The Old Bordenian Association

The Minutes of a Committee Meeting held at the School on Friday 9 May 2008. [Approved at meeting held 12 September 2008]

Members present: The President, S.Caveney, B.Gilbert, N.Hancock, R.Harris, P.Lusted, J.Macrae,  D.Palmer,  K.Sears, K.Shea, B.Short.
 
Apologies for absence: G.Barnes, C.Laming, A.Snelling. M. Pack.The Committee had heard with regret of the death of Tom Baldock in April.  Neil Hancock had sent a donation of £20 from the Association to Tom’s widow, Alene.  The President remembered Tom as a courteous and interesting man who was a regular attendee at meetings despite the long journey from Essex.

Minutes and Matters Arising: The minutes of the meeting held on 1 February 2008 were agreed and signed as a correct record.
Matters arising: – Ken Sears referred to the minute regarding the memorial to Old Bordenians who were killed outside major conflicts.  It was agreed to record names in this third category and those interested should begin the task of identification.  John Macrae agreed to be the point of contact for this information. 

Correspondence:  John Macrae noted that the publication of the Maroon had prompted a large number of responses.  Bill Bailey from Manila had enjoyed the read and had provided further information about the Tour of the School.  Steve Gallacher, Bexleyheath, included a postcard of the old school, his memories of staff and the Prefect torture of cutting the quadrangle grass with scissors.  The son of the first-named staff member on the Staff Board had written with information of his father.  He too was named WJ Pullen and left in 1934.  He mentioned his brother Max also attended Borden and research showed he left in 1940.  Lewis Chelton sent in some of his memories and wondered if his pre-war school cap merited antique valuation.  A press cutting had been received recording the death of Peter Mills, Old Bordenian and former Head of Faversham County Secondary School for Boys.  Peter Taylor had followed up the search for information on H Hill and John Hay (1933) had written in with some memories noting he remembered two colleagues he thought we lost in WW II.  One was Ingram, whose name is already on the Board.  The other was Turk, but a search of the Commonwealth Graves Commission website did not find him.  Finally John Lifton had written to express his thanks for his welcome at the Dinner and commented how well it was organised.
Neil Hancock had correspondence with Tony Crosse at his new address in France and had requested an article for the Maroon together with his subs.
 
Treasurer’s Report: Neil Hancock reported that current funds stood at £2480. This included the George Dawkins and Staff Commemoration funds. The sum of £500 had been paid to provide the gold leaf for the Honours boards.  The Dinner had produced a profit of £118 which included the sweeps.  The cost of the Maroon was £2298 but the cost of paper and postage was yet to be paid.  Around £750 was anticipated as advertising revenue.  This meant that around £4000 would be available in June and available for a school project.

Dinner Secretariat: Peter Lusted thought the event went well with no major problems.  He thanked Barry Gilbert for his help in the morning and for organising the sale of ties in the evening.  It had been confirmed that Roger Usher(1967) was willing to speak at next year’s meal and this was ratified.   The cost could be kept at £15 and the menu could be decided later.  The President expressed his thanks to Peter and Alan for their work in making the Dinner the success that it was.

Hockey Report: Neil Hancock noted that the 1st XI had finished half way up their league. The team would lose three players next year as they would be away on their studies.  Both Ladies teams had secured promotion.  The social side of the club was thriving with a good atmosphere and the financial side was healthy.
Football Report: Keith Shea thought that the 2nd XI had avoided relegation but administration of the league was not good.  The 1st XI also seemed safe.  Next season the veterans would be using some younger players and would become the ‘B’ team.  The 11-a-side Veterans team would have a few outings next year.

Editor of the Maroon:  Graham Barnes was unable to attend but had sent some notes regarding the future of the Maroon and the website.  These appear with the Website minutes.

Membership Secretary’s report:  Rick Harris reported that there were 597 paid up members but expressed concern about the poor take up of the student membership offer of only six.  John Macrae agreed to speak to this year’s leavers to try to improve the situation.

School Report: The President informed the Committee that the move to Foundation status had been successful.  As a result he had set up the School’s own independent appeals committee.  The 11+ intake for September stood at just over 100 and this could reach 120 after the appeals had been heard.  He had restarted the House system.  In keeping with the School’s Sports status the new houses would be known as Wembley, Wimbledon, Lords and Twickenham. Currently only sports competition was included, but this would be extended to other activities.  Two projects were under way.  The first was the refurbishment of the Music Room for which some grants had been secured.  Both Art rooms also needed refurbishing and it was possible that they might be available for September.  The PFA had promised some funding for this project.  Neil Hancock proposed and Peter Lusted seconded a motion that the Association should partner this project by giving £5000. This was agreed by the Committee.
Two questions were raised by this report.  The first was about the Sheppey link.  The President noted that there was a steady stream of island boys coming to Borden and would provide details at the next meeting.  The question of the memorial board to AC Howard in the original Library was raised again.  The feeling was that it could remain in its original position but with the wording altered.  No decision was taken and this will be raised at the next meeting.
 
Website report: David Palmer submitted the minutes of a recent website sub-committee meeting. These appear at the end of these minutes.

