2022

MINUTES OF THE 20TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE OLD PAULITE ASSOCIATION (EUROPE) HELD AT THE ST JAMES’ COURT, 54 BUCKINGHAM GATE, LONDON SW1E 6AF, ON SATURDAY 16TH JULY 2022

 

Present:  Aditya Bihani (AB), Z Cama (ZC), Ravi Ghosh (RG), Lucinder Gibbs (LG), R Jaiswal (RJ), A Kar (AK), N Kulisra (NK), D A Medland (DAM) and Basav Ray Chaudhuri (BRC).

 

1) Welcome, Apologies for absence & Appointment of Chairman:

Hon Secretary DAM opened the meeting at around 11.15 am by welcoming all the attendees including OP members LG, BRC and RG.

Apologies for absence for the AGM and Lunch were received from Gerry Elloy, Arshak Sarkissian, Topan Dutta, Daleep Mukarji, John Billington*, Dayal Chanrai*, Arindam Chaudhuri*, Sourav Das*, Tom Dobinson*, Bruce Haylar, Colin Hose*, Colin Shaw and B P Bhattacharya (BPB), although those members marked with an asterisk will be attending the lunch.

DAM was elected as the Chairman for the meeting.

 

2) Minutes of the last AGM and matters arising:

  1. DAM explained that no AGM had been held for either of the years 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic and restrictions imposed in the country. Nevertheless, the Hon Secretary’s Report for both those years which had been sent to members had covered all the procedural matters normally raised at the AGMs. Periodic updates of matters relating to the School during the period were sent by emails to members. 
  2. The minutes of 17th AGM held on 13th July 2019 were accepted. Matters arising from them had been overtaken by subsequent events and were no longer relevant.

3) Hon Secretary’s Report:

  1. DAM had circulated the Hon Secretary’s report to OPA(E) members about 3 weeks ago. As it had been sent to the members relatively shortly before the AGM, it was agreed not to go through it again in any great depth. Nevertheless, a few matters were raised, as follows.

(ii)Regarding the current position at SPS Darjeeling, members will be updated at the Reunion Lunch by OP Neville Raschid and RJ who had recently visited the School in Darjeeling. It was noted that there would be no bicentenary celebrations in 2023.

  1.  The financial position was discussed briefly. DAM mentioned that it would be covered more in detail under the following items on the Agenda.  In summary, for the year ended 31 March 2022, subscriptions received from members amounted to £1,240 and income exceeded expenditure by £237. Expenditure included donations of £650 to the Darjeeling Covid Appeal (for oxygen generators) and £500 to the Darjeeling Children’s Trust.
  2. DAM reminded the meeting that a number of members had not paid their annual subscriptions for many years and as a result subscription income was decreasing each year. It may be that a review the Rules of the Association relating to this matter be carried out and then decide on what action should be taken in the circumstances at the next committee meeting. Members are urged to bring their subscriptions up to date. There was a discussion on how to get members to pay their subscription dues. However, in the meantime, it was decided that we will continue sending out marketing/update emails to all members to include a reminder note for those that have not paid their dues.
  3. DAM mentioned that the introduction of the paulites.org was a welcome addition to enable OPs to keep in touch with each other. To date 775 OPs had registered on this website and the target was to achieve some 2,000 OPs to register on it. In addition, apart from events being notified on it, there were a number of interesting feature articles posted on the website, such as The History of St Paul’s.
  4. Our association with Darjeeling Childrens Trust continues with ZC and DAM acting as special advisers. One of the Trustees will be our guest at the Reunion Lunch. In addition, DCT are holding a celebration ball “Green Shoots, Strong Roots” at the Mayfair Hotel, flyers about which will be displayed at the Reunion Lunch. The OPA(E) are trying to arrange for a table to be taken by members and all members are urged to attend and support this worthwhile cause. 

4) Hon Treasurer’s Report: as per meeting, held on record.

 

5) Hon Accountant’s Report:

DAM mentioned that he would like to take these two items on the Agenda together. DAM reminded those present that the accounts were prepared for internal purposes only, as required by the Rules of the Association, and not for wider external circulation.

