Chairmans Annual Report for year ended September 2019
Waitaki Boys High School Old boys Assn
Presidents Annual Report 2020
Welcome to the 2020 AGM of the Waitaki Boys High School Old Boys Assn, albeit later this year due to the influences of covid 19> I would also like to extend a special welcome to our guest Andrea Ludemann. Andrea is the chairperson for the school board of trustees and will give us a bit of a run down on some initiatives and ideas she and the board have with regards to working together to support the school more as one.
Thank you Andrea for taking the time to attend.
2020 started off as a normal yearbut who could have predicted the impact of covid 19 on our day to day lives. The impact has been felt across our personal lives, our businesses and most definitely in our learning institutions. This is just another hurdle that the school must contend with in these tricky times and even more reason for all the supporting groups to work together.
Sadly this year we lost a very hard working old boy, Mr Robbie Dick who passed away recently. Robbie was the recipient of the Waitaki Old Boys' Long Service Medal awarded for his decades of support to the association and the school. We pass on our sincere condolences to his family and friends. His son Andrew contacted me to pass on that Robbie left a bequest to the association with some guidance as to where he would like it channeled. We thank Robby for his thoughts and supporting us in this way going forward.
In spite of the upheavel over the past year things have still been happening and in particular the urgent repairs to the Hall of Memories have continued. The slate work has been completed and that area now appears to be water tight.
Ongoing research and planning are being carried out by the reactivated Hall of Memories Trust. This is to prevent further water damage and then ultimately to manage restoration projects and on-going maintenance. I would like to thank David Liddell for his time and expertise in the initial works and for agreeing to be our representative on the trust. It is felt that while many old boys may have mixed experiences during their time at the school the one thing that stirs emotion in them is the Hall of Memories. A restoration project of the Hall of Memories could well be the catalyst to reconnect with many of these old boys.
We also had the pleasure of interviewing boys for the Milner Scholarship. It is always enjoyable funding and being part of this process and is one of the few occasions that we get to really connect with the current boys. They were a fantastic group of young men with strong views and opinions on a wide range of topics the recipient this year was Forrestor Smythe.
Sadly, another outcome of covid-19 saw the cancellation of the Anzac Day concert held in the Hall of Memories. This has been a very successful initiative of Mr Allan Portis and has been going from strength to strength. We can only hope that we will be in a position to hold this again next year.
My last task for the year is to thank Hilary Bishop our long serving secretary. Hillary is standing down after many years in the position over some pretty testing times. We thank her for all that she has done and I thank her for the support and carrying out the tasks behind the scenes during my time as president. We hope you will accept this gift Hillary and appreciation of the work you have done. Thank you and enjoy your free time.
Thanks to the executive for your support this past year and I look forward to a stronger and more collaborative approach between all the groups supporting the school and our Old Boys.
Russell Gawn President
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