Any other business: 1.Ken Sears reported that he had visited the grave of the fourth Old Boy known to have died in WW 1 and had laid a wreath. This now completed the visits to all four.
2. At the next meeting thought should be given to the Association providing an annual School Art Prize.
3. Following a decision about the future of the Maroon, it may be necessary to amend the wording of the Constitution.
4. The next meeting is on Friday 12th September 2008

 There being no further business, the meeting was closed at 9.34pm

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OBA WEBSITE UPDATE – for Committee Meeting 9 May 2008

1. The new website at www.oldbordenians.co.uk  went live in the first week of February.  It is being updated on a regular basis, mainly with articles from John Macrae, but there have been a number of others published on the site.  The style of the site allows anyone to add comments to any of the articles (although these are moderated by the website committee before they can be seen by other visitors to the site).  This has generated a number of comments on the articles, which are generally an interesting follow up or anecdote to the original article.

2. The site is receiving 15-20 visitors per day, although activity was much higher following our 2 key ‘publicity pushes’.  These were i) when the Maroon was distributed with the web address on the front of the envelope and ii) when Ryan Jarrett gave a major promotion for the website on Facebook (one of those new fangled social networking things!!).  The regular visitors are the equivalent of 15 20 people browsing through the Maroon every day for the past 3 months.

3. Looking ahead, the website committee met recently to discuss and agree a number of future activities to ensure the website is kept up to date and relevant to members.  Graham Barnes has also written a comprehensive note with a similar aim, but also on transferring the communication role of the Association from the Maroon to the website. The remainder of this report will elaborate on the activities required to take the website forward and also to address the points raised by Graham.  I will identify committee members to take some of these activities forward, taking into account Graham’s point that keeping the site active and interesting is too much for just one or two people.

4. The following activities will need to be taken forward in the near future – in no particular order of importance.
4.1. Neil Hancock to produce an article for the website, explaining how the £10 subscription is spent and the benefit it produces (i.e. not just the Maroon).  This is to head off any potential backlash from members when we cease publication of the Maroon who may believe the £10 only funds the Maroon.
4.2. The “President’s Letter” normally printed in the Maroon should become a more regular feature when required.  In the past, this could have been when funds were required for the new Library; issue surrounding the change of status to the school, etc.
4.3. A section will be created on the site to hold formal documentation for ready access to all.  This will include the Constitution, Accounts, Committee minutes and AGM minutes.  Let me know if you are aware of any other key formal documents that should be included.  We will not include committee members names and addresses, as the site is still open to all.
4.4. Keith Shea to produce an updated football report following the season close last week.
4.5. An ‘Announcements’ section will be set up to hold an Obituaries category.  All members are asked to inform John Macrae, Alan Snelling or David Palmer of entries for this section as soon as you become aware.
4.6. To move away from this being the “John Macrae memories” site (although the quality of his articles are excellent!), all committee members are asked to produce one article for the site.  This can be a personal history, memory of either schooldays or event related to the OBA, etc.
4.7. Harold Vafeas to produce ad-hoc articles of school developments that would be of interest to OBA members.
4.8. I believe Bryan Short is writing or has written a history of the school.  This would be excellent material for the site.  If this isn’t yet complete, we could add chapters as and when they are ready, in a similar manner to John Macrae’s ‘Down memory lane’ chapters.
4.9. The other area that is missing from the site is a history of the Association.  The longer serving members of the committee should produce such an article.  Is this Sean or Ken?

5. In addition to the above, the following activities are planned by the website committee:
5.1. Letters sent to John Macrae that would be of wider interest will be published on the site, although John would obtain the author’s permission prior to publication.
5.2. I will email all members of the association asking for articles of interest, similar to those requested of the committee.
5.3. A ‘From the Head’s Files’ section is to be created to enable similar information to be available of Old Boys’ successes as currently published in the Maroon.
5.4. The feasibility of a web ‘shop’ will be investigated to sell ties, old copies of the Maroon, ‘School in photographs’ book, etc.

6. The website committee now want to set up a website information sub-committee, as suggested by Graham in his note, and full committee members are asked to consider whether they could usefully serve on this body, particularly those that don’t currently have a major role on the full committee.  The aim of the sub-committee will be to maintain a steady flow of information to the website, ensuring it doesn’t become stale.  I will be seeking volunteers at the meeting on Friday.

7. The remaining points in Graham’s letter that haven’t been addressed above relate to
• AGM and dinner reports – the dinner report will be posted on the website shortly; AGM minutes can be posted as soon as they have been produced after the meeting;
• Hockey and Football reports – the most efficient way of keeping this information consistent is to link to the relevant website.  The current site does have links to the OBHC; football reports will continue to be produced by the football representative for the main OBA site.  In addition, if OBA committee minutes are also published on the site, then this would give readers an update from both football and hockey reps, 3 or 4 times a year.
• Get the membership used to accessing the website regularly over the coming months – to kick start this, we are trying to arrange a demo of “how to get the best out of the OBA website” for committee members at the Sept meeting.

8. Contact points for all material are either Alan Snelling, David Palmer or John Macrae. 

David Palmer
Website Committee
3 May 2008