Patron-in-Chief: Dr Keith Elsner
Welcome to the Melbourne High School, Green Maroon and Black Patrons’ Club (GM&B), 2015 Annual General Meeting and Annual Dinner.
The GM&B has provided a wide range of support to the school this year and continues to be an intrinsic part of the school community. Our goals remain as relevant today as they were when the foundation group commenced some 21 years ago to help the School and the Melbourne High School Old Boys Association (MHSOBA).
A special welcome is made to our new members.
Thank you for the support from the dedicated team on the GM&B Executive in the period that I have been P.i.C. and I wish the best for Keith Elsner as he takes on the role.
We acknowledge the close relationship the GM&B has with the MHSOBA and the MHS Foundation.
Our program activities are reported in the AGM papers and I draw your attention to their outstanding achievements.
Last year we introduced the new Junior Leadership Model program for school students and this has now become an embedded component of the school’s delivery of leadership development. The 2015 program has been most successful with excellent feedback and the GM&B program team members are considering new ideas to further enhance delivery in 2016.
Our mentoring program is supported by a wide range of GM&B/OBA members and old boys, and guided by Ajai Verma and Ron Beasley. The program continues to run successfully and is highly regarded by the school and the students. It has recently reached 60 students being mentored over the year. This is an outstanding achievement by all involved.
The recent work in support of the heritage aspects of the school has been led by Robin Tuckerman with help from John McIntosh and a number of GM&B members. There is so much to be done in this program and we really appreciate the tenacity to continue in the face of such a large workload. We will hear a lot more from this program over the next few years.
GM&B members continue in their roles supporting each of the sub-committees of the School Council and we thank them for their service.
GM&B members are all Life Members of the OBA and we work closely with the OBA executive. Peter Stathopoulos has recently been re-elected unopposed as the OBA President. He is an important contributor to our GM&B Executive team and an active participant in our success.
It must be mentioned that there was an attempt this year by a group of old boys to run a ticket against the current OBA leadership team. While this did not proceed, it is worth learning something from the events and positioning. As OBA members we need to do more to help join together a larger OBA membership base, interact more frequently utilising technology and social media, and address the specific needs of our various cohort groups – especially those not engaged at this time. This increased and enhanced membership base will be able to do so much more to support the school and deliver benefits. Old boys with wonderful and exciting new ideas need to join with the OBA and expand the capacity to tackle the great number of issues and opportunities we face. I wish the OBA Council all the best for a focused and intensive year ahead to address the opportunities highlighted by the recent interaction with this group. I hope that all those involved in the interaction become more engaged and involved in the OBA.
Finally, thank you for your active GM&B membership support during the year.
Please enjoy the night.