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Old Boys' Association
OC President's Letter - Summer 2010
It is a very great honour to be invited to be President of the Old Boys Association and, when one looks back at the list of Past Presidents, quite a daunting one too! Mike Purse, my immediate predecessor, tackled his year with great enthusiasm and commitment and will be a very hard act to follow, thank you Mike for all your hard work.
As Vice President last year I gained an insight into the 'presidential world' by accompanying Mike to some splendid events, not least being the OMT Annual Dinner, held in the Long Room at Lords, and the Old Wolfrunian's Dinner held at Wolverhampton Grammar School. Both these dinners were excellent, as indeed was our main Crosby Dinner, but perhaps what sets the MTS OBA apart from our Merchant Taylors' foundation cousins is our range of smaller dinners and events that take place around the country and now also abroad.
I would particularly draw your attention to an inaugural Canadian Dinner, being held in Toronto on Friday 10th September 2010.
Details of all our forthcoming events can be found in this newsletter and on both the Merchants Connected website (www.merchantsconnected.org.uk) and the Old Boys section of the main school website (www.merchanttaylors.com/senior-boys - just click on Old Boys Association link.
The Old Boys site has been updated with a new volunteer, Tom Jones, building on the hard work of John Watts and we also have a new Membership Secretary, David Gallagher, who has taken over from Mike Thomas who did a great job over many years.
It would greatly assist David and the Association if members could make sure that their contact information is up to-date on the Merchants Connected database as, going forward, that will be the main source of addresses and email contact details for both the Association and the School.
On a more disappointing note this year's Midland's Dinner had to be cancelled at the last minute but our thanks go to Chris Whittenbury for his hard work over recent years, Also we do not have a permanent organiser for our Oxford Dinner although we are hoping to hold the event during November. What we would like to do at Oxford is mirror our very successful Cambridge Dinner, which is held in term time, so that recent Old Boys and Old Girls who are at the University can attend. All we need are a couple of willing Old Boy to step forward to run these events in 2011!
Support to any volunteer will be available from Chris Delaney and myself at the Crosby end.
If you are willing to help in any way please drop me an email (ian@ianduckett.freeserve.co.uk) or call me on 01704 871863.
Finally, I would like mention the exciting two year 'Sporting Start' campaign that has just been launched by the School. The campaign sits within an overall ten year development plan for bursaries, new builds and refurbishments which culminates in 2020, the 400th anniversary of the Merchant Taylors' Schools in Crosby.
The specific 'Sporting Start' campaign has, at its heart, two key themes, raising funds to supplement the current bursary fund, to boost the School's own vitally important Assisted Places Scheme, and to also contribute to the £5.5m overall cost of the new Sports Hall. Work on this development has just begun on the Boys' School site and, when completed in 2011, it will offer a state of the art facility for sport across both senior schools and both junior schools.
Naturally the Old Boys Association will be supporting the campaign but any help individual Old Boys can provide will be much appreciated by the School.
Yours
Ian Duckett (1956 - 1963)
