We are delighted to let you know that our Annual Dinner will take place on Saturday 23rd March 2024 at the Crypt School. The price of the event will be £36.50 for members, £39.50 for non-members and £25.00 for current sixth formers/students/21 & under. There will also be a bar (cards or cash) for pre-dinner drinks and wine to accompany the meal. The dress code will be smart casual.
The guest speaker will be Rob Holliday (1970-77). Rob has had a varied career in aviation as an Airline Captain and Flight Safety Manager. He also found time to represent GB at rowing, winning medals in the World Championships.
Our AGM will also be held on the above date, details of which will follow in the coming month. The timings for the evening will be;
We are delighted to let you know that our Annual Dinner will take place on Saturday 23rd March 2024 at the Crypt School. The price of the event will be £36.50 for members, £39.50 for non-members and £25.00 for current sixth formers/students/21 & under. There will also be a bar (cards or cash) for pre-dinner drinks and wine to accompany the meal. The dress code will be smart casual.
The guest speaker will be Rob Holliday (1970-77). Rob has had a varied career in aviation as an Airline Captain and Flight Safety Manager. He also found time to represent GB at rowing, winning medals in the World Championships.
Our AGM will also be held on the above date, details of which will follow in the coming month. The timings for the evening will be;
We are delighted to let you know that our Annual Dinner will take place on Saturday 25th March 2023 at the Crypt School. This will be our first full event since 2019, so we are really hoping to see as many Club members, partners, other former pupils and staff members as possible.
The price of the event will be £33 for members, £36 for non-members and £22.50 for under 21’s. There will also be a bar for drinks before and during the meal. The dress code will be smart casual, not least because many of the men probably can’t find their suits (or they need dry cleaning like most of mine!).
Our guest speaker will be Ian Dench (1975-82). Ian is an award-winning songwriter, having written hits for Beyoncé, All Saints, Shakira and Jamie Cullum, among many others. He’s probably best known for being the guitarist and principal songwriter for local band EMF, who’s debut single Unbelievable became one of the iconic hits of the 90s. Ian has also held several other roles within the music industry, both at home and overseas.
Our AGM will also be held on the above date, details of which will follow in the coming month. The timings for the evening will be;
6:15 pm AGM 6:45 pm Drinks 7:30 pm Annual Dinner
So why not use this as an opportunity to get together with friends, lost acquaintances and make new connections (but not in the Love Island sense!).
Any questions, please drop me a line at president@oldcryptians.org
Welcome to another eNews. Last week we had our AGM and I had hoped to have had an “in person” AGM at the school but covid got in the way as myself and Nick Dyer, the head, both succumbed to it. Hopefully 2023 will see us all be together again for an AGM.
The OCC and the 1539 Foundation
For those of you who didn’t tune in online I wanted to let you know about the work that has been going on over the future of the club in light of the school creating the 1539 Foundation. This has been set up with an education charity to act as a hub for students, alumni and members of the OCC. It works in a similar way to Facebook and connects students and alumni with each other. The initial plan was for it to publicise job opportunities, mentoring from alumni in careers with all of the contacts in one place. Different groups within the foundation can be set up – such as year groups, sports groups etc and members can choose to part of whatever they wish.
There will also be 2-3 social events organised throughout the year based on what different groups emerge. This all sounds a familiar setup and obviously faced the committee with a challenge.
I met with the head a couple of times and along with other members of the committee we undertook a good deal of work to see what that meant for the OCC and how we would have to respond. That culminated earlier this year with the publication of a paper to the committee with three options about the future. One would be to let the 1539 Foundation effectively take on the work of the OCC and for the OCC to fold, another was for the OCC to create a new organisation that would bring the OCC and The Bursary Fund together with paid subscriptions.
What next?
In the end of the committee decided on an option where we will continue as the OCC and effectively become a group within the Foundation hub. The Foundation itself offers resources as it has a part time paid administrator who works for the school links with other schools organisations and the technology platform that simply is not possible for the Old Cryptians as a standalone organisation. That will offer:
Mentors and links for new foundation members
A managed communications hub for OC’s members
Support for organising social occasions such as the annual dinner that may or may not include non-OC foundation members.
The Presidential ceremonial role will continue, as now, within school services as well as provide editorial/publication of The Cryptian.
We have no subscriptions but aim to break even on the annual dinner. This would have little impact or change on what we do now apart from how we organise membership.
Actions
So, this is a potentially big change for the club but it’s not a final done deal yet. There is still a lot of work to do before this all happens. We need a more formal proposal and guidelines about how it will work which will then be put to the membership. I’ll report back in the coming months as we progress.
Annual dinner
Finally a reminder from me that the annual dinner is still planned for June 18th at St Mary de Crypt. We’ll have full details and ticket information as soon as we get everything sorted. So please keep the date free!
