Dear Old Boys and families,
Warm Christmas greetings to all. I am pleased to report that 2009 has been a busy and productive year for the Old Boys Association, with the newly appointed council working steadily to serve the Old Boys and the current students of Dilworth School. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the Association for your support and also report on some of the highlights of the year for the Association and the School.
The relationship between the Old Boys and the current students continues to grow, with strong numbers participating in both the Summer and Winter sports days. These events highlighted the positive connection between the Old Boys and the School and were greatly enjoyed by all. In both events the Old Boys proved that skill and experience will outperform youth and agility and the Old Boys dominated both events (including a clean sweep of the Winter Sports!) – Thanks again to Jake deBerry and Callum McGibbon for help in organising these events.
The Cock House event in December was also a great day out – Donegal House won by just one or two points this year and together with the 2009 Leavers , they took over the Waiwera Waterpark for a day to celebrate.
The Association was delighted to learn of the recent acquisition by the Trust Board of the site for a third school campus, formerly the Hotel du Vin south of Auckland. The Mangataphiri site will be a splendid addition to the already fine Dilworth campuses in Auckland, and will potentially allow for roughly a further 80 Dilworth Scholarships to be awarded. This is fantastic news, and the Association wishes the Trust Board and Mr MacLean every success as they seek to determine the best way to utilise this exciting new facility.
The DOBA accounts are in good shape at the end of 2009 and full audited accounts for 2009 will be presented at the AGM. It was agreed to at the 2009 AGM that audited accounts for the years 2006 – 2008 would be presented by the end of this year – however after consultation with several parties it is believed that these accounts cannot be fully audited with the current information that is available. As a result the Association will present at the next AGM a set of unaudited accounts for that said period. Whist this not an entirety satisfactory outcome we believe that given the current situation that this is the best result possible.
At present the date for the 2010 Annual General Meeting has been set to coincide with the weekend of Founders Day events, either Saturday 13th or the 20th of March. Next year the Association will invite those in attendance at the AGM to an informal dinner which will be held afterwards on school premises. Further details regarding the afternoon sports programme and the timings of the day will follow in the first newsletter of 2010.
Our website is going well thanks to the efforts of Mark Easton – www.dilwortholdboys.co.nz where you can pay your subs, catch up on latest news and soon we’ll have an archive of previous newsletters. Also don’t forget if you are a Facebook member to add yourself to the Dilworth Old Boys group as well.
Next year the Council is committed to providing a Country Reunion event, and is excited to announce that it will be taking place in Tauranga, on a weekend yet to be confirmed in August. We look forward to catching up with as many of you as possible. If you live in the Tauranga BOP area and would like to be involved in arranging activities, please contact us as would be great to have a local on the ground. Shoot Adam an e-mail on adam.hiron@gmail.com . In the meantime if you are interested in attending, block in August in your Diary and we’ll pin the exact date down closer to the time.
Kind regards to all and best wishes for the festive season.
Sincerely,
DOBA Council
Well done guys, good decision not to waste time trying to address, lay blame or analyse the past, fix that which can be fixed and move on. Will see you all in March and at the Country Reunion.