  1. The accounts for the year ended 31st March 2021 had only recently been signed off.  The previous Hon Accountant , Sukumar Saha, decided that he no longer wished to act in this capacity and tendered his resignation with immediate effect.  DAM thanked him for his past services to the Association.
  2. DAM approached Ellis Cohen FCCA, a previous committee member and Hon Treasurer to act as Hon Accountant provided he resigned as a member of the OPA(E), to maintain a degree of independence. (He had previously resigned because of ill health at the time). Ellis mentioned that he was happy to do so and “honoured” accept.
  3. DAM sent both the draft accounts for the years ended 31st March 2021 and 2022 prepared by him together with the respective supporting schedules and working papers to Ellis Cohen which were checked by him and who signed his Hon Accountants Reports on both years. As DAM had prepared both sets of accounts, he signed them in his capacity as Hon Secretary (instead of as Hon Treasurer – see below).

6) Approval of Accounts:

  1. The Report and Accounts for the years ended 31st March 2021 and 2022 were tabled at the meeting and approved by those present at the meeting. Those present were also asked whether they wished to receive a copy of the Accounts. Ravi Ghosh asked for a copy of the accounts for the year ended 31st March 2022 which was given to him.

7) Election of Officers and Committee Members:

  1. DAM highlighted that each committee member serves for a period of two years since their appointment following which he is eligible of reappointment on a rotational basis. However, all committee members expressed their agreement to continue to serve as committee members, subject to the matters referred to below.
  2. Yusuf Siddiqui, who was the Hon Treasurer of the Association at the commencement of the year commencing 1st April 2021 resigned this position and as a Committee member on 24th October 2021 following his relocation to Luxembourg where he was spending most of his time. BPB was appointed Hon Treasurer in his place. However, by email of 3rd June 2022, BPB asked the Committee to “Please accept my resignation” and, at their meeting held on 2nd July 2022, the Committee decided to accept his resignation from the Committee and as a consequence his role as Hon Treasurer.
  3. Following BPB’s resignation, there were three vacant positions on the Committee. Ravi Ghosh, who had previously expressed an interest in joining the Committee, was asked to join the Committee. He accepted and was given a warm welcome to the Committee.

8) Reappointment of Hon Independent Accountant:

  1. The appointment and reappointment of Ellis Cohen FCCA of H Plaskow & Co as Hon Independent Accountant was approved at the meeting

9) Proposed Amendments of the Rules:

  1. No amendments to the Rules of the Association had been received since the last AGM held on 17th AGM held on 13th July 2019. 

10) Update on position of SPS:

  1. As mentioned in section 3 (ii) above, regarding the current position at SPS Darjeeling, members will be updated at the Reunion Lunch by OP Neville Raschid and RJ who had recently visited the School in Darjeeling. It was noted that there would be no bicentenary celebrations in 2023.

11) Old Paulite Association updates:

  1. These were mainly confined to communications between OPA Kolkata and OPANA about any potential support that the Action Group of the Committee (including Neville Raschid who was to update members at the Reunion Lunch following) was contemplating in relation to the future of SPS Darjeeling.
  2.  RJ mentioned that topical seminars notified on the paulite.org website periodically held for students and OPAs have been gaining good attendance and that there is scope to widen its reach.

12) Date of the 21st AGM and Reunion Lunch:

(i) The meeting discussed whether to hold the next AGM and Reunion Lunch later on in the year, possibly in September when people were back from their summer holidays. In addition, consideration should be given to holding a separate black tie dinner in London to celebrate  SPS’s bicentenary. This will be discussed further at the next Committee meeting to be held in October this year. 

 

13)  Any other business

(i) None relating to matters to be discussed at the AGM

The meeting closed at around 11,45 am.

2020

SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE OLD PAULITE ASSOCIATION (EUROPE) HELD AT THE ORIENTAL CLUB, STRATFORD HOUSE, STRATFORD PLACE, LONDON W1C 1ES ON SATURDAY 15th February 2020

Present:  Z Cama (ZC), S Das (SD), G Elloy (GE), R Jaiswal (RJ), A Kar (AK), N Kulisra (NK), D A Medland (DAM), K Pearce (KP) and Y Siddiqui (YS).

On behalf of the committee, DAM extended a very warm welcome to Gerry Elloy as the new Honorary President of the Old Paulite Association (Europe), who takes over from J K Hammond.

1) Apologies for absence and election of Chairman for the meeting:

(i) Apologies for absence received from B P Bhattacharya (BPB), A Chaudhuri (AC), E Cohen (EC), J K Hammond (JKH) and A Sarkissian (AS).

