Chairman's Report 2006

 Chairman's Report

(reproduced from the 2006/07 Blue Paper)

A very warm welcome to the latest 94 members of the Worth Old Boys Society who left Worth in July. I hope that you along with all other members of our Society enjoy this latest issue of The Blue Paper.

The last year has seen a wide variety of activities organised by both the Committee and various individual members and I am delighted to report that the Society only seems to grow in momentum.

As it was Worth that brought us together in the first place, I start my review of the last year with a brief comment on the School. Worth has had another excellent year building on its record level of academic achievements in 2005 with the best ever A' level results (a quarter obtaining 3 or more A grades). There was a 100% pass rate in the International Baccaleaurate and a record number of Duke of Edinburgh Awards. During the year Peter Armstrong announced his forthcoming departure after 11 years at Worth, and what will be nearly seven as headmaster. Peter has recently been appointed as Principal of Aiglon College in Switzerland and we wish him success in that new role. The Governors have appointed Gino Carminati to succeed Peter who will be moving from his current position as headmaster of Kent College, Canterbury.

As this Blue Paper goes to press, the Abbot and Chairman of the Governors have just announced that the Governing Board of Worth has reached a unanimous decision to change the admissions policy and admit girls. A Working Party, chaired by a former parent, spent many months assessing a range of factors not least a serious downward demographic curve due to affect all secondary schools and concluded that the admission of girls was necessary to sustain the School in the future. Girls will be admitted in two stages, commencing with entry into the Sixth Form in 2008 and throughout the School in 2010. This change will create an identity crisis for WOBS and I invite Old Boys to submit their suggestions for the re-naming of our Society.

Finally, whilst on the subject of the School, for those of us who remember that a lozenge was the generally prescribed remedy for everything from verukhas to a "sudden inability to do cross-country today Sister",  I am pleased to report that dear Sister Eady celebrated her 90^th birthday in 2006. Joan Eady retired as the School's nursing matron in 1976 after forty years at Worth and is living in a retirement home near East Grinstead. On behalf of all Old Boys, I wish Sister Eady the continued good health that she sought for all of us.

Turning to our Society, I report as follows:

Spirituality

Our annual ‘St Benedict's Day Mass' was again offered for all Old Boys by Fr Kevin at Corpus Christi, Covent Garden in March. Over 30 Old Boys attended and went on to socialise in two venues, the latter being Gordon's Wine Bar, Embankment, owned and managed by Simon Gordon (S ‘75). 

On the subject of spirituality, I would commend a new book Finding Sanctuary by our Patron, Abbot Christopher. Published following the television series, The Monastery, the Abbot offers ways in which the lessons of monastic living and the teaching of St Benedict can be put into practice in our hectic, modern and unmonastic lives. I provided the book to a recent guest at my home who asked upon retiring to bed whether there was "a good read"? At breakfast the next day our guest reported that she had read the book and could talk about nothing else. Enquiries about purchasing the book can be made to the WOBS office.

Sponsorship

Since being established in 2000, funding through the Voluntary Service Award (VSA) reached the highest level in any twelve month period during 2006.

Our support to those leaving Worth who wished to devote part of their gap year to voluntary service continued last year with a VSA to sixth former, Michael Burr, who went to Cambodia to work on a project aimed at helping local communities manage their own resources.

As I emphasised two years ago in The Blue Paper, the VSA is available to all Old Boys who wish to devote time to voluntary service and we were delighted to approve awards to two old boys. Dominic Moor (S ‘00) received an award towards his medical training in Uganda where in addition to orthopaedic work he will be undertaking research into the prevalence of colon cancer in Uganda compared to in the UK. Committee member and WOBSRFC stalwart, Rob Carson also received an award for his work with The Order of Malta Volunteers in setting up a holiday camp for children with various physical disabilities from the Central Remedial Clinic in Dublin. The Committee was also pleased to help Old Boys out in their endeavours in the Arts with an award to Jamie Symons and Edward Baybutt who needed funding for a play they were jointly producing. The Committee looks forward to applications for the VSA during 2007.

