adapted to South African requirements. The suggestions of the two forums in Cape Town and Johannesburg were based on an understanding of the dilemmas coaches commonly face, and of the types of provision desirable in a code of ethics. These suggestions were incorporated into a revised draft of the Code of Ethics which was distributed to stakeholders for review in November 2005.

COMENSA is committed to facilitating an ongoing dialogue of consultation, resolution and support regarding ethical dilemmas confronted by coaches and mentors in their practices.

By November 2004 outline Standards of Professional Competence in coaching and mentoring had been drafted by the Standards Committee. The Standards defined competence in five functional areas (questioning, listening, building rapport, delivering measurable results, and upholding ethical guidelines and professional standards), at four levels. The Standards had been benchmarked against a number of internationally recognised standards, and had been developed against the best of those standards.

The draft Standards were distributed to stakeholders in March 2005 for review and comment, and discussed at stakeholder meetings in June 2005. It was agreed that unit standards for training of coaches and mentors would be determined from these Standards of Competence. Further, it was agreed that separate standards for mentors may be determined by a Mentors Committee. These suggestions were incorporated into revised Standards of Competence and distributed to stakeholders for review in November 2005.

In May 2004 a Membership Committee was constituted to research and recommend eligibility criteria and fees for membership. Research was conducted into the various training, consulting, coaching, managing and marketing bodies worldwide, include the EMCC, ASTD, ISPI, IOD, IPD, IPM, IM, etc., and input on local experience in this regard was requested from stakeholders. From the outset, the underlying principle was that membership should be inclusive rather than exclusive.

The Committee's initial findings were reported in September 2004, including provisional membership categories as follows: student, full, associate, corporate, honorary, life. It was recommended that membership fees not be set until COMENSA was publicly launched.
Stakeholder forums were held in March 2005 in Johannesburg and Cape Town to define eligibility criteria for the proposed membership categories in terms of qualifications, experience and continuing professional development (CPD) requirements, and to suggest a membership fee structure and benefits of membership. All buyers and providers of coaching and mentoring and other stakeholders were invited. It was strongly recommended that COMENSA not provide certification for coaches or mentors, but that member organisations within COMENSA continue to provide certification, supervision, etc.

The primary membership benefits recommended by the Membership Committee and approved in principle by the stakeholder forums were as follows:

• ethics code and standards code;
• supervision;
• professional credibility;
• coaching and mentoring magazine;
• newsletter;
• website;
• membership database;
• certification recognition;
• networking opportunities (national and international);
• empowerment charter;
• NQF alignment of training institution members;
• ensuring compliance with ethics and standards;
• library and research library; and
• recommended continuing professional development (CPD).

• opportunities to learn best practice;
• coaching and mentoring community;
• potential for marketing;
• mediation;
• legal protection/liability insurance;
• advisory;
• opportunities to learn best practice;
• members' access;
• special forums/conferences;
• international links; and
• information database.

• website;
• newsletter;
• quarterly meetings;
• special forums; and
• coaching and mentoring conferences.

The results of the stakeholder forums were compiled, discussed by the Steering Committee, distributed to stakeholders for consideration and comment, and presented and discussed at stakeholder meetings in Cape Town and Johannesburg in June 2005. Stakeholders were reminded of COMENSA?s commitment to inclusiveness, and a framework of membership categories, criteria and fees was tabled for consideration by stakeholders. This was revised by differentiating ?Individual Practitioners? into the sub-categories of ?Master Practitioner?, ?Associate Practitioner? and ?Candidate Practitioner?, with associated differentiation of membership criteria. The latter sub-category would replace the original category of Student Practitioner.

It was agreed that members should submit documentation substantiating their claim to a particular Individual Practitioner sub-category on joining COMENSA, and that documentation to substantiate their continuing professional development (CPD) experience should be submitted on annual renewal of membership. However, it was suggested that the lack of substantive criteria for membership, beyond payment of the applicable membership fee, may have consequences for COMENSA. It was agreed that the issue of credentials for membership should be tabled for discussion by stakeholders.

Hence, by September 2005 the membership criteria proposed by the Membership Committee had been discussed in detail at stakeholder meetings in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. There had been considerable controversy and debate around the possible types and levels of membership of and affiliation to COMENSA, but a workable foundation had been developed. In achieving this, it had been import¬ant to balance the principle that members should be appropriately qualified with the principle that COMENSA should be as inclusive as possible.

