2019 Annual General Meeting 2019 Presidents AGM Report Its my - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
2019 Annual General Meeting 2019 Presidents AGM Report Its my pleasure to report to the 102 nd Annual General Meeting of the Christ Church Grammar School Old Boys Association. Following a busy year in 2018, completing projects like our
2019 President’s AGM Report
It’s my pleasure to report to the 102nd Annual General Meeting of the Christ Church Grammar School Old Boys’ Association. Following a busy year in 2018, completing projects like our comprehensive member survey and the replacement of our Constitution with our new Association Rules, this year, amongst our usual busy operations, the committee’s key focus was on formulating a new 3 year strategic plan, which I will talk more of later.
82.4 88.8 86.45 89.53 84.49 94.12 83.86
76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96
2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
to date
Average 87.8%
During the course of this year our membership surpassed 7,000, with it currently sitting at 7,061. Our average uptake of life membership of year 12 leavers over the past five years has been 87.8% and I’m pleased to confirm that for the class of 2019, we already have 164 boys or 82.4% of the year group joining us with 26 families yet to confirm.
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Moving to our day to day operations, in a general sense, the scope of activity for the Old Boys Association can be separated into the following key parts;
Each of these areas of our activity are undertaken for our stakeholders with their interests remaining the key focus and each part has direct interaction with members.
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Reunions remain the core of what we do. They continue to be strongly supported by members with it rating as the most valued priority for them. It is a special time to share common experiences, reflect with friends and recall past highlights and challenges. Old boys frequently return to Perth from interstate or overseas to attend them and reconnect with classmates.
This year the alumni office carried out 9 separate year group reunions plus another 5 reunions for our Unforgettables and Unflappables cohorts.
Whilst the alumni office plays a significant guiding role in organising each of these reunions it is up to the respective year group representatives to communicate with their cohort and drive interest and participation in a reunion.
This year for the first time in many years we invited all of our volunteer year group reps here for drinks one evening and I shared news with them about forthcoming OBA activity and thanked them for their work and commitment in engaging with their cohort and strengthening the old boy network. The committee and alumni office is very grateful for their efforts.
I would also like to thank Alan Jones and his team for the work they do to make those reunions that take place outside Perth the success that they are. With the organisation and assistance of Alan, Carolyn Turner and Jo Wheeler reunions were held this year in;
This face to face engagement with our expat members, of course fosters continued connection with the OBA as well as the school, and is something that the OBA would otherwise not currently be able to do on it’s own in such a personal way. Our interstate and overseas reunions are just as important as any reunion held in Perth. They extend our reach globally and reinforce our connection beyond Queenslea Drive, and we are endeavouring to build on this by creating OBA Chapters in a number
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As always our social events are keenly attended by a good number of members. In this year’s College Cup at Freshwater Bay Yacht Club a winning combination of youth and experience saw Christ Church OBA place 1st and 3rd reclaiming the trophy from Scotch.
70 players enjoyed perfect playing conditions at our annual OBA Golf Day, which made the move to Mosman Park Golf Club this
In a new initiative this year the OBA Committee decided to get behind the Christ Church boys and encourage Old Boys to come down and support them in their important winter sports games against Scotch College. Old Boys from a wide range of year groups were among those cheering Christ Church to victory from the sidelines, in this all important Round 12, known as the Old Boys Round.
Wins in 4 sports were celebrated later over a beer and burger at The Claremont Hotel. Arguably our most popular event in the OBA calendar has been the annual Businessmen’s Lunch.
This year, in its twentieth year we changed the name to The Old Boys’ Annual Lunch. Intended to be a clear signal of our desire to be an Association that is relevant for all of our old boy members, the name change is also an initiative to grow the event by building on its success and making it open and inviting for a wider audience. Not just “businessmen” as such.
I hope it will lead to a further increase in attendance in future years and help to cement the lunch as the marquee event on the OBA calendar.
The annual end of year Sundowner remains very popular with over 220 members and partners attending this yacht club last November when retiring Deputy Principal Roger Bayly was inducted as an Honorary Life Member of the OBA in recognition of his support of old boys and students over the past 30 years. Seeking feedback from event attendees via a brief electronic survey, introduced last year, is ongoing and is helping us to understand and compare the experiences of members and draw conclusions objectively. We appreciate the input of our members and will take suggestions into account with future planning. This year, almost 140 attendees came together at the new Claremont Football Club, On the Park function room to hear insights from wine industry leaders including Old Boys Richard Burch (2003), Phil Hutchison (1996) and Murray McHenry (1967) as well as current parents Larry Cherubino and Blair Hill. We’re very grateful to them for their time and participation and I want to give a special thanks to Deb and committeemen Chris Shenton (1983), Rhett Marron (1996) and Zac Vinten (2011) for their assistance and planning to enable this event to be another success.