(ii) Yusuf Siddiqui was elected Chair of the meeting.

2) Minutes of the Meeting held on 26th October 2019 and matters arising:

(i) DAM informed the committee that he had received an email from EC submitting his resignation as the Hon Treasurer of the OPA (E). EC sends his apologies for being unable to fulfil his duties , the main reasons being his on-going medical treatment and other commitments. The committee thanks EC for all his contributions to the running of the OPA(E) to date and wishes him well for his continuing progress towards his well-being.

(ii) The minutes of 16th AGM are still unsigned. DAM has decided to send the minutes to AC (who was the Chairman) by post to get them signed.

(iii) Hon Secretary’s 2019 report has been sent to AC, but not yet uploaded on the website.

(iv) Updating the popular OPA (E) website was discussed. It is hoped that the structurally re-designed website can be finalised and approved at the forthcoming committee meeting in May, with implementation prior to the AGM in July.

(v) The urgent need for a comprehensive database maintained by the school which includes information of all Old Paulites around the world was suggested.

(vi) ZC and AK emphasised that one of the ways to achieve the goal of establishing a database for UK members is by directing the Old Paulites to our website and self-registering. In this way, the OPA (E) would be able to 're-galvanise' itself. Hence, the website should include a few questions to enable prospective members to self-declare and register themselves as members.

(vii) RJ had sent an invitation to a few young OPs in the UK of whom he was aware to join committee members for an introductory lunch after the committee meeting. One Old Paulite, Siddharth Moktan, had responded (and subsequently attended the lunch).

(viii) DAM had not received any reply from Mr Souri Misra, (from OPA Mumbai) regarding his attendance at this committee meeting, as Mr Misra had originally requested to do.

         (ix) DAM drew the committee's attention to the Hill & Plain School’s Reunion Lunch which will be taking place on 27th May 2020. He suggested that take a table for Old Paulites at the event and requested anyone interested to get in touch with him to book a seat.

The minutes were accepted with no more matters arising.

3) Update on Vision 2023:

(i) In the absence of JKH, KP updated the committee on the progress of the PwC Report which was now being studied by a sub-committee reporting to the Bishop and the BoG. Whilst progress was slower than we might wish, the study was going ahead and contact to progress matters was being maintained both with the Bishop and with Rev Halder.

4)  Hon Secretary’s verbal report:

(I) DAM’s visit to SPS last November was very short and the first batch of boys had already left school for their winter break, hence he did not have a chance to talk to the students at lunch which Rev Halder wanted him to do.  However, he had a brief word with Rev Halder regarding the Strategic Review (refer to 3 above) during lunch in the Rectory.

(ii) Marilyn Adams, one of the Trustees of Darjeeling Children’s Trust (DCT) had also invited DAM to show how the progress with the new girl's dormitory in Darjeeling had come along. He and his family   visited the premises and met up with Mrs Adams, who explained that they needed more funding to complete the buildings.  DAM asked Mrs Adams to set out what additional funding was required for each stage of the building  which he could then circulate to the committee and members to ask for their assistance to try and raise as much as possible. DAM had circulated her response to the committee members.

In this context, ZC mentioned that he was in discussions to organise a charity dinner for about 180-200 people in July/August to assist with the current funding needs of DCT. He also distributed the recent newsletter from DCT to the committee, which included the photos and details of the new hostel/dormitory that had been set-up for the girls, demonstrating that  our contributions have been put to good use. AK pointed out that the OPA (E)’s continual support to DCT showcases our commitment towards making a difference to the underprivileged in Darjeeling and achieving results.

(iii) DAM updated the committee about recent achievements of fellow Old Paulites, which includes Dev Sanyal - now appointed Chief Executive, alternative energy and executive vice-president, regions of the British Petroleum Company (BP) and Dev Aditya – who was honoured with ‘Bengal’s Pride Award’ for setting up Otterman Institute which works to improve the education system by teaching school students much needed soft and transferable skills required at any work environment.