However, when the membership categories and basic criteria were included in the draft Constitution and the latter document was discussed by stakeholders, it became clear that stakeholders still experienced considerable confusion and anxiety around the implementation of individual membership categories. Consequently, the approach to membership categorisation and implementation was clarified further, as discussed in Section 4.1.5 below, in terms of an interim approach to membership which provides for the long-term phasing-in of membership categories by the duly-constituted Membership Committee and Standards Committee under the supervision of the duly-elected Executive Committee after COMENSA's first AGM.

Early in the discussion process, stakeholders requested the setting-up of a central resource to house contemporary research into coaching and mentoring being conducted in South Africa. A Research Committee was constituted to collate such research, and perhaps in future create both formal and informal libraries of research papers and other reference material. Stakeholders also suggested research into a wide range of topics, including the African context of coaching and mentoring, evaluation of the return on investment in coaching.

In addition, it was suggested that COMENSA implement an information management strategy to co-ordinate the collection, storage and distribution of research and other information by the Association?s various structures.

Stakeholders agreed that supervision for coaches was core to coaching excellence, and a Supervision Committee was constituted to develop a policy and guidelines on this. Doctoral research on the development of a coaching supervision model provided a crucial input into this process. The research examined the difference between coaching supervision and therapy supervision, in terms of purpose, definition, stake holder?s difference, complexity, degree of domain, transference procedure, and theoretical underpinnings. In addition, a questionnaire survey of supervision practices was distributed to stakeholders for completion and return.

The initial findings of the Committee?s research were presented to stakeholders in September 2004. Comments by stakeholders were incorporated into a final draft Policy on Supervision by November 2005.

An e-mail distribution list was established on a free internet portal, in order to facilitate the distribution of meeting notices, meeting minutes, discussion documents and other information to all registered stakeholders. A protocol was defined to regulate the use of the system by stakeholders. By April 2005 there were over 420 stakeholders subscribed to this distribution list nationally, and by December 2005 over 300 in Cape Town alone, which indicated the pervasive and growing level of interest in COMENSA within the coaching and mentoring disciplines.

Problems experienced in using the system, including its tendency to shed members at random, underlined the realisation that COMENSA would require a proper, dedicated database system to house members? details once it was launched. A comprehensive membership registration database system is being designed as part of preparations for the launch of COMENSA in April/May 2006.

In May 2004 an SGB Committee was constituted to explore what unit standards for the training of coaches and mentors had already been drafted under the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and approved by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). Stakeholders providing such training also indicated willingness to help with the drafting of the necessary unit standards.

During the following several months the implications of the NQF for the training and accreditation of coaches and mentors were examined. Members of the Steering Committee engaged with the relevant Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) in this regard, and NQF/SAQA requirements for the generation and approval of unit standards were clarified. The feasibility of establishing a Standards Generating Body (SGB) within the NQF/SAQA system to draft the necessary unit standards was examined. Reportbacks on these issues were delivered to the Steering Committee and to stakeholders during September 2004.
A stakeholder forum was held in November 2004 to determine whether there was a need for the formation of an SGB for Coaches and Mentors in South Africa, and to determine the way forward in this respect. The following conclusions were reached:

• COMENSA would remain an independent organisation and not act as an SGB.
• The COMENSA SGB committee could not form an SGB. The National Standards Bodies (NSBs) were the only ones who can form SGBs, and needed to be approached in order to do so. Three NSB were identified as possible options in this regard: NSB 03, NSB 05 and NSB 07.
• The NSB co-ordinator for each of these NSBs would be contacted for their advice on whether an SGB should be formed, or whether coaching and mentoring should form part of a sub-committee within an existing SGB. When this was determined, a letter of intent would be sent to the relevant NSB.
• A workshop would be held to determine all the definitions of coaching and mentoring currently being used in the South African market place. This would follow on from the work begun by COMENSA.
• Should permission be granted by the NSB for the formation of an SGB, then various workshops and meetings would be held to inform the various role-players and initiate the necessary activities.

In May 2004 stakeholders agreed to constitute a Marketing Committee, which would focus on marketing, public relations and information dissemination, and the development of a website for COMENSA. The basic aim of the Committee would be to raise public awareness of the Association.

