As noted in the full AROPS Conference 2011 Report, please find below a short report for those interested in reporting on the conference.
'For Your Magazine
The 2011 Annual Conference took place at Kingston Grammar School on Saturday, 7th May by the kind invitation of the Head, Sarah Fletcher MA. AROPS is equally indebted to the Old Kingstonian Association - and in particular to Andrew Day, the Chairman, and to Keith Balkham, the School Alumni Officer - for their invaluable and tireless efforts to ensure the success of the Conference.
In the introductory session the Head, after welcoming the Representatives and guests, spoke about the School’s ethos and its history of success both academic and extra-curricular and concluded by outlining the impressive programme of events to mark Kingston Grammar’s 450th Anniversary. She was followed by the Chairman of the Association, who described the aims and objectives of the Association and also the impressive developments at the School since his time there as a pupil.
The first main speaker was Rita Boswell BA, MA, RMSA, archivist at two HMC schools and co-ordinator of the Schools Archivists Group. Not surprisingly, her fascinating address was entitled “Ins and Outs of School Archives”. The second main speaker, Nick Akerman, former Chairman of the Old Decanian Society, chose as his topic “Attracting Younger Members”, which proved equally popular with the Representatives.
A
Development Office: Friend or Foe?
Graham Papenfus
(Development Director, Ipswich School)
B
Business and Professional Networking
Q D Seymour-Smith
(Old Decanian Society)
C
Communications
Tristan Bradley
(AROPS Administrator)
D
Subscriptions
Tim Neale
(Radleian Society)
The afternoon was largely taken up with the discussion groups:
The Question and Answer session that followed was most capably chaired by Tim Cunis (Old Pauline Club). The day concluded with afternoon tea and tours of the School led by Nick Bond, Assistant Head, and his articulate and helpful Prefects.
The Conference Dinner took place at 7.30pm at the School in the Hattersley Room. The main speaker was the distinguished historian and author, Berwick Coates (Old Kingstonian). The Grace was delivered by another member of the Association, the Rt Revd Dr Richard Cheetham, Bishop of Kingston. The AROPS President, Margaret Carter-Pegg (Old Crohamian) concluded the evening by first thanking Berwick Coates for his absorbing and amusing talk and then re-iterating AROPS’s huge indebtedness to the Head, the Assistant Head, the School and the Old Kingstonian Association (especially Andrew Day and Keith Balkham) for their gracious and generous hosting of the 2011 Conference.
Bill Gillen
Chairman, AROPS'