5) Honorary Treasurer’s verbal report:

(I) DAM updated the committee on the financial position of the OPA(E) and observed that no further monies had been received from members in respect of outstanding subscriptions since the last committee meeting (in October). DAM will continue to act as Hon Treasurer of the OPA (E) until a new Hon Treasurer is appointed. He will initially prepare the draft accounts for the year ended 31st March 2020 and send them  to BPB for review before submitting them  to the Hon Accountant. The bank account balances as of 14/02/2020 are as follows:

Current account = £ 2922.06

Deposit account = £ 2023.91

Ring-fenced Development account = £ 4292.87

(ii) DAM will hand over a list of all the members to KP, who is to write to all members asking them to pay their outstanding subscriptions where appropriate and reminding them of how the subscription monies are used to fund necessary expenditure for the benefit of the members and the school.

6) Website update and technical matters:

(i) Website matters were discussed as referred to in 2 (iv) above.

(ii) DAM referred to the draft Google form which it was proposed to be used this year to replace the existing Renewal/ Registration Form and had some suggestions to improve it. DAM would liaise with RJ in the near future to finalise it.  Once the form is approved, the link to the form could also be published on the website for people to update their personal information.

7) The OPA(E) Committee succession planning & constitutional matters:

(i) The amendments to the Rules governing the OPA (E) previously circularised by AK was accepted by the committee and was ratified by members at the last AGM. The new Rules will be tabled at the next AGM in July 2020.

(ii) KP informed the committee of his phone conversation with JKH, who welcomes GE as his successor to the position of Honorary President of the OPA (E). JKH is willing to continue to attend the committee meetings until the AGM as a committee member. Following the AGM, he will be happy to attend future meetings upon invitation.

8) Date of next meeting:

(I) The next meeting is provisionally set for 23rd May 2020.

9) Any other business

There being no other business which the committee members wished to raise, the meeting was closed. ZC was thanked for once again arranging for the meeting to be held at the Oriental Club together with tea/coffee and biscuits.

 

MATTERS FOR ATTENTION - SUMMARY

2) Matters arising from minutes of meeting 26th October 2019

(ii) DAM to send minutes of 16th AGM to AC to sign as Chairman.

(iii) AC to place Hon Secretary's 2019 Report on the OPA(E) website

(iv) RJ to redesign layout of website and circulate to committee members for approval.

5) Hon Treasurer's verbal report

(ii) KP to write to all members about paying their outstanding subscriptions

6) Website update and technical matters

(ii) DAM to liaise with RJ to finalise Google Registration/Renewal Form and agree with committee. (Done)

7) Succession planning and constitutional matters

(I) DAM to table new Rules at next AGM

2019

SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE OLD PAULITE ASSOCIATION (EUROPE) HELD AT THE ORIENTAL CLUB, STRATFORD HOUSE, STRATFORD PLACE, LONDON W1C 1ES ON SATURDAY 8th JUNE 2019

Present:  B P Bhattacharya (BPB), Z Cama (ZC), S Das (SD), J K Hammond (JKH), R Jaiswal (RJ) A Kar (AK), D A Medland (DAM) and K Pearce (KP).

1) Apologies for absence: Apologies for absence received from A Chaudhuri, A Sarkissian and Y Siddiqui. N Kulisra did not attend.

2) Chairman for the meeting: Sourav Das, the youngest member of the committee was elected Chair of the meeting.

3) Matters of Attention:

  1. DAM pointed out that he has not received the official minutes for some past meetings. BPB agreed to check the minutes file for the missing ones.

  2. Informal notes to be circulated by JKH for 14 July 2018 (AGM) before next AGM.

  3. Rules to produce minutes of the meeting agreed:

  4. Drafted minutes must be distributed to all attendees of the meeting for review and comments. Recommended changes must be submitted within a week.

  5. Considering the recommended changes, the minutes can then be circulated among the other committee members.

  6. Summarised minutes of the meeting must be uploaded on the OPA(E) website as soon as possible.

4) Minutes of the meeting held on 27 April 2018 and matters arising:

  1. Recommended changes by AK for production of minutes of the meeting have been discussed and agreed by the committee (Refer to 3 (iii)).

  2. As secretary DAM receives all the news/updates from school or Old Paulites, only a few require circulation among the members of OPA(E). Committee agreed that he can circulate the important updates/news without the approval of the committee.

  3. RJ informed he will not be visiting the school this year with his Eton Fives club; he is likely to conduct this trip in autumn 2020. RJ also wondered if he could request Rev Halder in advance to free up the second Eton Fives court before his visit, as it is now being used as a wood store. DAM emphasised that Eton Fives makes St. Paul’s a unique school as we are one of the only few schools to have an Eton Fives court in Asia and he was sad to find out that both the courts are not in use.

