Club AGM

Minutes of the AGM and Committee Meeting of the Royal High School Club in London held on 12.05.09 at the Caledonian Club.

Attendees:
Simon Card OBE – Committee member
Susan Geary – Committee member
Chris Pountain - Treasurer
Alex Prentice - Secretary
Jim Randell - Archivist
Jim Rowan – Club member
Al Senter - President
Eddie Tait – Scots in London contact

Apologies received from:
Will Dunnett – Webmaster
Don Leslie
Alistair Maclean
Valerie Peay – Committee member
Mel Rankine
Lindsay Taylor
Colin Todd
Walter Wood

Minutes of the AGM.

 Alex welcomed eight attendees to the AGM and listed the apologies.
 Tributes were paid to RHS FPs Pringle Fisher and Shaw Statham who, sadly, died in recent months.
 Al presented his Annual President’s Report and thanked the Committee for its support over the last year. Al informed the AGM that George Smuga has resigned as Rector and the post will be advertised. A new Rector should be in place in August for the start of the autumn term.
 Chris presented his Treasurer’s report, which showed that the financial position of the Club remains satisfactory. As at 19.04.09 the Club had £1760.32 in the bank plus £853.33 in the National Savings Account.
 The following have agreed to serve as Committee members (11 in total):
Simon Card OBE – Committee member
Will Dunnett – Webmaster
Susan Geary – Committee member
Claire Laidlaw – Committee member
Chris Pountain – Treasurer
Valerie Peay – Committee member
Alex Prentice - Secretary
Jim Randell – Archivist
Janette Scantlebury – Committee member
Al Senter - President
Eddie Tait – Scots in London contact

Actions from the AGM
 Alex will write to the small number of RHS FPs who have attended London Club events, but who have not yet formally joined the Club, to encourage them set up an annual subscription standing order for £15. We also have a few new RHS FP contacts in London who will be encouraged to join and pay the subscription. Al agreed to contact the non-payers to encourage them to set up a standing order.
 The school prize-giving is planned for Thursday the 2nd of July at 10:00 am and, unfortunately, Al Senter cannot attend. If any of the committee would like to attend the school prize-giving as a platform guest please contact Alex Prentice. Alex will also contact Ian Gill who has represented the London Club in the past to see if he is available.
 Al Senter kindly agreed to continue as President until the AGM in May 2010 but we also agreed that a successor for Al needs to identified in 2009 in order for a smooth handover to take place. Simon agreed to sound out a possible candidate.

Minutes of the Committee Meeting (chaired by Al Senter).

Review of actions from the last committee meeting on 13.01.09.
 We discussed the committee’s ideas for implementation of a new RHSCL Prize (if agreed) in 2010. We decided to follow up on this proposal with the new Rector once he/she has been appointed and, for this school year, we will continue with the three school prizes that the RHSCL currently funds. Simon has already emailed David Simpson to tell him about our decision.

Feedback from the Annual Dinner 2009.
 Feedback from the attendees at the Annual Dinner on 20th March was very positive and the quality of the food and service at the VSC was excellent. We will consider a return to the VSC for the Annual Dinner in 2010 if we can come up with a proposal which costs in. Al will try to find a suitable date at the end of March 2010 and we can then have detailed discussions with the VSC.

Forthcoming Club Events.
We discussed forthcoming events and the following points were agreed:
 The Annual Drinks Party will be held at the Fleming Gallery on Monday the 9th of November 2009. Al is working on the format of the event and the cost-per-head is likely to rise slightly. The committee agreed that we should hire musicians again, if they cost in, because this creates a very sociable, party atmosphere.

Recruitment of new members.
 There has been a steady trickle of new contacts via the Club’s web site, and by word of mouth, and they have received welcoming emails from Alex and Al. Several new faces attended the Drinks Party and the Annual Dinner and our first priority is to convert them to fully paid-up members as discussed above.

Date of the next Committee meeting:
 We plan to hold the next Committee meeting in October 2009 at the Caledonian Club and Alex will send out a suggested date in due course.

Photos from the 2009 Annual Dinner

Photos from the club's 2009 Annual Dinner at the Victory Club in London are now on Flickr. You don't have to join Flickr to view the photos.
The address is http://www.flickr.com/photos/royalhighschool/ .
The dinner was well attended, including a contingent from Edinburgh. Former pupil and well known economics writer and columnist John Kay was the main speaker who proved to be both entertaining and informative.