held at
By kind permission of the Headmaster
I.G.Power Esq. MA
OPENING ADDRESS
Chairman: Roger Moulton
Chairman
AROPS
(Old
The
Chairman thanked the Deputy Headmaster, Mr Alan Dyson, for inviting AROPS to
hold its 40th Conference at the College.
He
welcomed 78 representatives from 61 societies. He also welcomed those attending
the Alternative Programme. He gave a special welcome to all those attending for
the first time and said that he hoped that they would find the day both
profitable and enjoyable.
The
Chairman then introduced the Deputy Headmaster who welcomed the Representatives
to the College. He then gave a brief outline of the history of
Simon
Clements, President of the Sternians’ Society,
then spoke about the aims and objects of the society. He explained that the
school and the society were now joined together and that everyone who attended
The
Chairman thanked both the Deputy Headmaster and the President for their talks
At
the conclusion of the session those taking part in the Alternative Programme
departed for the Watercress Line and a tour of New Alresford.
FIRST
SESSION Chairman: Bill Gillen
(Old
Arnoldian)
There
were two excellent speakers: Mrs Kate Chernyshov, the
recently appointed Development Director at
Ian
McLean spoke first and, after a brief introduction dealing with his career in
development both in
In
a fascinating and lucid address Ian said that a Development Director had three
main responsibilities or concerns:
1. The Alumni.
2. The marketing of the School.
3. Fundraising.
His
main points included the following:
a) Advent of co-education and the gender
balance.
b) Decline in boarding across the
c) The expectations of international boarders.
d) The increase in Day Schools.
e) Greater parental involvement in school
life.
f) The new drinking and drugs culture.
g) The internet and the way that young people
communicate today.
h) The need for greater segmentation in the
database.
i) Increasing restrictions on free access to
school premises.
j) New privacy laws, human rights and other
changes in the law.
k) The changing club culture among young
alumni.
l) The transfer of wealth.
a) Take over its administration and use
professional staff.
b) Give daily attention to Old
Pupils’ Society affairs including dealing with e-mails.
c) Manage the database in all its complexity.
d) Improve the finances of the Old
Pupils’ Society.
e) Make the Old Pupils’ Society more
aware of its identity and of its membership.
f) Increase the efficiency of the Old
Pupils’ Society.
g) Increase its membership.
h) Give the Old Pupils’ Society a much better
knowledge of the School with which it could then work very closely.
i) Assist the Old Pupils’ Society to
plan and publicise its future to the widest possible audience.
a)
It would
have access to the expertise of its Alumni e.g. careers advice
b)
It
would have increased knowledge of its Old Pupils’ Society and its planned
events which the School could then support and assist.
c)
It
would be able to involve the Old Pupils’ Society more closely in school
life.
d)
It
would have a much higher profile by virtue of being expertly and professionally
marketed which would bring enormous advantages and benefits especially with
regard to the recruitment of pupils at all points of entry to the School.
Ian
McLean then handed over to Kate Chernyshov to deal
with fundraising.
Mrs
Chernyshov confined her remarks to fundraising and
has supplied the following notes.
Although
fundraising is only a small part of what Development Directors do, it is often
the part that many former pupils’ societies fear the most. A good fundraiser
is not embarrassing, does not put pressure on donors and makes the experience
of donating pleasant and even enjoyable!
A.
What charities do you support and how? Have you put money in the collection
plate at church? Coins in a tin on the High Street? A cheque in the post having
had a letter? Bought an auction item at an event?
B. Think of your school as a charity
– whom does it help? Why do people support it?
1. Aims of your charity – look it up
on the Charity Commission website or ask the school. We are all asked to
demonstrate public benefit and the school’s charitable aims should be
clearly defined.
2. Example – the Lord Wandsworth Foundation helps children who have lost a
parent. It also owns the land and buildings on which the school is sited and
develops facilities to ensure that the school is still able to pupils an
excellent education.
