OSB AGM

Minutes of the 29th (114th) Annual General Meeting of the St Beghian Society
 
held in the Foundation Building on Saturday, 15th June 2024 at 11.00am.

There were 27 people present, including Carter Croft (President), David Lord (Treasurer), Pam Rumney (Secretary) and Andrew Keep (Headmaster).

1) Welcome by the President, Carter Croft. Carter welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for attending St Beghians’ Day 2024.

2) School Update by the Headmaster – Andrew Keep. Andrew introduced himself as the Interim Head until August 2025 and went on to say that during his first four weeks in office he had experienced a vertical exponential learning curve. He confirmed that the school continued to thrive and indicated that the OSBs were crucial to the school going forward. Andrew thanked the 200 Club for their £3k contribution towards the library refurbishment, which had recently been officially re-opened by Dr Fiona Ironside, a former parent of the school. He went on to say that, in his opinion, the new library had transformed learning within the school, especially for the sixth form.

Andrew advised that 130 students had started school in September 2023 across the year groups with 62 of those pupils being boarders on School House. This had highlighted the need for additional boarding places by September 2026 and, as a result, various options had been considered, such as Pods, the redevelopment of Abbots Court, or a modular structure behind School House. The latter currently being the favoured option.

The Head stated that the academic programme was strong and flourishing, with excellent academic progress and pastoral care being experienced. He mentioned that of the 20 students leaving in the summer, two had achieved Oxbridge interviews, resulting in one being offered a place to read maths at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and several places had been gained at various Russell Group universities. However, owing to the large number of upper sixth formers leaving at the end of the summer term, he advised that next year’s sixth form cohort would be a little smaller.

Sport at the school was also understood to be thriving and Andrew listed a range of activities which were on offer to students, including Eton fives, volleyball and football. In addition, several extremely successful trips and visits had taken place, including to Amsterdam, Iceland and the Everest Base Camp, all of which had been well supported by parents and students alike.
It was indicated by the Head that on the cultural side of things provision for music, for example, was being increased, alongside opportunities for subjects such as university cookery and chess, through the GCAS (Global Awareness, Creativity Active, Service) after school activities’ programme.

Andrew addressed the issues relating to the proposed changes to VAT and confirmed that the situation was obviously of concern to the school but advised that various scenarios had been drawn up and assessed. He went on the say that the school had lobbied the local MP and that, as local state schools were currently full, there was the question of St Bees as a special case being raised. At the present time, the numbers for the 2024/25 academic year were thought to be very similar to the current year, but Andrew recognised that the income raised from these was key to the future success of the school.
The Head concluded by thanking OSBs for their support and mentioned that the next project the school was keen to tackle was the auditorium at the back of the Art block. Andrew wished everyone present a pleasant day and expressed his willingness to answer questions at any stage throughout the day.

3) Presentation by the President – Carter Croft. On behalf of an anonymous OSB, the President presented Pam Rumney, the Society Secretary, with a fun gift of a ‘Queen Bee’ clip-on charm.  Pam thanked the donor for their kind thought.

4) President’s Yearly Report – Carter Croft. Carter began by explaining that, prior to just a few years ago, he had not had anything to do with the St Beghian Society for many years as he had been living abroad. On returning to the UK he had attended a Yorkshire Lunch organised by Steve Crossley-Smith and from then on, he had been converted. Determined to help boost Society numbers during his time as President, Carter explained that he had set up and organised the successful South Lakes Social in 2023 which, he advised, in September 2024, would be held at the Grange Golf Club.

The President went on to thank all the Branch Secretaries for their hard work in sustaining the various events which were held throughout the country. In particular, Carter mentioned Bill Dove, the Secretary of the North East Branch, who had died earlier in the year, and who had organised the NE Dinners for a commendable 49 years.

Carter indicated that during his two years in office he had experienced both highs and lows, the main low being the cancellation of the Aviation Dinner in June 2023 which had been a huge disappointment to him. In addition, the unavoidable postponement of the London Social last October owing to train strikes, and the break in the London formal Dinners were also mentioned. However, Carter emphasised the positive get-togethers which had taken place, including Daryl Davies’s Cumbria Dinner at Armathwaite Hall, John Braithwaite’s regular Cambridge gatherings, Dick Lockwood’s Huddersfield rugby event and Tim MacKay’s Scottish lunch. He also thanked Steve Crossley-Smith for his organisation of the Yorkshire Branch lunches over many years.

