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AOSA ANNUAL REPORT 2001 |
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This Magazine Contents
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Thinking about last year’s activities of the Old Scholars, my thoughts go back to the 1999 reunion and the fantastic organisation and the ‘homework’ done by Dorothy, and I feel that we should give her a public vote of thanks for a very successful weekend, even though she could not organise the rain on Sunday to stop until the evening. During the year, the Executive Committee has had a great deal of discussion about the Consideration of Alterations to the Constitution, and we feel that, at last, all alterations necessary - partly because of the closure of the school - are now complete. This we will debate later in the meeting. The Committee has abandoned the idea of the Summer reunion 2001 at Glenthorne, but the idea of a different reunion venue to Ayton is still “in the air” and we would be pleased to hear of any suggestions that any OS may have on this matter. The Meeting House Appeal now stands at £152,000 actually in the bank, and a further £58,000 as promises and covenants. The present costing figure is £210,000, but this figure may change when final estimates come in. Martyn Gaudie tells me that there are still monies trickling in, the latest from a Friend who asked for money for his 80th birthday and sent a cheque for £405. Planning permission has just been granted (last Friday) so it is ‘hot off the press’ news. On a personal note, I visited Thavorn Ratanavaraha (1951-55) in Thailand last November/December and arranged to have one of the Meeting House benches shipped out to him as a present. I took with me a small brass plaque inscribed “To Thavorn in remembrance of many hours of meditation spent at Ayton School.” For anyone interested, there are some photographs on the notice board of the bench “in situ” at Thavorn’s house in Bangkok. The Archives are still at Roy George’s house and, when they were removed from the room above the Meeting House passage, they were found, to put it mildly, to be in a disorganised state. Mary Banks has offered to spend what will be a considerable amount of time just sorting through all the photos etc. and putting them into order, and for this I feel we all owe her our thanks. The Association’s membership roll reads as follows: Life Members 470 (but that includes 27 lost members) and 467 ordinary members. These numbers were kindly given to me by Dick from his computer records: he also told me that the Ayton School website has been ‘hit’ or visited 8000 times since it was set up. Although this may mean that it has been used several times by the same person, it does give a good idea of the frequency of use. Two people who visited the site have now become members of the Association. I have also been asked by Dick to mention that he has now set up a members e-mail list; in other words, he can send out messages to all members who have passed on their E-mail addresses. Anyone who has not passed their e-mail address on to Dick, is asked to do so ASAP. This might also be a good moment to thank Dick for all his work and time spent setting up the Ayton School website. Surfing the net is still a bit of a mystery to me, but I know that a lot of people from all over the world have ‘logged on’ and enjoyed the information and photos etc. that can be seen on our website. I hope you have all enjoyed this weekend and we all look forward to another year of activity and contact between O.S. Margaret Carnegie (Wilkinson 1948-55) |
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