3. Former pupils may want to give something
back or they may want to be linked with part of the establishment. Thinking of
your school as a charity helps former pupils to approach the organisation, to
interact with it without the risk of sitting next to a dull former schoolmate
at dinner.
C.
The fundraising process:
Former pupils, former staff, current
parents, current staff, current pupils, governors. We can approach everyone in
the community of the school, but use appropriate methods and ensure that any
feedback is acted upon. Not everyone will want to give, but a small minority
will react in some way (good or bad!) and a small proportion of them will make
a donation.
Most schools raise money for bursaries and
buildings. Every time there is a request for a donation, the fundraiser must clearly
define what the money will be used for. Different causes will appeal to
different people.
Summary
2. Accept
the fundraising process as part of the life of the school. If you feel
uncomfortable with it, don’t do it! There are others who will.
3. Recognise that former pupils aren’t being “got
at” – the fundraising process involves everyone who has an interest
in the school.
A lively discussion followed with
significant input from several representatives including Richard Bird (Old Witleian), Barry Hackett (Old Loughburian),
Mike Jenner (Old Edmundian) and Steve Wright (Old Ashvillian). In dealing with questions both Kate and Ian
allayed fears that having a Development Office with a Director would result in
a take-over of the Old Pupils’ Society by fundraisers; supplied ample
justification for the significant cost of a Development Director to the School
which would reap huge benefits in the long run; and reiterated strongly and
unequivocally the need for transparency in all financial dealings irrespective
of any future ‘political threats’ to independent schools and their
charitable status. The two speakers were at pains to emphasise that a
Development Office is not a fundraising machine, but rather a department that
invites the alumni to become involved in and help with the future development
of their old school in any way that is feasible. Some alumni will be able, of
course, to contribute financially, but not all.
SECOND SESSION Chairman:
Margaret Carter- Pegg
(Old
Crohamian)
Two Into One Will Go– a survey of
merged societies
The
Session Chairman introduced Michael Freegard (Old Haileyburian) who presented the report on the survey of
merged societies. AROPS had decided to carry out the survey because it was
aware that there had been a number of mergers between schools which in turn had
led to the merger of Old Pupils’ Societies. In his presentation Michael Freegard covered all the information which had been
obtained. He said that AROPS was most grateful to the societies which had taken
part in the survey.
In
the discussion which followed, two other, very recent mergers were mentioned
but thereafter all the questions and comments concerned Development matters
arising from the previous Session.
Copies
of the survey are available from AROPS.
THIRD
SESSION DISCUSSION GROUPS
Group A: Life Subscriptions: Chairman: Guy Cliff
(Old
Silcoatian)
This was a small group (11 representatives) who had
varying experiences and problems in this area.
The Chairman began by referring to the survey and
actuarial report commissioned by AROPS in 2001 which had suggested that the
annual cost of servicing a member needed to be multiplied by a factor of 30.2
for boys and 31.5 for girls to arrive at a viable life subscription, typically
of the order of £300 or more.
One society which had collected subscriptions for a
“limited period” wanted now to convert that into” whole of
life” but had not yet decided how to do that. This seems to be the case
with many societies in similar positions. One society, with efficient
administration support shared with the school, was considering reverting to
annual subscriptions paid by standing order. Another society raised the
question of whether life subs should be collected with school fees on a covert
or overt basis. On an overt basis offering an opt-out had resulted in one case
in 10 % opting out. In another there had at first been a 50% opt- out (even
though only £75 was being charged) but this had now reduced to a handful.
One society had tried to operate an “opt- in” system but only14 out
of 400 had done so. Another had collected £50 per pupil with school fees
to cover a five year period, and thereafter attempts to raise further
subscriptions had not been very successful. Another had
collected life subs from parents with the fees, but at the end had offered to
refund the total collected for them to pupils who did not wish to be members,
and about 20 % had taken the money.