In conclusion, Carter expressed his thanks to Robin Silk, the outgoing Headmaster, and wished him every success in his new venture. He went on to welcome Andrew Keep, as the newly appointed Interim Head. Thanks were also conveyed by Carter to George Robson for his help and ideas, and also to David Lord, Tony Reeve and Pam Rumney for their guidance and assistance, when needed.

5) Brief Silence in memory of departed OSBs. The names of those who had passed away since the last AGM in 2023 were read out by the Secretary and a period of silence was held in their honour.

6) Confirmation of the Minutes of the 113th A.G.M. held on Saturday 17th June, 2023 (published in the January 2024 Bulletin). The Minutes of the previous meeting in June 2023 were agreed as a true and accurate record. They were proposed by Steve Crossley-Smith and seconded by Richard Hall.

7) Matters Arising – There were no matters arising from the Minutes.

8) Election of Officers:

a) President – Darryl Davies.
b) Committee – Committee – Retiring this year were Roy Calvin, Darryl Davies and Andrew Haile. Roy Calvin and Darryl Davies were willing to stand for re-election. Andrew Haile wished to stand down.
Proposed new additional Committee Member – David Paul.
c) Treasurer – David Lord.
d) Secretary – Pam Rumney.
e) Golfing Secretary – Tom Wright.
f) Accounts Checker – Jason Spires.
g) Bulletin Editor – Tony Reeve.

Following a proposal by Tom Lowrey and seconded by Tim Brown, it was unanimously agreed to elect all the officers, as mentioned above.

In addition, George Robson requested that special thanks be given to the Bulletin editor, Tony Reeve, for another excellent edition of the Bulletin.

9) Presidents’ Handover – Carter Croft, the outgoing President thanked everyone for their support and handed over the Presidency to Darryl Davies.

10) St Beghian Society Finances and Accounts (2023-2024) - David Lord, the Treasurer, advised that the accounts, which had been circulated, were straight forward and that much of the income and expenditure was similar to previous years. Worthy of mention, however, was the receipt of £2659 being the balance of the £25,000 legacy from an OSB. David also mentioned that the amount of subscriptions had continued to fall mainly as a result of a reduction in the number of one off payments. Standing Order payments are now, to a very large extent, the main source of regular income.

On the expenditure side, Pam Rumney’s salary had increased from £12,064 to £12,995, Pam now having almost completed 17 years of loyal service.

David confirmed that the Society currently had just over £94k in the bank but he warned that this figure would continue to reduce as expenditure exceeded income unless legacies or other forms of income were received.

There were no questions raised regarding the accounts.

11) Branch Activities – Dinners/Events List distributed. Darryl Davies advised Members that all the upcoming OSB events were detailed within the St Beghians’ Day programme but drew specific attention to the next two gatherings due to take place, at the Grange Golf Club in September and the Samuel Pepys Pub, London in October.

Tim Brown asked for confirmation regarding the organisation of the North East Lunch by Bill Dove’s daughter. It was affirmed that Amanda, Bill’s daughter, had very kindly offered to take on the role of organiser for the forthcoming lunch in November, in memory of her father. Thanks were conveyed to Amanda for her generous offer.

Darryl mentioned that the date of the Cumbria Dinner in February had been moved to Friday 28th in order to avoid the Rugby Six Nations competition. He also referred to the proposed Scottish Dinner in May and the formal London Dinner, which he sincerely hoped would take place at some stage during 2025.

12) The 200 Club Report and Annual Draw – Darryl Davies reported that the number of members had dropped from 77 last year to just 57 this year. This was due to an online promotional mailing last year which had encouraged several OSBs to join, but unfortunately one-off payments were received, and these were not renewed this year. Darryl advised that a further mailing would be circulated early in the autumn to try and boost the number of members. He went on to confirm that there was currently £1181 in the bank account and he thanked the Headmaster for his recognition of the donation given to the school for the library refurbishment and also the school’s eco club.

The 200 Club draw took place and produced the following winners:

PRIZE	No.	WINNER	PRIZE	No.	WINNER
£200.00	73	Derek Kaye	£40.00	1	Bill Dove
£40.00	57	James Brindle	£40.00	76	William Wright
£40.00	71	Gordon Mathison

13) Any Other Business – No further issues were raised.

The President thanked members for attending, but also expressed his wish to see more younger and female members actively involved. He closed the meeting at 11.55am.

 

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St Bees School,    St Bees,    Cumbria,    CA27 0DS.

         Tel: (01946) 828093      Email: osb@stbeesschool.co.uk      Web: www.st-beghian-society.co.uk