Minutes of the AGM and Committee Meeting of the Royal High School Club in London held on 18.05.10 at the Caledonian Club.
Attendees:
Simon Card OBE – Committee member
Valerie Peay – Committee member
Chris Pountain – Treasurer
Alex Prentice – Secretary
Al Senter – President
Apologies received from:
Martin Coutie
Will Dunnett – Webmaster
Susan Geary – Committee member
John Kay
Claire Laidlaw – Committee member
Alistair Maclean
Alan Morrison
Alan & Mo Robertson
Jim Rowan
Eddie Tait – Scots in London contact
Colin Todd
Brian Wallace
Neil Watson
Minutes of the AGM.
– Alex welcomed five attendees to the AGM and listed the apologies.
– Tributes were paid to our former President and committee member Jim Randell who, sadly, died on 9th April 2010.
– Al presented his Annual President’s Report and thanked the Committee for its support over the last year. The Club ran three events in 2009/10: Foreign Office Tour, Fleming Collection drinks party and the Annual Dinner which were all well attended.
– Chris presented his Treasurer’s report, which showed that the financial position of the Club remains satisfactory. As at 19.04.10 the Club had £1761.02 in the bank plus £855.80 in the National Savings Account.
– The following have agreed to serve as Committee members (8 in total):
Simon Card OBE – Committee member
Will Dunnett – Webmaster
Susan Geary – Committee member
Chris Pountain – Treasurer
Valerie Peay – Committee member
Alex Prentice – Secretary
Al Senter – President
Eddie Tait – Scots in London contact
– The following Committee members will be approached by the Secretary to see whether they wish to stand down from the committee. The committee wishes to thank them for their valuable service to the Club.
Claire Laidlaw is moving to New Zealand for two years with her family.
Janette Scantlebury – moved to Shetland some years ago.
Actions from the AGM
– Al Senter will contact 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. The Secretary (Alex) will supply Al with the list of people to contact and the Treasurer (Chris) will update the membership list to show who has paid the subscription.
– Al Senter intends to stand down as President within the next year and he will lead the search for a new President for the Club.
– Al Senter is also looking for a person in their 20’s or 30’s to join the committee to ensure that the committee is in tune with this age group.
Minutes of the Committee Meeting (chaired by Al Senter).
Review of actions from the last AGM on 12.05.09.
– We discussed the committee’s ideas for implementation of a new RHSCL Prize and Simon Card agreed to lead on this initiative. The new Rector (Jane Frith) has been appointed and Simon will make contact with her – Alex will provide Simon with Jane’s contact details. For the time being we will continue with the three school prizes that the RHSCL currently funds.
Feedback from the Annual Dinner 2010.
– Feedback from the attendees at the Annual Dinner on 19th February at the VSC was varied. It was felt that the speeches went on too long and there were a few critical comments about the meal. On the other hand the attendees from Edinburgh seemed to like the VSC and there were good comments from them about the accommodation. Undoubtedly we all enjoyed the reasonable prices at the bar. The Committee has not yet decided the venue for the Annual Dinner on Friday March 11th 2011 and, to help the Committee to come to a decision, Alex P will compare the offering at the VSC with what the Caledonian Club can provide.
Forthcoming Club Events.
We discussed forthcoming events and the following points were discussed:
– Melanie Mareuge-Lejeune will host a drinks evening for her network of younger RHS FPs in London, at her home, and she plans to invite a few members of the Committee along as well.
– We will hold a wine-tasting evening at Bacchanalia in the City on 16th September 2010 and we will issue an invitation to the London FP clubs of Heriot’s, Watson’s and Daniel Stewart’s to join us. Valerie Peay will liaise with Bacchanalia and Alex will publicise the event.
– The Annual Drinks Party will be held once more at the Fleming Gallery on 15th November 2010 and Al Senter will organise that event. Paintings by the popular Glasgow Boys will be on view and that should help to boost the attendance.
– Al Senter is organising an event for RHS pupils in May 2011 at the Fleming Collection. The event will have a London theatre theme and Al will chair a distinguished panel who will take questions from the pupils.
– Recruitment of new members.
We discussed different social networking systems e.g. Twitter & Facebook and we agreed that further work is needed by Club members who have used these systems. Valerie Peay will make contact with Will Dunnett and Melanie Mareuge-Lejeune to see whether we can make some headway with these systems.
Date of the next Committee meeting:
– We plan to hold the next Committee meeting in November 2010 and Simon will investigate whether we can use a room at the Institute of Directors.