By November 2004 the Committee had developed a full range of marketing and PR activities, and was investigating means of generating further press coverage of COMENSA activities. It had been agreed that an appropriate and inspiring logo, which created a sense of identity for the Association, should be developed. Stakeholders were requested to submit logo designs for consideration.

By March 2005 the proposed structure of the COMENSA website had been outlined, starting with a few pages of key information that could be added to as the Association developed. In June 2005 a more developed version of this proposal was presented to stakeholders, featuring:

• A Home Page: What is COMENSA? The aims of COMENSA, and other key information.
• Information for coaches and mentors/committee information: To include minutes from committee meetings, a reference library, etc.
• Information for clients: explaining differences between coaching and mentoring, and the rationale for coaching and mentoring.
• Events and FAQs: Information on how to join; why join COMENSA?
• Coaching and mentoring training: Photographs and brief profiles of coaches and mentors.
• How to join: Information on how to become a member.
• A search category for all coaching and mentoring training.
• Full page of contact details for the Association.

During September-November 2005, various design options for a COMENSA logo that had been submitted were presented to stakeholders for consideration. A formal process was then established to enable stakeholders to vote on all logo options using a temporary webpage, and the voting process was completed in late December 2005. Two design options tied for first place, and in January 2006 the Steering Committee chose one of them as COMENSA?s official logo.

In January 2006 it was confirmed that the Marketing Committee had found a good website host, and that two members of the Committee would proceed with setting up and managing the COMENSA website. The website would be up within a few weeks with limited content, which would include the Constitution, the Code of Professional Ethics, Standards of Professional Competence, the Policy on Supervision, and this document on the origins and history of COMENSA.

The website would include an advertising area featuring advertisements by coaches and mentors in order to raise funds for COMENSA. It would need to be made clear that these advertisements did not constitute express or implied warranties by COMENSA as to the quality of the services offered. Until the Association's operationalisation, all proposed advertising copy would be screened by an editorial committee consisting of the National Co-ordinator, the Chairperson of the Marketing Committee and the Administrator: Cape Town. Only two people on the Marketing Committee would have access to the uploading of website content.

• constitution, core mission statement and objectives; and
• legal status of the Association.

It had been suggested at the start of stakeholder discussions that a constitution should be developed for the proposed body. In addition, in July 2004 it was suggested that a management structure be designed for the Association. In September 2004 it was reiterated that a constitution should be developed for COMENSA, once a section 21 company had been set up to provide COMENSA the necessary legal and corporate status.

However, the committee work to develop COMENSA?s external professional functions (i.e. drafting the definitions, code of ethics, standards of professional competence, policy on supervision, etc.), as opposed to its internal management, took up most of the stakeholders? time during the first year. Hence it was not until mid-2005 that a definitive mandate was given by stakeholders to the Steering Committee to draft a formal Constitution for COMENSA.
In June 2005 alternative options for national and regional bodies within the structure of COMENSA, and for the election of office-bearers on these structures, were discussed at stakeholders' meetings. It was decided that these issues should be explored in detail, and presented for discussion by stakeholders in the form of a draft constitution for COMENSA. It was explained that the Articles and Memorandum of Association of the Section 21 Company regulated the basic corporate governance of the Company itself, but did not govern the activities of COMENSA as a professional association, nor define the structures and offices (apart from members and directors of the Section 21 Company) necessary for the management and administration of COMENSA as a whole once it was formally operationalised.

It would therefore be necessary to complement the Articles and Memorandum of Association of the Section 21 Company with a comprehensive constitution establishing and regulating the structure, offices, and roles and responsibilities of office-bearers of COMENSA. The interface between the Articles and Memorandum of Association of the Company on one hand, and the draft constitution of COMENSA on the other, would need to be carefully handled. It was suggested that the establishment of a Constitution Committee be proposed to handle the drafting of a constitution. This approach was approved by all stakeholders present.

Accordingly, the Chairperson of the Steering Committee constituted a committee of volunteers specifically dedicated to drafting the Constitution. Their work was guided by and planned in terms of a Conceptual Framework, which outlined a logical approach to the phasing and sequencing of the drafting process, suggested constitutional principles which should guide the drafting process, and listed the types of clause that the Constitution would probably need to contain. The drafting process took place during September-November 2005.