In several cases the school had queried why what
seemed to be large sums in a Life Fund were being held when there were pressing
needs for immediate spending on school needs, and had suggested that the
society’s costs should be met on a “pay as you go” basis
(rather like national insurance and state pensions). In one case it had even
been suggested that unspent amounts carried forward would attract the
displeasure of the Charity Commission! In another case the school had told the
society it could spend immediately half the sums collected and retain half for
future expenditure.
Another issue raised was that with electronic
communication it was less expensive to communicate with members than before,
and this caused questions to be asked about the need for such high levels of
subscription, and about what services were actually being provided. Younger
members were networking more and more among themselves by text and email, so
there was thought to be less need for the society to help them to link up.
However, inflation might now be raising its ugly head and it might be prudent
to have an automatic annual increase linked either to the level of school fees
(as some had done) or to an official price index.
One society confirmed that it was successfully
reclaiming tax under Gift Aid on life subscriptions, but this would not be
possible if the society was not itself a registered charity.
The main conclusion from this discussion was to
emphasise how important it was for the school and the society to be mutually
supportive and for a clear and viable system to be put in place with full
agreement on both sides.
(
The
group’s discussion concentrated upon whether old pupils’ magazines
should be electronic or in paper format in future.
The
points in favour of the electronic version are that it is easier to produce and
send and that e-mail messages can be used for urgent announcements. On the
other hand, some people might not have the facility to read e-mail and link to
the web pages. It was also felt that it might not be possible to achieve the
same look and feel of a well composed and designed paper page with a web based
magazine.
The
group concluded the session by undertaking a quick critique of some of the
magazines on display. They commented on their immediate impact, use of colour,
layout and content. This gave those who were editors something to think about.
The
group went away wondering whether a paper magazine was really necessary and
whether they should use a variety of communication methods depending on the
urgency and content of the message.
Group C: Attracting Younger
Members Chairman:
(Old Barnardian)
This
was always going to be a popular session and we ended up with 30 delegates. We
had a well-behaved sharing of information. I will attempt to give a brief
outline of what we were offered.
To
begin the session I read out a proposal from Graham Ratcliffe to his own Old
Barnardian Committee as an example of a well thought out way of revitalising
interest in the Club from younger members. This was well received and started
our delegates sharing their own ideas and best practices.
There
was great emphasis on collecting leavers’ data and this included planned
meetings with current sixth formers (one delegate even did this in the evening
after prep with a bar available) to explain what the club was about and to
collect contact details. Have a trustworthy method of recording (a yearbook?).
Ensure you can read it if they write it! Some clubs have representatives from
houses or year groups or school societies whom they use to gather the
information and then try to make them the club contacts at university. This
ensures some continuity for leavers.
The
make up of the committee itself is seen as another way of generating interest.
Some clubs try to ensure young members; others have the current head and/or
deputy head of school or two “volunteer” sixth formers on the committee.
A prep school rep told us that she finds it helpful to get teachers who are
moving on to join her committee. Beyond the committee itself, some clubs find
it useful to have regional/area organisers to make local events happen. My own
club web site has a list of volunteers who act as local contacts abroad.
There
are many things that clubs and their representatives arrange for their members
including; formal and informal dinners, Christmas drinks, regular informal
gatherings, roving reunions, year group reunions, under 30s reunions,
anniversary reunions, over 60s lunches, visits to places of interest and, look
out for a “global” reunion being organised by one club soon (please
keep us updated on that one).
One
committee has been set the task of finding a strategy to define where it wants
to be in five to ten years time which is an amazing task given the rate of
change of our world but a well worthwhile exercise if they are to take the club
into the future successfully.
There
were suggestions from delegates such as “if you find a successful formula
stick with it”, “keep changing things”, “keep the
pressure on by drip feeding them constantly” and “we need to be
passionate about what we do and have fun”.
One
rep pointed out that for them, it was not recent leavers who were a problem but
the lost generation appeared to be those in their 30s to mid 40s.
