A.O.S.A. 2000 ANNUAL REPORT

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When I was speaking to Sue about the agendas for this year's reunion the subject of secretary’s report was raised and I said that I felt that now we only had one reunion a year and we hadn’t the focus of the school premises it was difficult to know what I could say in my report that could add anything to that already known or reported elsewhere.

However having re-read past secretaries' reports I see that most of them dwelt on comments of the last year's reunions, and on that theme, and remembering the wonderful lunch and accompanying atmosphere of last year's reunion I don’t think it is possible to thank Roy and Caroline enough for hosting the wonderful barbecue lunch that we had at their home, so again may I on behalf of us all say a very big thank you. One thing that may have gone unreported is that Caroline and Mary Banks spent most of the following Monday doing all the washing up. This oversight of organisation on behalf of the committee has been noted and we hope to make sure it doesn’t happen again, and at any other event of that nature we will endeavour to hire help. In the meantime again a big thank you to you Caroline and Mary.

The Tall Trees evening buffet was very enjoyable and I am sure that there were many of the older 0. S. who were educated into the leisure activities of the young when we emerged into the entrance of Tall Trees at the end of our party!!

On a more personal note may I mention a very enjoyable Sunday spent near Blanchland, walking the moors and then lunching at the Lord Crew Arms. This was a mini reunion organised by Anne Baines (Wood) (1949-56) mainly for her Year Group but with a general invitation to anyone else who would like to join in. Although there is work involved in organising such a day, it is this sort of gathering that helps to keep the spirit of Ayton so special.

I am sure we were all delighted to hear that John Reader had been awarded the MBE for 34 years' work associated with the Captain Cook Museum, and we send our congratulations to him. Also we hear that Leslie Martin has been awarded the “Paul Harris Fellowship Award” of Rotary International for his work in the community.

Obviously we no longer have a report from an Old Scholar member of the School Committee on the progress of the School. In view of the changed functions of the School Committee there are to be changes to its composition which are to be approved by the Charity Commission. The Executive Committee has decided that the three representatives needed to serve on the School Committee will be elected from members of the Executive Committee. The advantage of this is that they will have knowledge of all committees connected with A. 0. S. A. and the school, and will, as of next year, report back to the A. G. M.

The Association’s membership roll reads as follows:

Life members 464

Ordinary members 481.

I have done a rough cross-check between the Magazine and the hand book, and sad to say there are eight life members who have died in the past year as well as two ordinary members. This trend will unfortunately become the norm.

I hope you have all enjoyed this first reunion away from Ayton. I suppose it was too much to hope that the good weather would last until at least Sunday night. However I would like to thank our new president for her work in helping to organise our venues and the excellent and enjoyable meals. It has, I am sure you will agree, been a successful experiment being away from Ayton while it is still a building site.

Next year we plan to be back in the village, if not exactly in the school grounds, but as the Ad men say, “watch this space.”

Maggie Carnegie
Hon. Secretary

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