The family of SAMRO founder, Dr Gideon Roos (a former director-general of the SABC) has wished the organisation "another golden decade" on the eve of the unveiling of SAMRO’s new logo and brand identity.
Speaking from his farm in the Limpopo Province, Paul Roos, who, with his father, and brother, Gideon Junior, turned SAMRO into the southern African region’s only public performance body, said he extended "best wishes for a further golden decade" to the entire organisation.
"As someone who devoted three-and-a-half decades to SAMRO I am confident that the new vision encompassed in the logo and rebranding will serve SAMRO’a author members very well," this highly regarded individual told SAMRO Notes.
Roos, who remains strongly connected to SAMRO through his chairmanship of the DALRO Board of Directors, said that the team of CEO, Rob Hooijer and Depty CEO, Alan Johnston, that had been entrusted to run the organisation after 1996 had done an "excellent job". "And with the inclusion of other key individuals like Nick Motsatse, the team is set to turn the next decade into yet another successful one for SAMRO," Roos said.
Recounting the highlights of what is known as the "Roos era" at SAMRO, Roos said that from the start his father ("who felt obliged to leave the SABC because of political pressure on the running of the broadcaster," Roos reveals now), was adamant that SAMRO’s membership should be open to all races. "In those apartheid years, clubs and societies were not allowed to be ‘mixed’ but my father and the two of us managed to keep membership open to all authors, regardless of race. A composer is a composer after all. We had a few rough moments with the authorities who didn’t look kindly on us!"
Roos believes that the "second most important" aspect of the "Roos era" was "our commitment to keeping control of SAMRO is the hands of the creative artists – the composers and authors". "As soon as an organisation starts making money, commercial interests look at it – and believe me we had to field more than one attempt at a takeover, over the years. But because SAMRO is an association that is not-for-profit we managed to always keep the control in the correct hands."’
Factor in the on-going financial success of SAMRO during this period (a substantial feat) and the selection of "the right team to take SAMRO into the new South Africa", and, says Roos, "you have a contribution that we still remain proud of".
Indeed. As CEO Hooijer’s message in the last issue of SAMRO Notes puts it: "It was ten years ago that Paul Roos and Gideo Roos (jnr) gave SAMRO’s Board of Directors the indication that they felt the time had come for them to step down as specialist directors and to make way for a new generation at SAMRO. To many members who have joined us over the past years or so, their names may be unknown or a distant memory, but the older members of SAMRO remember with appreciation the many pioneering years of service rendered by the Roos family to collective management of copyright in South Africa."