  4. KP had received a note from Mr Tutu Bose, who had visited school recently for a cricket match, concerning facilities and equipment, or lack thereof, for Fives, gymnastics, hockey. He also observed that getting the school choir down to Kolkata to sing under the direction of Mr Pandey requires encouragement. KP had noted the points raised by Mr Bose and agreed that the Fives court at St. Paul’s are quite famous and well-known worldwide as a place to play Fives in the Himalayas, the only set of courts in the sub-continent. RJ said that the gym is now being used for Badminton and Board exams. A fitness centre has been set up on campus for the senior wing.

  5. DAM has contacted FRSC members and a meeting has been arranged on 21 June 2019. It will be attended by BPB, ZC, SD, RJ and DAM.

  6. AK suggested that it would be good to see a summary of actions that have been assigned to someone or a group of people in the minutes of the meeting. DAM acknowledged this and it was agreed by the committee.

5)  Update on V-2023:

  1. JKH updated the committee on developments and referred to the need being expressed by Mr Jaswant Sokhey and others for establishing an Alumni data-base which could be very beneficial later if based at, and administered by, the school.

  2. AK inquired about the next milestone for V-2023 and if we are expecting any formal response from the Bishop to the Strategic Review. KP said he wanted to meet the Bishop together with Mr Burman to discuss such matters and the need to develop a Corpus and an eventual Strategic Plan.

6) Secretary’s Verbal Report:

  1. The last year or so has rather been a gloomy one indeed as the OPA community has witnessed a lot of deaths among its members across the world. The few names of fellow Old Paulites and teachers that have been referred to DAM are : Betty Elloy, Arsham Sarkissian, Bernard Brooks (Teacher), Hardip Singh (Teacher), JayedevSingh Deol, Abdul Hussain, Pradip Lal, M K Rahut, M K Sharma, S S Naidu (an OP and a Teacher), Don Tanner, Anil Chandra Roy and Prem Thadani.

  2. There have been a couple of visits to the school by our fellow Old Paulites recently. Mr Ashish Ray had informed DAM of his impressions. YS had also visited the school and was impressed by the boys. DAM commented that despite the bandh experienced last year and the evacuation of the students down to Siliguri, most of the hill schools continued to perform well in the Boards (examinations).

  3. DAM stated that currently, the OPA(E) had 115 members, of which 80 were Full Members and 35 Honorary Members. He suggested we must try and get younger members to join OPA(E) to at least maintain the Full to Honorary Members ratio, which was agreed by the committee. The net increase of Honorary Members over the period is 1, as RJ and SD have been added to the committee and Mr Monir Hussain has come off as he is now back in Bangladesh.

  4. Regarding outstanding subscription fees, of the 80 Full Members, DAM has only received membership fee from 27 to date. This will be further discussed at the upcoming FRSC meeting. KP volunteered to follow up with the members who have not yet paid their outstanding subscription fee, once a list of those members is prepared by DAM or BPB.

  5. Mrs Claire Blakewell-Phillips, a trustee and representative of Darjeeling Children Trust (DCT), will be attending the AGM followed by the Reunion Lunch as our guest. Mrs Blakewell-Phillips is a graduate from the University of London, who went on to train as a nurse and became a health visitor at Guy’s Hospital. After retiring, she joined DCT as a trustee in 2014. KP along with other committee members suggested that St. Paul’s should liaise with DCT to carry out social work. ZC asked JKH if he could mention this to Rev Halder when he speaks to him next.

 (vi)  (Refer to 5(i)) The committee were informed of the Paulite Tracker scheme suggested by Mr Sokey. JKH wanted to consult the committee because under GDPR no data about an individual could be divulged without their official permission. Mr Sokey had been in touch with the OPANA about the scheme and the OPANA’s database. Although there had been understandable reservations about the proposal KP believed it was a good idea. An official and correctly maintained database of the alumni maintained at the school was much needed. RJ suggested there were other methods of secure data collection and storage online employing ‘Google forms’ for instance. JKH said he would respond to Mr Sokey with RJ’s constructive suggestions. He asked RJ to submit a summary of his ideas to aid his response.