Key inputs into the constitutional drafting process included:

• the decisions and resolutions of all COMENSA committee meetings since February 2004, which were carefully compiled and incorporated;
• a parallel committee process by the Purpose Sub-group, whose provisions defining COMENSA's Mission, Vision and Values were incorporated in the draft Constitution;
• definition of membership categories and criteria, drafted and amended by the Membership Committee in line with the results of stakeholder forums in Johannesburg and Cape Town;
• draft constitutional proposals submitted by a COMENSA stakeholder in Johannesburg; and
• a review of the constitutions of other professional associations and similar organisations in South Africa and overseas.

It is important to note that COMENSA?s Constitution was not merely adapted from some other organisation's constitution; its key provisions were drafted and debated from scratch in order to ensure that COMENSA's specific requirements are served as effectively as possible. Once this process was completed, appropriate process-related provisions from the constitutions of similar organisations were adapted and included to promote best-practice coverage of procedural and governance issues.

The drafting of the Constitutional provisions followed a logical sequence, starting with the mission, vision, values and objectives, working through functions, structures, meeting procedures, governance and management, financial management and administration, and concluding with interim constitutional provisions, procedures for amendment, and bylaws.

4.1.2 Constitutional principles applied

The most important principles applied to the drafting of the Constitution were:

• Simplicity and workability: Constitutional Committee members were very mindful of the need to keep the constitution as simple and workable as possible.
• Accountability and good governance: the Constitution should enable COMENSA to demonstrate professional leadership by example with respect to accountability and good corporate governance.
• Regional representation: COMENSA's inclusivity must be promoted by ensuring that members were able to have a voice in the leadership and management of COMENSA regardless of their geographical location.
• The need to balance trade-offs carefully: COMENSA's inclusive nature meant that a wide spectrum of views on all constitutional issues was inevitable, and this had been clearly evident throughout the COMENSA committee and stakeholder processes. The Constitutional Committee was keenly aware of the need to make careful judgement calls in order to balance conflicting viewpoints, particularly in the following areas:
  - the need for simplicity to promote understandability and workability vs. the advantages of reasonable comprehensiveness in facilitating the management of contingencies;
  - the need to promote the accountability of the Executive Committee (ExCo) to members vs. the need to maintain the ExCo's managerial discretion;
  - the advantages of a national identity, national credibility and nationally centralised management vs. the importance of effective regional representation;
  - the need for the constitution to promote certainty and stability in regard to COMENSA's strategic direction vs. the need for reasonable flexibility to enable it to adapt to changing circumstances; and
  - situating provisions within the main Constitution (thus ensuring they could be amended only by a majority of members) vs. situating them within the Bylaws (and therefore subject to the discretion of the Executive Committee).

• The Executive Committee is responsible at national level for leadership and strategic management, operational and financial management and administration, and corporate governance.
• Portfolio Committees are constituted at national level to undertake the external functions necessary for the professional development of the coaching and mentoring disciplines, and work with the Provincial Chapters to this end.
• Provincial Chapter Committees ensure representation of members from local and provincial level to the national ExCo, and support the work of the Portfolio Committees at local level.
• Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are formed nationally to represent the interests of specific stakeholder groups, generally on a sectoral basis.

Two rounds of stakeholder consultations were held in November 2005 and January 2006 in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, in order to give all stakeholders the opportunity to discuss the draft Constitution and suggest amendments.

The draft Constitution was e-mailed to stakeholders in November 2005 to enable them to review the document prior to participating in their respective Big Group meetings. The suggestions made by stakeholders at these meetings and via e-mail were considered in detail by the Constitutional Committee, and incorporated into the Constitution to the extent feasible.

The revised draft of the Constitution was e-mailed to stakeholders prior to a second round of stakeholder consultations in January 2006, and suggested amendments were once again considered by the Constitutional Committee. The Steering Committee then approved the final draft of the Constitution in February 2006.

The definition and implementation of membership categories and criteria understandably proved to be the most contentious area of the Constitution, and generated the most stakeholder debate on the Constitution at Big Group meetings.

Membership categories and criteria had been defined by the Membership Committee by mid-2005, and the core structure of these was incorporated into the membership clauses of the Constitution by the Constitutional Committee. Membership had been divided into 'individual' and 'corporate' groups, each subdivided into membership categories with defined eligibility criteria.

