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AGM AND BRUTON DINNER
MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2004
The Annual General Meeting of the Old Brutonian Association was
held in the John Davie Room at King’s School, Bruton at 6 p.m. on
Saturday, June 26th, 2004. The President, Mr Christopher Rhys-Jones
was in the chair and 32 members of the Association were present.
Apologies were received from John Beauchamp (O44/48),
Nick Evelyn (L56/59), Keith Lilly (O39/42), Keith Loney (O48/53),
Robert Snook (B62/65) and Mary Stonham-Ask (79/81).
1. The Minutes
The Minutes of the last AGM, held on Saturday, June 21st, 2003,
having been circulated with the Newsletter for 2004, were agreed
and signed as a true record.
2. Matters Arising
There were no matters arising
3. President’s Items
The President thanked the members of the Committee for all their
hard work, especially the Vice-President, Richard Sullivan; the Hon.
Secretary, David Hindley and the Hon.Treasurer, Colin Hughes. He
singled out too the contribution of Harry Witherby, who organises
the OBA website and the e-mail address book and of John-Kai
Fleming, the new Sports Co-ordinator.
The President wished to thank the Hon. Secretary also for another
outstanding Newsletter.
The President told the Meeting of the problem created by parents
opting out of paying the OBA Life Subscription on behalf of their
children: not only was the Association losing valued members but
also income of potentially £10,000 per annum. Representations had
been made to the Governors with the result that contributions were
no longer to be shown as optional on the School Bill.
The Committee were looking to develop the OBA regalia available to
members. The School Shop would be unable to cope with the
proposed expansion, so E.J. Parker & Son had agreed to take back the
OBA franchise with a view to expanding OBA stock. Old Boys of the
School were well served at the moment but there was little available
for Old Girls. Jamie Reach would remain a member of the Committee
by invitation, following his retirement this year by rote, in order to
work with Parker’s on the expansion of OBA items.
The President was keen to develop OBA activities abroad. A letter
requesting help in forming local OBA groups in other countries had
been included in the last Newsletter, though, as yet, no volunteers
had been forthcoming.
The President informed the Meeting of the Committee’s ambition to
increase either the number or the size of scholarships offered by the
Association.
The Graduate Prize for 2004 had been awarded to John Walton
(O94/99) who had gained a First at St Andrews in International
Relations.
The President announced that an engraved silver salver would be
presented to Richard Smyth during the Dinner to mark the
Association’s appreciation of his headmastership.
4. Hon. Secretary’s Report
The Hon. Secretary reported that the Association continues to benefit
enormously from the secretarial skills of Mrs Jan Juneman. Since her
arrival in the OBA Office, the huge amount of information that
passes through the Office has moved with much greater speed and
efficiency. He felt it was important to stress, however, that ours is
primarily and of necessity an amateur organisation, dependent on
volunteers, so it is not always possible to respond to requests with
the swiftness that could be expected of a fully professional
secretariat.
Paul Davies, the School’s careers master, has been granted by the
Committee limited access to the database. This is so that he may
approach Old Brutonians for possible advice about their particular
career field, the information then to be made available to boys and
girls in the School. As a result of his contacts, many Old Brutonians
have come to speak to the Sixth Form about their line of work.
The Committee have agreed to pay for the poppy wreath laid each
year by the School at the Menin Gate in Ypres. The wreath is always
dedicated to the Old Brutonians who died in the Great War and is
laid by three Third Formers attending the evening remembrance
service (which is held daily at the Gate) as part of their trip to the
WWI battlefields.
The School Song continues to enjoy a renaissance. It was recently
sung by the whole School at the House music festival and will be
sung at the end of term at the final assembly of the year.
