2019 Annual General Meeting
2019 President’s AGM Report It’s 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 comprehensive member survey and the replacement of our Constitution with our new Association Rules, this year, a mongst 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.
Membership Take-up 96 94 94.12 92 90 89.53 Average 87.8% 88.8 88 86 86.45 84 84.49 83.86 82 82.4 to date 80 78 76 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
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.
Scope of Activity REUNIONS CORPORATE EVENTS GOVERNANCE MEMBERS ADMIN COMMUNICATION SCHOOL SUPPORT
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; • Reunions • Events • Communication • School Support • Administration, and • Corporate Governance 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.
REUNIONS Reunions EVENTS CORPORATE GOVERNANCE MEMBERS ADMIN COMMUNICATION SCHOOL SUPPORT • 9 year group reunions • Unforgettables • Unflappables • Melbourne & Sydney • Singapore, KL, Jakarta, HK, London, New York
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.
20 year Reunion – Class of 1999
This year the alumni office carried out 9 separate year group reunions plus another 5 reunions for our Unforgettables and Unflappables cohorts.
Unforgettables
Unflappables BBQ
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.
10 year Reunion – Class of 2008
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.
Linga On – Class of 2017
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; • four regional WA towns, as well as • Melbourne, • Sydney, • Singapore, • Kuala Lumpur, • Jakarta, • Hong Kong, • London and • New York. 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 d o 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 of these cities led by locally based representatives.
REUNIONS Events EVENTS CORPORATE GOVERNANCE MEMBERS ADMIN EVENTS COMMUNICATION SCHOOL SUPPORT • Support of popular annual social events continues o Sundowner o Beverley Dinner o College Cup o OBA Golf Day o PSA Golf Day • Actively promoted CCGS v Scotch Winter Sports • Inaugural Old Boys’ Annual Lunch • Continued electronic event feedback
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 3 rd reclaiming the trophy from Scotch.
OBA Golf Day
70 players enjoyed perfect playing conditions at our annual OBA Golf Day, which made the move to Mosman Park Golf Club this year. A special thanks is to be made to committee member Peter Wallace (2000) for his thorough organisation of the event.
OBA supported CCGS v Scotch Winter Sports Round
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.
OBA supported CCGS v Scotch Winter Sports 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.
The Old Boys’ Annual Lunch
This year, in its twentieth year we changed the nam e 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.
The Old Boys’ Annual Lunch
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 Old Boys’ Annual Lunch
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. 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.
REUNIONS Communication EVENTS CORPORATE GOVERNANCE MEMBERS ADMIN COMMUNICATION SCHOOL SUPPORT COMMUNICATION • Newsletters x 6 per year, now in HTML format • Facebook group has over 1200 members • Refreshed the OBA website • OBA use of social media to increase
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- ordinator, Deb Hill and I thank her for her ongoing work on this.
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