Having
an interactive database fits well with the way our modern youth organise
themselves. There seemed to be universal agreement that the youth of today have
no problem in keeping in touch with each other via mobiles, text messaging and
the World Wide Web generally. Far more successfully than previous generations
have been able to.
They
just don’t seem to need our old fashioned clubs to do it which is why we
keep asking, “How do we attract younger members?”
My
thanks to all those who chose to attend this session. I found it both
fascinating and reassuring and I hope I have captured the passion and fun which
were evident to me.
(Old
Needs varied widely from basic stand-alone
'home' computer software where Microsoft
desk-top applications were regarded as adequate for simple alumni
records (such as mailing lists, labels, etc.) right through to fully
'relational' cradle-to-grave Management Information Systems (MIS).
Most schools have now upgraded to this
latter setup and many are sharing it with their Former Pupils Society with
(suitably password-protected) integrated bolt-on modules with inter-relational
updating. These systems can
cover: admissions & familial
records; registration; pupil lists & roll-call data; fees, finance &
pay-roll data; academic records with end-of-term reports; sporting &
society activities; fund-raising & 'appeals' information including Alumni
(former pupils') memberships & subscriptions, directory, university,
career, c.v. ' hobbies & interests' and obituary records.
Prices can range from £500 for
off-the-shelf software to upwards of £30,000 for 'bespoke' systems. There seems to be no universal software
market leader but ASYST, Capita SIMS, Delta, Hebron, Raiser's Edge, Scholastica and WCBS 'PASS' are commonly used, as well as
various intranet and other client-based server systems. Each has its strengths and shortcomings
which were aired by members of the syndicate. Other problems aired included:
inflexibilities of some programs; inadequate report-writing scope; the high
cost of additional modules and the long reaction time of some manufacturers to
service problems. Input of
(unreliable?) data from the 'Friends Reunited' website, etc., was also
discussed.
The biggest recent advance is towards
web-based systems, enabling away-from-base access for data entries and
retrieval. Web-based software for
schools, such as Abattia's webALUMNUS
and Interlocutor's Web-InTouch and iSAMS were discussed ~ and for all of which some
'security-of-content' fears were raised. More information was presented on
two such systems:
iSAMS claims to be the world's first entirely
web-based application for the education market. It is accessible from anywhere and allows
users in different areas to check in, perform tasks, and communicate with
colleagues and access information through just a browser. No additional software is required
to use the system so no expensive reconfiguring of users' machines is
required. Because of its web
based nature, iSAMS can give much quicker turn around
times by customising each module to each school’s (or FP Society's)
specific requirements without having to rebuild the entire system. Over 35 modules can be combined to
give a complete cradle-to-grave management information system for multiple
(Prep & Senior) schools & Alumni Societies. Its front-end can be
configured online to suit customers on a user-by-user 'bespoke' basis, where
different module views and preferences can also be saved. The system, as well as individual
modules, is claimed to be protected by advanced security techniques which can
be fully configured by the System Administrator, allowing any school to ensure
full protection of both themselves and all their pupils' highly
confidential data and assets and yet be flexible enough to allow access for
authorized users to differing prescribed modules.
Web ALUMNUS is another such example of
software that combines an on-line networking portal with
powerful web-based tools for managing alumni, career mentoring, events,
fundraising campaigns, subscriptions, contacts, communications, e-marketing and
web content. These capabilities are
delivered through an online database in, it is claimed, an easy-to-use
package. Some of the syndicate
queried the speed of 'backup' support given.
The syndicate was fortunate enough to be
given a comprehensive 'live' on-screen presentation by Barry Hackett of the Old
Loughburians' Association of their own webALUMNUS system. His very helpful demonstration
included logging-on and searching for various data and showing how required
'reports' could be shown on screen or printed out.
The syndicate's attention was also drawn to
the recent upsurge in social utility internet sites. These have followed on from the
earlier success of the 'Friends Reunited' website, which enables its members to
post up their own 'profile' and then to browse using a search-engine to find
and then communicate by e-mail with old friends found by name or place in the
UK and throughout the world in 'groups' such as primary & secondary
schools, colleges & universities, at work, by military service,
neighbourhood, genealogy, sports associations, etc.