THE BRUTON DINNER
Jamie Reach, Kate Sedgman and the Hon. Secretary have continued
to make an annual presentation to the Upper Sixth about the OBA,
and this has proved hugely successful, with a lot of enthusiasm
being shown by the young School leavers. Much of the success of
these evenings was owing to the computing skills of Jamie Reach,
which gave the presentations a professional edge
5. Hon. Treasurer’s Report
Copies of most of the full accounts were distributed at the Meeting
as only abbreviated accounts had appeared in the Newsletter. The
Hon. Treasurer then took the Meeting through the Accounts of the
Association and of the Charitable Trust. Both sets of Accounts were
duly proposed, seconded and adopted by the Meeting. The Hon.
Treasurer took the opportunity to express his thanks to John M.
Graves (P68/73), the Association’s Hon. Auditor.
6. The Charitable Trust: Vice-President's Report
The Vice-President reminded the Meeting of the objects of the OBA
Charitable Trust, namely, the relief of poverty among former pupils
of the School and their immediate dependants; the provision of
scholarships, and the provision of School prizes. He was pleased to
report that there had been no applications for the relief of poverty.
The Committee, at its meeting on May 15th, and with appropriate
advice from the Headmaster, agreed to award a scholarship of £1500
p.a. for five years to Matthew Wilcox. Matthew is 13 and a pupil at
Chafyn Grove School, Salisbury. He plays rugby for Dorset and has
been a Wessex trialist. He plays the saxophone and is a good middle
distance athlete. He is skilled at Design and Technology. The School
has awarded him a 12.5% All-Rounder Award.
There are five other OBA Scholarship holders in the School, with
scholarships worth £750 p.a., one of whom leaves at the end of this
term. School fees are currently running at £18,000, towards which
£1500 is quite a small contribution. The Committee is considering if,
and how, this amount could be increased.
The Vice-President announced the names of those who had been
awarded the OBA School Prizes for 2004. The OBA Prize for excellence
in GCSE was awarded to two candidates this year: Victoria Barns-
Graham (P) and Matthew Gardner (N), both of whom had achieved a
complete run of A* grades. The OBA Progress Prizes had gone to
Roger Beach (N), son of Roger Beach (N60/64); Thomas Meacher (N)
and Tom O’Brian (P/A).
The Vice-President reported that there are currently only twenty OB’s
who make regular contributions to the Charitable Trust; these
contributions amount to a total of £2050 p.a. This was a
disappointing response, given that the Association was in touch with
about 3000 Old Brutonians. The Trust received £800 in lump sum
donations from four OB’s in the past year..
7. Officers and Committee
The President thanked the two retiring members of the Committee
for their hard work on behalf of the Association: William Newton
(L73/75) and Jamie Reach (L91/95). Jamie would remain on the
Committee ‘by invitation’ in order to develop OBA regalia, to help
with the organisation of the Dinner and to make the annual OBA
presentations to the Upper Sixth.
The Meeting unanimously endorsed the Committee’s
recommendation of two new members of the Committee: Jamie
Wills (B64/68) and Hannah Carew-Gibbs (W96/98).
Both the Hon. Secretary and the Hon. Treasurer agreed to serve for
another year, as did the Hon. Auditor.
8. Election of Honorary Members
On a proposal by the Committee in accordance with Article 2 (c) of
the Rules of the Association, Mr Colin Jones, Director of Studies, and
Mrs Jan Juneman, secretary to the OBA and formerly Headmaster’s
Secretary were unanimously elected Honorary Members of the
Association.
9. A.O.B.
Mrs Sally Snook (Past President) queried whether Peter Rudorf
(L90/96), who was killed last year while working in a civilian
capacity in Iraq, should be commemorated in the Memorial Hall as
some other civilian OB’s killed in a theatre of war had been before
him. This met with a sympathetic response, at which point Simon
Jacobs (O77/81) suggested that under those circumstances, Julian
Gregson (N74/79), killed while working in Afghanistan, also deserved
to be commemorated. It was agreed that further research was
required, both as to the details of Julian’s death and the feasibility of
the proposal.
There being no further business, the meeting closed at 6.45 p.m.
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER 2005 7