Minutes of Mount House Association Committee Meeting held on the 24th January 2009 at Mount House School.

 

1. Apologies for absence

Apologies were received from Jim Massey.

 

2. Notification of other business.

a. The retirement of John Symons. b. The retirement of Mrs. Sally Da Rocha

 

3. The Signing of the Minutes of the Meeting of 28th June 2008.

The Minutes of the last Committee meeting, having been read by the Committee, were signed as a true record.

 

4. Matters arising from the Minutes.

a. The Chairman formally welcomed Ella Toynton to the Committee.

b. Benches – name plaques.
Chris Redman showed 4 options for the Committee to consider. It was agreed that the Timpson 4” x 2” design, with a 5% discount for 5, totaling £76.45 should be purchased. The final names were decided and approved (J.D. Wedd, H.P.Wortham, Miss L. Spencer, Ken & Trudie Cload, D.R. Buchanan – Allen M.B.E.)

c. The Wortham Archive.
The costs of the films were decided and Mel Redman would be updating the website with the film descriptions, the cost of the DVDs and an Order form page produced.

d. Scarves and Ties.
The Secretary delivered the scarves and ties. Mel and Chris Redman agreed to store them and to take and send out orders.
It was decided to charge £20 for a tie and £15 for a scarf.

The Chairman announced that he would be fining any Committee members not wearing their ties/scarves at each and every Committee Meeting.

It was decided to ask Julie Martin to take the photos for the ties, scarves and lapel pins. It was decided that there should be a £150 budget set for the photography..

e. Other Business.
John Symons’s Retirement:
Sally Da Rocha’s Retirement:

It was confirmed that John Symons would be retiring at the end of the Summer term (his 99th). It was suggested that he would not want too much fuss made. Two suggestions were made:

1. That, on Association Day (Swimming Gala + Cricket/ Rounders Matches), John be presented with a gift, together with an Association tie during the lunch break. £400.00 budget for the gift. (Item to be decided via e-mail.);
At the tea interval during the Cricket match, a gift be presented to Sally.
2. That, at the end of Term, there should be a gathering for members of Staff and invited guests - perhaps a Hog Roast.

Both suggestions were agreed, final arrangements to be made at the next Committee Meeting.

f. Organic/green garden
No funds had been asked for or given. The Association had offered to buy stock. Neil Jory said he would ask Geoff Whaley if he needs anything.

Mel Redman said that she had been asked whether the Association would be willing to buy a Lighting/flash diffusion kit (estimate £300) to allow the School to take team photos “in-house”. It was agreed the Association would be willing to pay.

Neil Jory also said the School wanted to buy a wind turbine and asked whether the Association would consider funding this. He would get costs for the Committee to consider at the next Meeting.

 

5. Chairman’s Business

The Chairman voiced concerns about how fast the Membership was growing. Mel Redman stated that the Membership (at present 148) was increasing slowly but that there were a lot of members who did not want to appear on the website.

Ways of increasing Membership were discussed, including reposting the Association’s existence on Facebook. Ella Toynton to talk to Ellie regarding this matter and also the possibility of leaving message on the Facebook Group announcing the retirement of John Symons, the date of The Association Day and the fact ties and scarves are now available..

Fanfare is now on line on the website and a hard copy is available on request.  The School still wants to send out a hardcopy to leavers for 5 years after they have left.

The MHA Constitution remains to be dealt with.

 

6.Treasurer’s Report .

Major Bill Lane had examined the Accounts. It was suggested, and agreed, that the end of year for the Accounts should be 31st May.

Chris Redman reported that Income had mainly come from continuing membership - £297; from new ‘life’ members (29 leavers in 2008) £1,740, some new members at £6 p.a, merchandise sales, and interest on the deposit account.
Expenditure was mainly due to: Website – design/hosting/maintenance fees.
Benches £2,100; Ties & Scarves £4,552; Digitisation of films £6,074; wooden flagpole £1,884.
He pointed out that some of the costs of the ties & scarves and the films will be recouped through sales to members.

Current a/c    £ 2,217.04
Deposit a/c    £13,453.44

                      £15,670.48

There was a query about the insurance for the flagpole and it was stated the School’s insurance would cover any mishap.

Repayment on Tax – not applicable.

Chris Redman stated accounts were healthy and thought that the major expenses have now been incurred – films and other merchandise and that we would soon be able to recoup the costs incurred.

He suggested he would prefer to do the Association‘s transfers etc on-line – this was agreed.

 

7. Secretary’s Business

a. Spreading the load.
It was decided that, since the website was constantly being updated, a Newsletter was unnecessary. Members were invited to contribute to the website.

b. Events
It was proposed that Association Day should be on the 4th July. Members of the Association would provide the BBQ and man the beer tent. Mel Redman agreed to liaise with Sally Da Rocha about the food.

The Elworthy X1 against the Wanderers was penciled in for Saturday 12th July.

Jon Elworthy to arrange 2 additional fixtures for the Wanderers’ Week.

 

Various future events were discussed:

An Association Day in the Winter with, Old Boys watching a rugby match. It was also suggested that a film show of one of the Wortham Archive years could be arranged with refreshments.

It was suggested that an Association Sponsored Walk be organised for September 2010- the distance about 10 miles.

The Secretary said he would be willing to organise an informal reunion in Central London. He hoped that this could become a regular feature, perhaps varying the location. Again it was thought the first event should be in the Winter/Christmas.

 

8. Website Manager’s Report.

Mel Redman handed out an information sheet showing website hits.

 

9. Facebook

Ellie Malcolm and Ella Toynton to liaise re. The Association Group on Facebook to produce an e-mail link re. Events.

 

10. Database

Ian Kilpatrick, who had resigned from the Committee because of pressure of work in another field, had returned the original database disk, which was now with Mel Redman, who had agreed to take it over.

The Secretary was to write to Ian to thank him for all his hard work on the production of the Database.

It was agreed he would be sent a tie as a gift. It was also agreed that a tie and a thank you letter should be sent to Alexander Stannus for his hard work in organising the ties and scarves.

 

11. Committee Meeting

The date of the next meeting will be 28th March 2009 at the School.