AGM May 2017 - Presidents Annual Report
Waitaki Old Boys Association Presidents Report 2017
I would like to welcome you all along and especially our new Rector and Old Boy of the school Mr Darryl Paterson. We wish you the best and look forward to working with you in this challenging but exciting phase of WBHS.
The Association has had another steady year, seeing several planned projects progressing, as well as continuing its support for the school along the more traditional lines. The most obvious has been the continued progress that is being made with the designated Old Boys Website and I would like to thank Ian for the work he does with driving this initiative. The trick now will be to see how we grow interaction with our Old Boys to the point of them putting forward interesting facts and information that keeps it relevant to our new crop of young men. On top of this it would be great to somehow work with the school to gain involvement from current school students in assisting with the management of the website. This could assist with the link between boys still at school and the Association.
We again contributed to the school in the shape of providing funding towards prize giving as well as carrying out interviews and funding the Prestigious Milner Scholarship. I was unable to take part in the interview process this year but I am told it was a close-run race with all boys being very worthy applicants. Congratulations to Jake Gawn who was selected as the winner of the Milner Scholarship for 2016.
An on-going project which gets discussed on numerous occasions is the school swimming pool. During the year, it came to our attention that the pool may be still leaking; we will need to investigate this further and if this is the case put a plan in place to see what can be done. I feel we need to do this in conjunction with the school and in particular with Darryl, to ensure we are assisting the school the best way possible.
The Anzac concert was held again this year in the Hall of Memories and I would like to thank Allan Portis and all the people who made this happen. I understand it was well supported and of a high quality, once again a special thanks to Allan Portis for his continued financial support of this initiative,
Unfortunately, this year I could not attend the School Anzac service held in the Hall of Memories, so thanks to Ron Sim for representing the Association at this. It truly is a memorable occasion and once again it is hard to think of a more fitting place to hold such a service. I have it on good authority that the boys again served the school well and showed great respect for the occasion.
While I am not as connected this year with the ongoing school assemblies that celebrate the academic, cultural and sporting achievements of the boys, I am aware that the current crop of Waitakians is continuing the tradition of punching above their weight across the board and wish them well for 2017.
And lastly, I would like to thank my fellow members on the Executive and Hilary for their work and support over the past year and I encourage everyone to continue trying to get people along in order to transition into the next generation of Old Boys both on and off the Executive. This should remain a priority for us all, as without new blood coming in and moulding the Association into what is relevant to the modern “Old Boy” the Waitaki Old Boys Association will struggle to continue its existence as a valuable and relevant part of the school and community. Russell Gawn
The current committee members were all re elected unopposed for the 2017 - 2018 year
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