possible join those who are already promoting and contributing to the interests of the school. I am very grateful for the advice and expertise of those who support the role and aim to maintain the CCOBA’s relevance, namely, Executive Principal Garth Wynne and his continual advice and experience. CCOBA committee – vice president Sam Cowdy, treasurer Mac Bolderston, and committee members John Luxton, Andrew Springford, Angus Dysart-Paul, Edward Glubb, Nick Harvey and Richard Polson and CCOBA Secretary Justine Nicholl, who continues to make everything work – and who works well beyond the call of duty.
In the past year, four Young Old Boys events have been sponsored by the Association in Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland, and Dunedin – another initiative in conjunction with St Margaret’s College Old Girls’ Association, ensuring a solid turn out. Our message to recent leavers is that you have joined an Association with a never-ending connection and commitment to College. In November last year Sam Cowdy, your very able vice president, orchestrated the Christchurch Long Lunch. While there are many school events Old Boys can attend, there didn’t seem to be a Christchurch Branch event in its own right. The 100 assembled Old Boys soon made up for lost time and there is no doubt that this year’s event on 23 November will sell out quickly. Special thanks Catherine McMillan and Peter Davie are our current appointees to the Board of College. We thank them for their tireless efforts on the Board and for attending the CCOBA committee meetings. This gives us a chance to express the committee’s view on current issues and be kept informed of the school’s successes and challenges and progress towards solving them. Can our Association be more relevant? As life-time members, we collectively hold the memory and DNA of all those who pass through the gates. A machine would harness this combined knowledge and learn to either make every boy come out the same, as historic relics, or to come out as thinkers, individually trained with their own programme and ready to work almost anywhere in the world, and in any culture – especially the increasingly bicultural New Zealand. Under the current regime and its strategy at College, we are fortunate to have a team led by Garth Wynne, ensuring it is the latter.
The gatherings and recognition described above are part of why we exist and complement the objectives of the Association “To further the objects for which the school was originally founded and to promote the interests of the school and its Old Boys …” The school and the CCOBA have been gifted funds over many years to allow investment returns that sustain the school, and the scholarships. The CCOBA Scholarship Fund supports five five- year scholarships of 33% fees, and I was surprised to learn recently that College is now one of only two independent boys’ secondary schools left in New Zealand. One of the roles of the president is to ensure as many members as
Geoffrey Sullivan (9514)
CCOBA Art Collection “It is a real privilege to be in an environment that has art. It challenges our tastes, it stimulates discussion and it creates spaces of beauty. We are so grateful to the Old Boys’ Association for the latest artwork for the collection, Time Suspended 3 by Heather Straka. It is a quiet and elegant work.” – Darryn George, HoD Art
College Issue 35 2018
95
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