7) Honorary Treasurer’s Verbal Report:

  1. In the absence of Mr Ellis Cohen, BPB is currently acting Hon Treasurer. DAM verbally gave the Committee a financial update. BPB assisted by SD had certain financial information up to October 2018, but more information was needed to produce the annual accounts for the year ended 31 March 2019. DAM to follow up.

  2. DAM handed over the bank statements of all three bank accounts of the OPA(E) to BPB up to June 2019. The current balances of the bank accounts were: Current account, £2,488.56; Deposit account, £2,021.22; and the Ring-fenced School Development deposit account, £3,787.52.

  3. The Ring-fenced School Development fund deposit account had about £13,000 in credit last year from which £10,000 had been transferred to the OPA ARG Account set up by Mr Burman in the HDFC Bank, as a contribution from the OPA(E) towards the consultant’s fees for the Strategic Review. A donation of £250 from Mr Armen Lucas has been credited to this account.

  4. OPA(E) paid £700 towards the hotel and other costs for Rev Halder’s visit to London last year along with £700 towards expenses incurred by KP in attending meetings with Bishop Biswas in Kolkata in June 2018.

8) Website Update:

  1. In the absence of Mr A Chaudhuri who has sent his apologies because he was on call that weekend, ZC suggested that we should include this item for discussion in the Agenda for the AGM. The Committee agreed.

9) Committee Succession Planning & Constitutional Matters:

  1. Following discussion at the last Committee meeting, AK considered that the ‘Objects of the Association’ (as stated in the Rules of the Association) should be reviewed. He would like the purpose and objectives of the OPA(E) to be more specific and realistic. Additionally, a subsection of how the Association aims to deliver the objectives would be helpful. He would send out a draft paper setting out his thoughts and would request committee members to comment on it.

  2. JKH informed the Committee that he would like to step down as the President of OPA(E) at the forthcoming AGM but would only cease to hold this position once the next President is appointed. He would continue to be a member of the ARG and continue his work towards V-2023 alongside KP. He would also be willing to attend future Committee meetings when required and requested to do so.

  3. KP mentioned that he is going to be in his 85th year by the next AGM and wished to inform the Committee that he would not be able to continue as an active member for very much longer. However, whilst he may not be able to attend all the future committee meetings, he would be happy to remain on the committee as a Hon Vice-President.

  4. DAM highlighted that OPA(E) committee now has the maximum permitted 10 ‘executive’ members along with 5 ‘Honorary’ positions which include a Patron – David Gibbs, a President – JKH and 3 Vice-Presidents – KP, Arshak Sarkissian and John Martin. Under the Rules of the OPA(E), the Honorary members do not have to attend meetings, but they can if they want to.

  5. ZC pitched the idea of having one position in the OPA(E) committee for the Hon President and the Hon Secretary, as in this Association, the Hon Secretary is regarded as the Chief Executive of the Association.

10) Date of next meeting:

  1. The AGM to be held on 13 July 2019 commencing at 11.00 am followed by the Reunion Lunch starting at 12.30 pm.

11) Any other matters arising:

  1. OPANA is having a Reunion Conference in Toronto, Canada in October/November which is going to be a 3-day affair. Old Paulites worldwide are invited to attend this event.

2018

SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE 16TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE OLD PAULITE ASSOCIATION (EUROPE), HELD AT THE BOMBAY BRASSERIE, LONDON SW7 4QH, ON SATURDAY 14th JULY 2018 AT 10.30 AM

PRESENT:  B P Bhattacharya, Arindam Chaudhuri, Dayal Chanrai, E Cohen, Sourav Das, J K Hammond, Rajiv Jaiswal, A Kar, N Kulisra, D A Medland, K Pearce, C Shaw, Yusuf Siddiqui

1   WELCOME AND APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE 

The meeting commenced at 10.30 am with a welcome to those members attending by the Hon Secretary, Yusuf Siddiqui (YS). Arindam Chaudhuri (AC) was elected Chair for the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from: Z Cama (ZC), Md Monir Hossain, John Martin, and Arshak Sarkissian.

2   MINUTES OF THE LAST AGM AND MATTERS ARISING

Ken Pearce (KP) noted that the minutes should be amended to read that KP, ZC and Joe Hammond (JKH) had attended the meeting in Delhi in November 2016. AC requested that future minutes should be paginated to ease referencing items. The meeting accepted the Minutes of the last AGM meeting held on 22 July 2017 and circularised previously in draft, as a correct record. A summarised version of the minutes had been posted on the OPA(E) website. These were signed by the Chair of that meeting, AC and the Hon Secretary David Medland (DAM). There were no other matters arising.

