Patron-in-Chief: Dr Keith Elsner
A warm welcome to the Melbourne High School Green Maroon & Black Patrons’ Club, 23rd Annual General Meeting and Dinner.
Despite some attrition over the past 12 months, including the very sad passing in May of Harold Seeley AM, our first Patron-in-Chief, we have retained a healthy membership.
I would like to request that we all stand for a minute’s silence, in remembrance of Harold. An obituary for Harold is included following my report.
The GM&B currently has just over 100 members, and continues to provide assistance to the School, through activities which include the Mentoring and Junior Leadership (JLM) Programs, and Heritage. The GM&B wishes to thank School Principal Mr Jeremy Ludowyke, and the MHSOBA, under the leadership of Mr Peter Stathopoulos, for their continued support.
During my second year in office, I have again been very ably supported by the members of the GM&B Executive:
- Deputy Patron-in-Chief Mr John McIntosh
- Executive Officer, Membership Mr Colin Green OAM
- Secretaries Mr Knowles Tivendale (until late 2016) and currently Mr Simon Bowen
- Treasurer Mr Scott Green
- MHSOBA & School Council Liaison Mr Peter Stathopoulos
- Foundation Mr John Wertheimer AM RFD
- Heritage Mr Robin Tuckerman & Mr John McIntosh
- Junior Leadership Model Mr David Saul AM
- Mentoring Dr Ajai Verma.
- Education Mr John McIntosh & Mr Colin Axup
The GM&B thanks Knowles Tivendale for his many years of very able service as secretary, and wishes him well in his current and future work endeavours.
I would also like to again acknowledge the assistance that I, and the GM&B, have had from Ms Margie Haes, and Ms Jodie Gunton, in the OBA Office; both are always willing to provide me with advice, and they are a mine of information – thank you Margie and Jodie.
I would like to express my appreciation to the MHS Principal, Mr Jeremy Ludowyke, for his attendances and input at our September 2016, and April 2017 Forums, and at our AGM, and for giving me his time to meet with me periodically, and to share his knowledge and ideas.
David Saul, as Chairman of the JLM, has again overseen a very successful five session program for about fifty Year 10 Students, in February and March. This was preceded by three Leadership addresses in the MHS Memorial Hall in November 2016 to all the year 9 students; Year 9 Mac.Rob girls also attended. I believe, from personal observation, that the program goes from strength to strength, and I thank David for the large amount of time that he has spent, preparing for, organising, and running the JLM program this year. The engagement between participating year 10 students, and their Group Leaders (made up of “new” Old Boys), was again excellent.
The Heritage Program has advanced considerably in the last 12 months, under the guidance of Robin Tuckerman, and ably assisted by John McIntosh. In turn, they have had very significant assistance from Mr Luke Savage, who has provided very considerable time and expertise, all voluntary, to advancing the program. Mr Jeremy Ludowyke, Mr Alan Gregory AM, and Mr Peter Stathopoulos have also provided significant assistance. Although there is still a lot to be done, the progress since our last AGM is most encouraging, and I thank all the participants for their efforts.
Ajai Verma continues his busy life in medicine, but has continued to be very involved in the mentoring program, and has put in a lot of time and effort to attract suitable mentors, in an effort to match them with the participating students. I thank Ajai for his endeavours to, once again, ensure the success of the mentoring program. Thank you also to Mr Ron Beazley for his input.
Peter Stathopoulos continues to be an enthusiastic attendee at our executive meetings; I am not sure how he fits in all his commitments to MHS. Peter, thank you for attending our Executive meetings, for providing us with a ‘sounding ear’, and for your regular updates about the School and the OBA activities. Congratulations to Peter for once again being voted in as MHSOBA President, and for a highly successful Old Boys’ Annual Dinner.
Colin Green continues to provide invaluable input to the successful running of the GM&B, in his role as Executive Officer, and also continues to be an amazing source of information about MHS, MHSOBA, and GM&B history and ‘workings’. Colin, thank you for your guidance and assistance during my two years as P-i-C.
Scott Green continues his long association with the GM&B executive, and his work as our treasurer is much appreciated. Scott is also a great source of history and ideas pertaining to the School and the GM&B, and I thank him for his assistance during my time as P-i-C.
Simon Bowen has gradually managed to ‘get the hang of’ the secretarial role, including getting the monthly Executive Meeting Agendas, and subsequent Minutes to us. I thank Simon for having accepted the position, and for his ongoing support to the executive.
My thanks to John Werheimer for his ongoing work with the MHS Foundation.
We welcomed Mr Colin Axup, Principal of Suzanne Cory High School, to our executive, and look forward to his input.
Many thanks to John Dodd, Alan Munday, Jim Russell OAM, and Kevin Silberberg, for having continued to attend the various MHS School Council sub-committee meetings. Jim Russell has, however, indicated to me that he will be stepping down from his role as GM&B representative on the Education Sub-Committee, because of his commitments to Legacy. A volunteer from the GM&B membership, to replace Jim on the sub-committee, would be welcome.
We again had 2 very successful Forums in the last 12 months, with Entrepreneurship being the theme for each Forum. The September 2016 Forum Guest Speaker was Mr Max Grundmann (MHS exit1964), CEO of Maxwell and Williams. Max gave us a very informative, and entertaining address, about his business pathway through the years, to become a successful entrepreneur. He also provided his insight as to what attributes contribute to successful entrepreneurship. Max’s address stimulated great interest amongst the GM&B attendees at the Forum, and created a desire for the GM&B to assist the School, through Jeremy, in furthering the concept of entrepreneurship amongst MHS students.
The April 2017 Forum took the Entrepreneurship theme further, with three guest speakers, namely:
- Ross Pritchard, a Year10 coordinator, who discussed in some detail the Year 10 Innovations Program he has helped to initiate, together with Ms Libby Briggs. He expressed a wish that the winners of the November 2016 program, who will progress their innovation further under the supervision of RMIT MBA students, could also be mentored by GM&B or MHSOBA members, particularly whilst attending RMIT. I would therefore ask that our members consider volunteering for this worthy cause, and perhaps also consider assisting other Year 10 students with promising innovations to further advance their projects.
- Justin Scanlon, father of a current Year 12 student, former member of School Council, and a member of the Year 10 Innovations Program judging panel, also suggested work experience for budding entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial GM&B/MHSOBA members. He suggested that GM&B members could sit in with the year 10 Innovation teams for, say 3 hours, prior to their meeting with the judging panel.
- Adam Ashton (MHS exit 2010) discussed his recent publication, which outlines the careers of seven successful MHS Entrepreneurs.
As a result of these two Forums, I hope that GM&B members will volunteer to engage with the year 10 students in their Innovations Program, and perhaps establish a GM&B Entrepreneurship Program, to enable an incubation of ideas that can be utilised in aiding MHS students to better understand the concept of entrepreneurship, and to possibly assist some students to follow such a career pathway after leaving school.
For those members that have been unable to attend our Forums please consider making every effort to attend future Forums.
Finally, I wish John McIntosh, the incoming P-i-C, and David Saul, the incoming Deputy P-i-C, all the best during their time at the helm, and I thank you all for your membership support whilst I have been P-i-C. Enjoy the remainder of the evening.