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Communication with our members is important and with 79% of Old Boys’ reading our bi-monthly newsletters, this is without a doubt our primary method of communication. The alumni office continues its efforts to make every issue engaging and informative and members often acknowledge this with positive comments being received following each release. As hinted at last year, we have moved to HTML format newsletters, instead of pdf, thereby allowing us to better track engagement with readers, enabling us to see what stories and sections are of most interest to members. This move was lead by Alumni Co-
Despite the membership survey last year reinforcing the value of the newsletter, we have a strong desire to increase our use of social media, alongside the newsletter, and this is reflected in our new Strategic Plan. In 2019 we used Facebook to promote our events and the achievements of members and the school on 65 occasions. Our Facebook group currently has 1,219 members situated in 41 different countries and over 100 towns or cities. Two months ago, again, following hard work and persistence from Deb Hill, we refreshed the format and a lot of the content of the OBA website, which has improved its appearance and usability greatly. Although we recognise that in the coming years we are likely to need to implement a complete overhaul to a new website platform. Any move in this direction will be with a view to further enhancing user experience on all devices and linking old boys by profession, geographical location and special interest groups. Our current communication plan ensures reunion and event photos are uploaded to the website gallery in a timely manner with the link sent through to the respective cohort or attendee list.
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The Old Boys’ committee and many of our old boy life members contribute significantly to the School in many ways. While the OBA Executive meets with the school executive twice a year to discuss and collaborate on mutually important matters. We assist the school in finding suitable old boy speakers to talk at various events at the school. One such event is ‘On Queenslea Drive’, the 3 week residential program for all Year 9 students which incorporates an evening session with an old boy. Another is ‘The Principal’s Dinner’ for year 12 boys, which this year heard from Old Boys Chris Drok (2009) and Chris Webster (1999) Both of these events involve old boys who inspire students by sharing personal insights into the challenges and opportunities that presented after leaving Christ Church.
Another event, our annual ‘Future Focus’ breakfast series held in June this year, again introduced young old boys to Year 12 students who were keen to hear their stories and experiences on their journey since leaving school. Whether that involved further education, employment, travel or all of the above, the students came away with the knowledge that the path ahead may not always be clear and importantly that that doesn’t matter, and in fact that new exciting opportunities can often present themselves when unplanned and least expected. I want to thank old boys; Cal Silberstein (2007), James Cowe and Giorgio Savini (both from the 2010 cohort) and Gareth Shanthikumar and Julian Ming (from 2015) for the time they committed to giving back to the school at this OBA event.
Our annual OBA Assembly will take place in the chapel next week, with a particular focus this year on old boys from the 1950’s following the success of last year’s 1940’s Unforgettables OBA assembly. I’d like to offer special thanks to Committee Secretary David Kyle (1999) for his organisation and guidance in this event last year where 7 of our oldest old boys received a standing ovation from the audience after sharing their stories. I also take this opportunity to thank Peter Wallace (2000) for his efforts in this year’s assembly to be held next week. The OBA, through the OBA Scholarship Trustees, continues to offer and administer an increasing range of scholarships to deserving young boys and we will soon hear more detail about this from the Convenor of Trustees, Rob Crossing (1978).
Old boy boarders joined current boarding students at a formal dinner in Sandover to share stories, past and present, about life in residence at Christ Church. Rob Fletcher (1976) spoke about gaining independence and confidence from his boarding experiencing. The night finished with the Linga, followed by a few beers at the pub but I’m guessing the current students were tucked up in bed by that point! Recently, the OBA Executive and Committee resolved to publicly support the school in their Aquatic Fundraising Campaign which seeks to raise a million dollars to upgrade the school’s outdated changerooms and the pool surrounds. This campaign is timed to complement the existing money the school is spending in conjunction with MLC to build a best-in-class shared aquatic precinct. The Committee has agreed to donate $25,000 towards this campaign and we further assisted by raising awareness of the campaign at our recent Old Boys’ Annual Lunch.
