There would usually have been a committee meeting the day before the Annual Dinner but it was converted to an EGM this year mainly because of the recent untimely death of Paul Mould. At the time of his death Paul was holding the posts of Secretary and Membership Secretary. He had also edited the last issue of the association's magazine "The Old Bostonian" and he played an important part in the organisation of many of the association's social events: annual dinner, snooker tournament and quiz night among them.
The main business of the meeting was to elect a new Secretary and Membership Secretary.
The first thing to do was to appoint a minutes secretary for the meeting - in the absence of a regular Secretary. Ben Evans, who had joined the association only days before, volunteered to fill this particular need and the meeting began (these are my brief notes and not Ben's minutes, which I understand ran to several pages!).
After the usual apologies for absence, correspondence and treasurer's report, Peter Sharman, the President, asked what people though should be the future of the Association and opened the discussion to the floor. I didn't note down all of the views and what follows is my impression of the gist of discussion (not, I hope, my opinion, nor a scientific study).
The feeling seemed to be that the most important activity of the Association was the sharing of information with (and between) its members. Another important factor was raising money for Boston Grammar School. Social events have recently received a mixed reception, and the Association might step back and consider what can be done, possibly including encouraging local activities away from Boston and year-group activities (watch this space for more about this last point in the near future).
Simon Meeds would welcome someone wishing to take on the role of editor of The Old Bostonian and would seek to work with them to create synergies between the magazine and the web site. However, Simon was willing in the absence of such volunteers to attempt to set up a mechanism for semi-automatically generating a magazine based on the web site for those members unable to access it electronically.
When discussion turned to nominations for Secretary, two people present indicated that they knew people who might be interested but no concrete nominations were forthcoming, until Ben Evans, who had only just joined the association said that if it weren't for his unfamiliarity with the workings of the Association, he would volunteer. Peter Sharman quickly assured him that he would be happy to provide support (Simon Meeds had already indicated that the key to such a role was delegation and that others would surely be willing to help with defined tasks), proposer and seconder were found and Ben was voted into the post unanimously (as far as I could see). We therefore welcome the newest member to the committee - welcome on board Ben!
Peter Sharman indicated that he would be willing to perform the role of Memebership Secretary until the AGM later in the year - a role he has been fulfilling on an interim basis since Paul Mould's death. This was accepted by those present.
I've missed out a lot of detail that was discussed but this should give you a flavour of what was said. Those present were:
- Peter Sharman - President
- Mark Bruntlett - Treasurer
- Ben Evans - Secretary (incoming)
- Tony Austin
- Frank Cammack
- Trevor Page
- Bill Olle
- Simon Meeds
- Stan Meeds
- Reg Priestley
- Jim Howes
- Marcus Cain
- David Wookey
- Ty Dalby
- Paul Marsh - BGS Headmaster
No comments:
Post a Comment