Recently, a more
powerful generation of social utility websites have become very popular with
school pupils, students and younger former pupils because they provide free
access (funded by screen advertising) in a much quicker and more convenient and
versatile format. They are
similarly set up to connect any e-mail registrant freely with groups of friends
or people who have interests in common. Sites such as 'Facebook',
'MySpace' and 'YouTube'
offer an interactive, user-submitted network of personal profiles, blogs, photos, music, video clips etc, and enable groups to
share links and networks and to communicate readily with others.
In
summary, the most important recommendation by the syndicate was to ensure that
when purchasing or upgrading a software system all prospective users must be
very careful to produce a fully comprehensive specification of all intended data collection inputs as
well as all 'report' usages that are ever likely to be required and also to
ensure that compatible fields and flags exist for downloading and merging with
existing database information.
Where a database is shared by a school and its Alumni Society, it is
advisable to have written 'Heads of Agreement' covering, amongst other things,
ownership, upgrades and access.
Group
E: Hypothetical Ethical Dilemmas Chairman: Bill Gillen
(Old
Arnoldian)
Several
scenarios were considered where Old Pupils’ Societies were faced with
difficult decisions because of the misdemeanours of members. There were many
helpful contributions and the main recommendations were:
The
Chairman thanked the Deputy Headmaster and staff of
He
also thanked all those who had given so much time and assistance in making the
Conference such a success, especially Gill Kelly of the Sternians’
Association.
He
reminded Representatives that the 2008 Conference would be held on Saturday 10th
May at
Peter
Booth (Old Sternian) then conducted a tour of the
College
The
Association’s Annual Dinner, attended by 35 representatives and guests,
was held at the College. The guest speaker was His Honour Judge Peter Coulson QC, a former pupil of
PRESENT
AT THE 40th AROPS CONFERENCE
Old
Arnoldian Association
Ashford
School OGA
Ashvillian Society
Old
Barnardians’ Club
Old
Bloxhamist Society
Old
Bradfieldian Society
Old
Bristolians Society
Casterton School OGA
Old
Caterhamians’ Association
Old
Breconian Association
Old
Churcherians
City
of
Old
Clayesmorian Society
Old
Cranleighan Society
Old
Crohamians’ Association
Old
Dauntseians’ Association
Old
Decanian Society
Old
Delphinians
Dunottar Old Girls’ Society
Old
Eagle House Society
Old
Elthamians’ Society
Society
of Old Framlinghamians
The
Haileybury Society
HcS Society
Harenc Society
Old
Ibstonians
Old
Canterburian Club
Old
Kimboltonians Association
Old
Edwardians
Old
Witleians Association
Old
Kingstonian Association
Lancing
Club
Old
Knots
Old
Loughburians’ Association
Old
Mercers’ Club
Old
Crobeians
Old
Portmuthian Club
Old
Margaretians Association
Old
Queenswoodians’ Association
Radleian Society
Old
Reedonians’ Society
The
Rydal
Penrhos Society
Shiplake Old Vikings
Old
Silcoatians
St
Columbas College OBA
The
Edmundian Association
Old
Felicians Club
St
Ives Old Girls/Old Boys Association
Old
Hilarians’ Association
Old
Johnian Society
Old
The
Wyverns Society
Old
Tridents’ Society
Walthamstow
Hall OGA
Old
Whitgiftian Association
Wykehamist Society
Wycombe
Abbey Seniors
Adcote Old Girls’ Association
Old
Aldronian Association
Old
Berkhamstedians
Downe House Seniors’ Association
The
Farleigh Society
The
Gordonstoun Association
Old
Haberdashers’ Association
The
King’s School FPA
Old
Merchant
The
Old
Salopian Club
Old
Wellingtonian Society
Old
Wycliffian Society