Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

Topic: Executive Committee Meeting - AROPS

Time: Tuesday 17 September, 2024, 5PM 

1. Welcome by Chairman, Alan Cooper (AC) meeting commenced at 1705.
2. Apologies for absence : Jill Dixon (JD), Keith Balkham (KB). In attendance : Alan Cooper (AC), Vijay Khullar (VK), Peter Jakobek (PJ), Caroline Scallon (CS), Tim Cunis (TC), Guy Cliff (GC), QD Seymour-Smith (QD) 
3. Minutes of the previous meeting - agreed by all.
4. Matters arising.
   • PJ was looking at creating something on paper, physical to hand out at meetings etc, not done yet (Action : end of Oct agreed deadline) to be ready to bring to the AGM. 
5. Chairman’s report, AC, Focus of first half of 2024 has been to fill the events diary 2024/25. List can be found on the website, with some further meetings to look out for at Royal School, Haslemere (March 2025), Badminton and Shrewsbury School  (March 2025), Eastbourne (April 2025), Sutton Valence (Summer 2025), Blundell’s School (provisionally November 2025). Action :  Jill Dixon is working on a RM in the Coventry area, hope to have feedback soon. AROPS Rep at each meeting to try to secure another meeting in the area for 1 year ahead. East Anglia area lacking a Regional Meeting if anyone has contacts there. Discussion around suitability hosting another London meeting on the day of the AGM, AC recognises that TC has given London suggestions including Queensgate AGM date on this date however afternoon not suitable with the AGM following - too long a day. (TC), Francis Holland, Sloane Square want to come to a regional meeting first and then may be interested in hosting in 2025. SDS presentation went well at Regional Meeting, would suggest limiting to 15 minutes prior to lunch and then can speak to attendees over lunch - they are sponsoring RM lunches. In fact did not cover cost for Rochester lunch, Action: PJ to follow up SDS on ongoing sponsorship of catering. Action : AC to recruit attendees for Bolton Regional Meetings and York via email invitation. Not too many AROPS Member Schools  in this area so we have to get the word out there. One of the discussion points will be the change of government, and how this affects Independent Schools / how Alumni can help.  We have to be careful that we don’t encourage too much activism about this. AROPS should encourage good practice in engaging with government. Another will be that Bolton has very good mentoring system in place, which they will give a presentation on, and should be very interesting to members Admin updates - we are employing a researcher for 4 hours / month to find articles for the website, important that the website is kept active and engaging. One Member has been in touch to ask about the use of ISAMS for running their Alumni operation, if anyone has any experience with this Alan would like to know. 
6. Treasurer’s report, Vijay Khullar (VK)  
   • AROPS Signed Accounts 2024 for approval - approved
   • Toucan cost has increased on 2023, and events costs are also up as we are subsidising in some circumstances Regional Meetings, and having more of them. Bank interest has increased substantially. Main thing from accounts is, we have to try to increase Membership in 2025. Sutton Valence rep has indicated interest in joining the Executive Committee, and so will be in need of nomination at the AGM.
7. Membership report, VK + RF
   • VK - Membership is not back to pre-covid numbers but we are now over the 100 threshold we set for this year, is going in the right direction. Optimistic in 2025 we will increase income substantially due to a full event calendar, and must ‘recruit or die’ to increase Membership. RF - wants to highlight to the Committee that when logging in to the AROPS site, please check over the Discussion Forum page, and remember to engage with any Member discussions / questions. Action : RF to check if there is an automatic alert system within Toucan for discussion posts so AC can be informed immediately. If so, will activate this. TC- suggests Committee informed of any Member thinking of lapsing / not renewing. Action : RF - will produce a list of contacts/schools prior to each Executive Committee Meeting, the committee can then disseminate schools to contact depending on who has a personal contact where. 
8. Registrar report - No report due to KB not in attendance.
9. Regional Meetings - please see Chairman’s Report
   • TC - suggests AROPS change name of Regional Meeting to “Forum” as this is less formal and more truly reflects the discussions in the meeting.
   • QD - will be attending all Regional Meetings as far is possible and the AGM (sent via email as microphone not working).
10. Conference - AC, Floating idea of 2025 Conference at Oxford, however not planning this at the moment due to multi-factors including costing.
11. AOB
    • Margaret Carter-Pegg, previous AROPS Executive Committee Member, Action : Guy Cliff (GC), to put this together for the website. CS to send sons email addresses to GC.
12. Dates for the Diary
    • AROPS Future Executive Meetings 2024 : 
      • Thursday 12 December - 5 PM
      • Thursday 6 March - 5PM
    • AROPS Regional Meetings : 
      • Tuesday 8 October - Bolton School
      • Thursday 10 October - Bootham School, York
      • Thursday 17 October - Wells Cathedral School
      • Please see rest on website Event pages
    • AROPS AGM and Annual Dinner
      • Thursday 14 November - Queen’s Gate School
      • 11 booked so far, maximum will be 25-30

Meeting close 1800