3    HON SECRETARY’S REPORT

The Hon Secretary (YS) tabled his report on behalf of the Committee. He referred to the following matters :

  • He had taken over the Hon Secretary position from DAM, whom he thanked for his help and support.

  • The OPA(E) had hosted Rev Halder and his wife Sunetra when they visited London in June. They were visiting London to receive an award for the School as one of the best places to study. The Halders were met at Heathrow Airport by Old Paulites (SD, BPB, YS, DAM and JKH taking in turns) who arranged accommodation for them, showed them around and met for discussions during their visit. The OPA(E) also made a contribution towards the costs of their visit.

  • YS mentioned that during his visit, he had introduced Rev Halder to Disabilities Rights UK to provide assistance and advice to the School to help them create an infrastructure to allow less able students to access buildings, classes, dining halls, etc.

  • He referred to the sad news that Arsham Sarkissian (brother of Arshak) who lived in Canada was very unwell. (PS - subsequently we heard from Arshak that sadly, Arsham passed away on 30th August 2018. Our heartfelt condolences to Arshak and the Sarkissian family.)

  • Those attending the meeting were delighted to welcome Ellis Cohen to the meeting (after an absence because of his illness) and wished him our collective good wishes for his continuing recovery.

  • He thanked both KP and JKH for their continuing efforts in progressing the Strategic Review as an integral part of Vision 2023, about which JKH will update members as to the current position later in the meeting.

  • He also thanked BPB, on behalf of all members, for arranging both the AGM and the Reunion lunch this year at the Bombay Brasserie and all the Committee members for their support throughout the year.

    AC thanked YS for his report, following which the undermentioned matters were discussed:

  • AC noted that an on-site AlumniOffice had been set up at the School.YS confirmed that teacher Arnold Mukhia was managing this.

  • JKH noted that during his discussions with Rev Halder, he had described how the school had coped with the 104 day bundh last year which shut down most operations in Darjeeling.They sourced a site in Siliguri and, to start with, moved the examination year students, and later the whole school in a huge logistical operation. And throughout still maintaining a full education programme. This was a great achievement and relied on the unstinting support and goodwill of all staff. The Board of Governors recorded their thanks and appreciation of this unique and unprecedented effort.

    4   HON TREASURER’S REPORT

During EC’s absence due to illness referred to above, BPB kindly stepped up as ‘stand in’ Treasurer to replace him. BPB tabled his Report for the year 1st April 2017 to 31st March 2018. He observed that the Report contains full details of the financial position of the Association and gave a brief summary as at 31 March 2018 as follows:

  • Cash in Bank is held in three accounts with HSBC:Current Account£2,262Deposit Account£2,017School Development Fund£13,528Net Assets totalled£18,134

    The Net Assets included some stock of Paulite Forever (PF) brochures at £360. In view of the slow moving stock of these brochures, it was agreed at the meeting to write off the £360 for the PF brochures in the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2019 and reduce the Net Assets total by this amount.

  • It was noted that 61 people had not paid their subscriptions. This number should be reduced to reflect the fact that (a) Honorary Members do not pay and (b) Members over 80 are exempt from payment. After these adjustments the figure now stands at around 35.

     

    Committee members noted that it is difficult (if not impossible) to coerce people to pay, although continuous efforts should be made to convince people of the reasons for maintaining subscriptions. The move to electronic communication and the inclusion of the Newsletter in the website (www.oldpaulites.org) has the downside of diminishing any ‘pressure’ on non-payers. However, as a ‘one-off’ KP agreed to send out a hard copy letter to all members explain the reasons for maintaining the subscription and encourage those who have not paid to redress the situation. AC agreed to help KP with printing and mailing. KP has a list of members which he requested should be updated.

5   HON INDEPENDENT ACCOUNTANT’S REPORT

6   APPROVAL OF ACCOUNTS

Both these Agenda items 5 and 6 were discussed as part of the Hon Treasurer’s report. BPB reported that our Honorary Independent Accountant, Sukumar Saha of ARN Hoxton, Chartered Accountants, had reviewed the Accounts and provided his report on page 4 of the Accounts.