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As committee members well know, the Old Boys’ Association would largely cease to function without the day to day work and dedication of our Alumni Co-Ordinator, Deb Hill and her assistant Sidonie Cox. Every activity the OBA undertakes happens only as a result of planning and organisation by the alumni office. As mentioned earlier two key achievements of the alumni office this year in particular were the implementation of the;
Deb has been integral in introducing a better system to record old boy engagement on the database, as well as capturing the history
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We are fortunate to continue to have an active committee made up of members who give significant time throughout the year to ensure the interests of our members and the school are at the core of all that we do. In particular, I’d like to thank, my two vice presidents this year in Matthew Caddy (2003) and Simon Howard (1996) as well as Immediate Past President David Payne (1978), all of whom I have been able to regularly call upon for their views and advice. Our Treasurer, Angus Caithness (1995), who unfortunately could not be here in person this evening due to travel arrangements though has dialed in keeps us abreast of the Association’s financial accounts and our Secretary David Kyle, has also provided valuable input throughout the year. At the beginning of this year, we welcomed 2018 captain of school, Matthew Tissiman in an Ex-Officio role on the committee and I’m pleased to say Matt will be seeking re-election tonight. As is required of the committee under Rule 16 of the Association’s Constitution, this year the committee spent considerable time
The committee conducted a number of workshops that were facilitated by current Christ Church parent, business coach and group facilitator, Domenic Sheldrick. The workshop discussions were informed by the survey of old boys, which we undertook in 2018.
One defined Purpose Two important Stakeholders
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The sessions generated open, and at times robust debate on many various aspects in connection with what the association stands for and what we should be spending our time and resources on. Our focus at all times remained on the interests of our life members. We have a clear Purpose. That is, “To enable OBA Members and the School, access to the opportunities that being part of the OBA community provides.” This deliberately broad commitment sets the course for three very clear and defined objectives centred around;
Three key objectives
framework
Stakeholders
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The OBA will achieve its Objectives by;
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Over the next 3 years the committee will strive to achieve these objectives by focusing on 6 key initiatives. Some of these we’re already doing, some we’re about to start and some we need to do better. Ultimately, all of this will shape the OBA service delivery and influence where we place our resources, to ensure we become an even stronger organisation that is more responsive and connected with members whilst continuing our active support of the school.
Sincere thank you to long standing member volunteers
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Bob McCarthy (1957) Has assisted Deb, Rachel and Sid in the alumni office for many years, particularly with organisation and issuing of OBA birthday cards to each of our life members. We had a small send off for Bob in the Old Boys’ Gallery some weeks back but on behalf of the OBA committee I want to thank you again Bob for your time and efforts as a volunteer and your dedicated support to our association. To committee members Owain Chandler (2016) and David Kyle (1998), thank you very much for your solid contribution in recent
Bill Chambers (1968) Has occupied the position of Auditor of the Association and the Scholarship funds since 1997, yes 22 years. I’m guessing that he probably dreads the last two weeks of October as the Treasurer of the day hounds him Adrian Lee (1964) Has been providing the OBA with advice for its share investment portfolio for 21 years. Back then the OBA’s investment portfolio was miniscule and during that time despite sharemarket behaviour and many quite large donations to the School, the portfolio has grown to three quarters of a million dollars. Adrian’s stewardship of the portfolio has almost always returned the OBA with a capital gain higher than the market. Adrian we will
miss your regular predictions for the All Ords but I know that you have said that we can call upon your assistance should we need it in the future. Rob Crossing (1978) Tonight Rob steps down from the OBA’s Scholarship Trustees having been a Trustee for 11 years and the Convener of Trustees for the last 4 of those. During this time the Scholarship funds through the generosity of our donors have grown significantly in value, enabling the opportunity for additional scholarships to be offered. Whilst serving as as a Trustee Rob also served as the OBA’s nominee to school council for 8 years having retired in the middle of this year. Prior to this Rob was a committee member of the Association and President for 3 years until 2011. Sometimes referred to as Mr Christ Church, Rob pretty much knows all there is to know about the school and the Old Boys’ Association and so Rob we thank you for your considerable contribution to the OBA and the school over this time. With so many long time important volunteers leaving, I did begin to wonder whether it was something that I might have done! B on a serious note I just want to end by speaking on behalf of not just the committee but the association as a whole, in thanking each of you for your significant input and contribution to the OBA over so long. Without volunteers like you this organisation would not have survived the 102 years that it has.
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