In regard to individual membership categories and criteria, it became clear during the stakeholder consultation process that the Constitution had to mediate between two extreme viewpoints on individual membership. Some stakeholders felt very strongly that individual membership should be open to all coaches and mentors regardless of qualification and experience. At the other extreme, some stakeholders felt equally strongly that COMENSA should define and implement rigorous criteria for differentiated levels of individual membership, in order to professionalise the industry and signal to prospective buyers of coaching and mentoring services the relative professional ability of members.

Hence, the Constitutional Committee made provision in the Constitution for the implementation in the longer-term of the differentiated categories of individual membership (Master, Associate and Candidate) defined by the Membership Committee. The detailed eligibility criteria for these membership categories will be defined by the duly-constituted Standards Committee and Membership Committee, under the supervision and guidance of the duly-elected Executive Committee, after COMENSA?s first Annual General Meeting in late 2006.

In the meantime, from the launch of COMENSA onwards, individual members will be registered in one general interim individual membership category. After the first AGM, differentiated individual membership categories will be defined and phased-in by the Membership and Standards Committees under the supervision of the ExCo, and promulgated in terms of bylaws, in order to move COMENSA and its members forward to the implementation of the envisaged final, benchmark individual membership categories.

Most stakeholders understood and accepted in principle the above approach to membership implementation. However, there was still a great deal of anxiety and confusion on the part of some stakeholders about the implementation of the individual membership categories. This was caused largely by the fact that the draft Constitution already specified detailed technical criteria for individual membership categories, before the due process of assessing the professional status and needs of members and the sector as a whole has been undertaken, and in addition it was not understood how these criteria would be phased in.

The Steering Committee and Constitutional Committee were acutely aware that the implement¬ation of membership categories is a 'lightning rod' issue for dissent among stakeholders, and that COMENSA as a whole cannot afford unfounded and gratuitous confusion and conflict around this. Therefore, in order to clarify the approach which will be adopted, the Constitution's membership provisions were made as clear as possible, the general approach being that COMENSA:

(a) retains the categorisation of individual membership in terms of levels of professional expertise to be defined through specified dimensions of performance (relevant qualification or RPL at appropriate NQF level, defined quantity and quality of coaching experience, and supervision process), without committing COMENSA to a pre-defined threshold in each of these dimensions in the Constitution itself; while

(b) being committed to a due process of careful investigation and discussion of the process needed to implement the individual membership categories envisaged by the Constitution, which will be undertaken by the duly-mandated structures within COMENSA once the Association has been operationalised.

This is the only way that COMENSA can fulfil one of its key objectives, that of setting benchmark professional standards, without alienating a sizeable segment of its stakeholder population. Once COMENSA is operationalised, its members will accept the application of standards if they can see that these standards have been defined by formally-constituted structures in a fair and credible process accountable to the membership.

Stakeholders had been concerned from the outset that COMENSA should have the necessary legal status and corporate identity to be able to function effectively and limit the liability of its members. In May 2004 it was decided to explore the various options in this regard, and in July and August 2004 the establishment of a Section 21 company was recommended to and approved by stakeholders due to its legal advantages and limited liability status.

From November 2004 onwards the registration of a Section 21 company, COMENSA (Incorporated association not for gain), limited by guarantee, and with seven stakeholders as founding members and three as founding directors, was actively pursued. The stakeholders concerned met the legal costs and fees involved in registration. The name "COMENSA" was approved by CIPRO in April 2005, and the Section 21 company was registered in June 2005.
It was originally intended that the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Section 21 company should become the 'base constitution', to which additional clauses (for example on registration and membership fees and the Association's financial year) could be added.

However, it became clear that the Articles and Memorandum of Association of the Section 21 company regulated the basic corporate governance of the company itself, but would not govern the activities of COMENSA as a professional association, nor define the structures and offices (apart from members and directors of the Section 21 company) necessary for the management and administration of COMENSA as a whole once it is formally operationalised. It was therefore necessary to complement the Articles and Memorandum of Association of the Section 21 company with a comprehensive constitution establishing and regulating the structure, offices, and roles and responsibilities of office-bearers of COMENSA. The interface between the Articles and Memorandum of Association of the Company on one hand, and the draft constitution of COMENSA on the other, would need to be carefully handled. The establishment of a Constitutional Committee be proposed to handle the drafting of a constitution. This approach was approved by all stakeholders present, and the Constitutional Committee drafted a comprehensive Constitution for COMENSA during September-November 2005, as discussed in Section 4.1 above.