Careers

The longstanding support by the Society for careers education at Worth continued this year with a difference. Old Boys joined members of Friends of Worth and the School staff body in an afternoon ‘Careers Focus' for students from years 11, 12 and 13. Presentations by fourteen speakers on careers in the Arts, Commerce, Finance, Journalism, Law, Medicine, Property, Surveying, Sales & Marketing, and Television in seminar groups allowed students to enquire about a wide range of careers. One talk by an Old Boy who described himself as ‘misunderstood at Worth' also gave real hope to those who believe they have yet to discover their talents. The Committee is indebted to Julian Gairdner (S ‘89) for his continual hard work and enthusiasm in organising the careers side of WOBS.

Looking ahead, the Committee believes that the untapped wealth of experience amongst our membership provides a significant opportunity to assist members in either a career choice or development. Increasingly, various Old Boys are considering mid-career changes or seeking new opportunities in their chosen fields and during 2007 the Committee intends to develop ways in which Old Boys can provide mutual assistance with careers. 

Social

On the social side this year has seen a variety of events which have gathered the greatest numbers of old boys for some time.

A fourth annual lunch in the City drew 30 Old Boys from the founder group to leavers from 2000. In January, the East India Club was the venue for a dinner organised by the Committee in association with WOBSRFC in recognition of Glenn Roberston's 35 years at Worth. Over 70 attended including Glenn, Annette, members of their family and Glenn's special guests, Helen Sweetman, Mike Margaret, Fr Kevin and Fr Stephen. As a token of appreciation on behalf of all Old Boys, the Committee awarded Glenn with Honorary membership of our Society. In March Ben Babington (G ‘96) organised a reunion for ‘90s leavers in the more contemporary surroundings of Maroush. 44 including Fr Mark and Nick Robinson sat down to a cultural experience of Lebanese food, wine and traditional belly dancing, with the latter proving somewhat harder, even for those in their thirties, than it appears!  Believing that one occasion was insufficient recognition for Glenn's contribution to Worth, Matthew Wood organised a dinner in September at The Travellers Club, essentially for those in the 1^st to 3^rd XV rugby teams thirty years ago. Additional members of the fencing team from that era made up 37 Old Boys who travelled from as far as the Philipines.

Departed Friends

We learnt with great sadness of the death of Liz Blake last summer, Cas Fecher (G ‘03) in October and Tim Milmo (G ‘65) in December. Many Old Boys will also be saddened to learn that Fr Roger died in December. Fr Roger was an immensely liked and respected Housemaster of Tower House and also spent a number of years in Peru. Please remember Cas, Tim and Fr Roger in your prayers along with all other Old Boys and those associated with our Society who have died.

The Committee

As anyone who is involved with a voluntary organization knows, there is an immense amount of work that is done behind the scenes often without any real recognition. Those who comprise the WOBS Committee have again made a tremendous contribution through their time and effort over the last year to build on the success of our Society and on behalf of all Old Boys, I thank every Committee member for their dedication. Behind the scenes we have again benefited very significantly from the hard work and helpfulness of our secretary, Marie-Clare McMenemy.  As I reported last year, we have also been very fortunate in having additional support from another Old Boys' wife, Chilli Bruning, and I thank them both for their immense contribution to the smooth running of the Society. Very sadly for me and the Society, Marie-Clare has decided that after nearly seven years as our secretary she will be standing down at Easter and so this will be the last issue of The Blue Paper masterminded by Marie-Clare. I know that all Old Boys will join me in wishing Marie-Clare every happiness in the next stage of her career. Chilli has also decided to resign and all wobs thank her for the time she has given WOBS over the past 18 months.

During last year we encountered a major problem with the collection of subscriptions via direct debit, such that a good number of members had not had their £15 per annum sub collected for the last two years, leaving a large hole in our funding. The problem arose because of an industry change to the method by which banks dealt with direct debits and essentially our bank deleted all our records from their system. An immense amount of work has gone into re-establishing the direct debits and by Christmas the majority of Old Boys affected had kindly completed fresh forms and returned them to the WOBS office, for which we are very grateful. A plea on behalf of Marie-Clare, who has committed an extraordinary amount of time to resolving this nightmare, please could any Old Boy who has yet to return the new DD mandate forms she sent you make contact with the WOBS office.

The Committee and I wish all Old Boys a very Happy New Year and look forward to receiving ideas about how we can do more for the members as well as contributions for the next issue of The Blue Paper.

Nicholas Butterworth (G ‘76)