AGM 19 November 2022
Meeting of the OLD LOUGHTONIANS’ ASSOCIATION
on the occasion of the 96th Annual General Meeting
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on Friday 19th November 2021 at the Old Loughtonians Hockey Club
The President Andrew Kaye welcomed everyone to the 96th Old Loughtonians’ Annual General Meeting & stated how pleased he was that this year it was a virtual meeting & not via Zoom
SILENT TRIBUTES:
The Secretary Malcolm Trowbridge confirmed that the following members had sadly passed away in the past 24 months
Adrian Austin (1955) Mike Gosford (1943) Kevin Staff (1963) Guy Rogers (1962)
Michael Davies (1939) Michael Fry (1942) Geoffrey Rose (1944) Mrs Doreen Purkiss widow of Derek Purkiss, President in 1988 & Graham Finch (1953).
Members stood for a few moments as a mark of respect.
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE:
Roger Timms, Humphrey Wheeler, Bill Geller, Stephen Mathison, Bert Speller
& Rodney Agambar.
TO CONFIRM THE MINUTES OF THE 95th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The minutes had already be circularised to committee members & further copies were available on the chairs
They were Proposed by Peter Loftus and Seconded by John Jacobs and all members were in agreement.
There were no matters arising:
PRESIDENTS REPORT:
Firstly, I have to say how proud and privileged I felt at being invited to be President of the Old Boys Association of the school which became such an important part of my young life.
I suppose I was the first, and probably the last, member in the history of our Association to be appointed as President whilst staring at a computer screen on a video conference call; the first digitally-appointed President. The least I could do was to make the back-screen for the video-call a large photo of our old school. Subsequent Committee meetings followed this format through 2021.
The year has been a tough one for everybody in view of the pandemic, but never-the-less Association life carried on as best it could.
At the start of the Presidency, I was finalising the transfer of my involvement in the website development into the exceptionally capable hands of Stefan Sheriden. Stefan has been working hard for many months to modernise the website, making it more user friendly and adding extra functionality. I am most grateful to Stefan for making such a professional job of our website.
My first proper Association-involvement was to accompany our Hon. Secretary, Malcolm, to the Old Lougtonians Hockey Club AGM, where there was the matter of our £5,000 loan, made a couple of decades ago, which we wanted to ensure that the Hockey Club AGM’s Treasurers Report made reference to that loan. This arose following our noticing that the Hockey Club’s website did not include our Association among their list of Sponsors, Donators and gift-makers.
It transpired, much to the amazement of Malcolm and myself, that not only did they not actually have a current Treasurer to give a report, they also seemed to know nothing of the £5,000 loaned to them. Malcolm explained the details of the loan, reminding them that it was a loan, and as such could be called in at any time. This conversation was recorded to enable a verbatim report to be written. Malcolm and I came away from that meeting very relieved that the loan was clearly included into the AGM’s minutes.
My second duty as President was to lay a wreath at the Loughton Memorial, on behalf of the Old Loughtonians Association. It was a well-attended Service of Remembrance in a very sombre setting. Many dignitaries were there, including the area MP, the Lady Mayor and Church Officials. The event was managed by the Loughton Branch of the British Legion, who invited many of us back to their club-house for a delightful meal.
My next engagement was to join the many Members and families invited by Member David McAdams to visit the Epping Ongar Railway for a tour of the North Weald depot, seeing the steam-engineering goliaths close up, where the wheels were as tall as us and the sheer enormity of the Railway Project struck home. This was followed by a fish ‘n chip meal as we trundled down the line to Ongar and back again. I am most grateful to David for arranging that enjoyable evening for us.
That, then, brings the year full-circle to a more traditional style of AGM, where I am about to hand the reins over to Andrew Gemmill. I hope he feels the pride of involvement that I have felt over the past year, as President of the Association of that rather unique school of ours.
Thank you very much.
TREASURERS REPORT
Treasurers Report 19th November 2021(Read by Malclm Trowbridge)
I am sorry that this report is not by me in person, having asked my specialist if it would be OK to go to the Old Loughts (Louts) dinner, he looked at me in astonishment until I explained it was short for the Old Loughtonians, so on his advice I am not able to with you on this occasion.
On the expenditure side because of the fact we did not have a dinner last year there was no loss, this year’s postage has increased by £127.00 this in part is due to us not being able to use the Higgins Post Room.
The computer costs have reduced by £72.00 and in future years this reduction will be even greater as Stefan has been able to set up the web site in a more economical way, and as a result we have managed to find new members.
Donations to the Hockey Club and OL Trust relates to the previous year’s donations.
Income of Subscriptions and Donations are down on the previous year as some members only pay with their dinner money and overlooked the membership fee. This item includes donations to the Hockey Club and OL Trust, in future years I feel that they should be shown as a separate item as we are only a clearing house. It also includes nearly £450.00 donations from members so thank you for your generosity
All things considered we managed to show a surplus of £173.00 despite only getting £1.00 interest payment from HSBC.
From this month HSBC are going to charge £5.00 per month administration fee and 40p to pay in cheques, although this is not applicable when paid online. It is my opinion that we better pay the fee and stay with this Bank as moving to another one would probably mean a lot of work and loss of members paying by standing order, in time all banks will charge.
I would like to thank Malcolm for all his input in getting members to pay their subs and for organizing the Golf Day which helped swell our coffers.
I therefore submit these accounts for your approval.
Humphrey
The Treasurers report was proposed by David McAdams and seconded by Michael Lane
WEBSITE & EMAIL REPORT:
Stefan Sheriden reported that the website always more information and if members had any items he would be please to include these on the site.
The President thanked Stefan for all his hard work during the past months and said hope the website had improved and should be used much more for inexpensive communication.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS FOR 2020/2021
The Secretary asked that this whole item of Officers & Committee members be taken “En Bloc” with the exception of Graham Finch which was unanimously agreed.
At this point Andrew Kaye handed over the chair to the new President Andrew Gemmill who then placed his badge of office on as well as the customary cap and thanked everyone for electing him as the President and was please to see another ‘Gemmill’ name on the Presidents board
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
The Secretary hoped that the AGM & Reunion dinner would be held on Friday 19th November 2021. He also thanked Tony Mullins for a fantastic magazine and had already had a lot of feedback from members which would all be in the next issue.
David Welford raised the question of disposing of the silver cups & this would be discussed at the next committee meeting in February 2022
The meeting closed at 7.35 pm with a vote of thanks to Andrew Kaye and a warm welcome to Andrew Gemmill.
There were a total of 21 members present at the AGM.
The President then announced that the following dates for committee meeting in 2022 would be as follows:
Dates of committee meetings for 2022 are as follows:
Monday 7th February, Monday 16th May
12th September all at 7:30 pm
AGM & Reunion Dinner Friday 11th November 2022
The laying of the OL wreath will take place on Remembrance Sunday 13th November 2022 at the Loughton War memorial
Signed…………………………….President Date………………………
That concluded the formal AGM & at this point the President was handed various present as well as three sepia prints of the School ,Dining Hall and Old Laboratory. Which he thanked everyone for!