Once the Constitution had been completed, it was possible for the Constitutional Committee to draft amendments to the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Section 21 company, which were necessary to ensure congruency between these documents and the Constitution. In January 2006 the Steering Committee agreed to the proposed amendments, which were to be legally approved by the founding members of the section 21 company in terms of a special resolution tabled at a general meeting, and registered with CIPRO.

As part of its efforts to co-ordinate COMENSA's operationalisation, the Steering Committee noted the importance of the financial management system required to enable COMENSA to function effectively as a professional body.

Accordingly, a comprehensive Financial Management Framework was compiled in order to clarify the structure and content of this financial management system. The Framework was used to brief the Steering Committee and the stakeholder who volunteered to act as Interim Treasurer until the election of a Treasurer at COMENSA?s first AGM. It detailed the roles and responsibilities of the Treasurer, Interim Treasurer, and the structures involved in COMENSA?s financial management, including the Audit Committee.

It also outlined the logic of the financial management system and the key components required, and included the financial management section of COMENSA?s Launch Action Plan, which the Interim Treasurer would be responsible for implementing. The most important role of the Interim Treasurer, a qualified Chartered Accountant, was therefore to set up and trouble-shoot the financial management system.

It had been agreed in mid-2005 that COMENSA would be launched in early 2006. Stakeholders agreed that separate COMENSA launch events would be held in each of the three major centres, viz. Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. These launch events were intended to target the Association?s defined constituents, which were providers and buyers of coaching and mentoring, and to achieve appropriate media coverage and publicity.

It was clear by then that a considerable amount of work needed to be done to prepare COMENSA for launching, including:

• drafting and finalising its Constitution;
• finalising key policies on ethics, standards of professional competence, and supervision;
• setting up a website to provide support to stakeholders and members;
• designing an appropriate logo for the Association;
• preparing the necessary marketing and public relations material;
• establishing an effective financial management system;
• implementing efficient membership registration procedures; and
• planning and co-ordinating the actual launch events.

Notwithstanding considerable progress in these areas during July-November 2005, by December the Steering Committee had became concerned that a considerable amount of work remained to be done, in a relatively short time and with limited stakeholder capacity, to prepare for the launch. This made it even more essential for the Portfolio Committees doing the necessary preparatory work to be able to plan their activities carefully, and for the Steering Committee to be able to co-ordinate, support and monitor progress on the preparations.

Accordingly, a detailed Launch Action Plan was drafted to support the planning and co-ordination of the preparation activities. This plan would serve as an aide-memoire to help the relevant Portfolio Committee chairpersons and other people preparing for the COMENSA launch to plan what they had to accomplish. The document focused on the following key areas of preparation activity:

A: Finalise membership categories, criteria and implementation strategy;
B: Finalise Standards of Professional Competence;
C: Finalise logo design;
D: Set up membership database;
E: Finalise Code of Professional Ethics;
F: Finalise Constitution;
G: Prepare financial system;
H: Operationalise website;
I: Plan and manage the launch event; and
J: Finalise Policy on Supervision.

In each of these areas, the plan listed the basic activities which would probably be required, and suggested for each of these basic activities relevant performance criteria, the committee and/or persons who would probably need to be involved, and indicative deadlines for completion if the COMENSA launch was to occur on schedule. The plan also flagged activities from other key areas which would probably be required as prerequisites for specific activities within each of the key areas listed. The relevant Portfolio Committees and the Steering Committee used the plan to organise and monitor progress on the various launch preparations required.

After considerable discussion around the scheduling of the launch events and the various constraints on this, including school holidays, the Easter holidays and other public holidays in April and May 2006, it was agreed that the Johannesburg launch event would take place on Wednesday 19 April, and the Cape Town launch event on Thursday 20 April. The Durban launch event was scheduled for 11 May 2006.

• the Steering Committee will continue to supervise strategic and operational management and administration;
• the existing Portfolio Committees will continue their existing activities with their current members and chairpersons;
• the Steering Committee will continue to co-ordinate Portfolio Committee activities to operationalise COMENSA;
• the directors of the Section 21 company COMENSA (Incorporated association not for gain) will retire at the Association?s first AGM, and the members elected to the Executive Committee at the AGM will be appointed directors; and
• existing Provincial Chapters will formalise Provincial Chapter Committees and draft constitutions in consultation with the Steering Committee.