Following the review of the Accounts, relevant members proposed and seconded that the accounts be accepted. Members present approved the accounts unanimously, which were then signed by the appropriate officials, where indicated. The meeting thanked the acting Honorary Treasurer BPB for his diligent work and his report.

 

  1. OPERATION OF THE OPA(E) AND ELECTION OF OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS

JKH noted that the year had seen changes which the Committee are still adapting to, namely YS taking over from DAM, BPB standing in for EC and a lot happening outside the OPA(E).  It was timely to ask if any changes or nuances to the way we operate might be needed. Options relating to this question included:

(a) to ask the  two younger OP members (SD and RJ) attending this meeting to become Committee members. Both agreed to do so and it was agreed to co-opt SD and RJ onto the Committee.

(b) Colin Shaw (CS) suggested that with changing demands on the Committee we might ‘subpoena’ other members for specific initiatives.

(c) YS suggested we should use the Alumni Association Office at St Paul’s to promote knowledge of the OPA(E) to school leavers coming to the UK. YS had also suggested to Rev Halder that the school should have a dedicated notice board with Old Paulite information.

As noted on page 1 of the Accounts, the current OPA(E) Officers and Committee members are:         

Patron: D S Gibbs,   President: J K Hammond,   Vice-Presidents: J Martin, K Pearce & A Sarkissian ,  Hon Secretary: D A Medland,   Hon Treasurer: E Cohen                                                                                  Members:  B P Bhattacharya, Z Cama, A Chaudhuri, M Hussain, A Kar, N Kulisra & Y Siddiqui.  

Whilst there are currently 9 members on the Committee, under the Rules, the full complement of Committee membership is 10. This does not include the Patron, President and Vice-Presidents who are also members of the Committee. With the co-option of the two younger members RJ and SD to the Committee and the retirement of M M Hossein who has returned to Bangladesh, the full complement of ten has now been filled.

Whilst individual members of the Committee were required to rotate every two years, all Committee members present were asked if they were willing to be re-elected and all agreed.  Where Committee members are unable to attend Committee meetings, leaves of absence should be dealt with on an individual Committee member basis, dependent on the individual’s circumstances at the time.                                                                                                                                                     

8    REAPPOINTMENT OF HON INDEPENDENT ACCOUNTANT

9    THE ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION

Both these Agenda items 8 and 9 were discussed as part of the Hon Treasurer’s report.

Sukumar Saha’s (of ARN Hoxton, Chartered Accountants) re-appointment was proposed and seconded by members and his reappointment was carried unanimously.  The Independent Accountant was thanked for his work and Report.

It was noted that last year’s AGM, the annual subscription had been increased from £20 to £30 per annum. It was agreed to maintain the subscription for the current and future years at this level.

10    UPDATE ON VISION 2023

JKH summarised the state of play with V-2023 and the Strategic Review.                                

 

In the discussion that followed, CS made it clear that he remained sceptical as to the benefits and outcome of the Strategic Review and, in his view, funding such Reviews may achieve little.  JKH, KP and AK all understood CS’s but had come to the conclusion that the independent Review was the best way to proceed. AK noted that whilst nothing was guaranteed by having such a Strategic Review undertaken, we had relatively little to lose given our limited financial commitment - potentially the school had much to gain. 

 

JKH asked the AGM to confirm our agreement that we had discussed in previous meetings that we would contribute £10,000 from our School Development Fund toward the cost of the Review once the Review had been formally signed off. JKH noted that he had email confirmation from ZC (who was unable to attend the meeting) that he supported this. After a short discussion AC asked for a show of hands to confirm agreement to our contribution, which showed the majority in support. (PS -   As noted above the Review was signed off and the £10,000 has now been transferred to the ARG account in Delhi from which the Review is being funded.) JKH thanked the meeting for this confirmation.

11   UPDATE ON DARJEELING CHILDREN’S TRUST INITIATIVE

DAM updated the meeting on developments at DCT and noted that DCT had recently celebrated 10 years of its existence. Over these years it has raised £590,000 (without any subscriptions!). A celebratory ball was held which ZC and DAM attended and numerous fund raising activities took place.                                                                                                                 

 

St Paul’s had now established links with DCT and the meeting confirmed that this is a worthy cause for the OPA(E) to support. Whilst KP agreed the value of supporting the DCT, he noted that our first loyalty should be to the School. Indeed considering our earlier discussions regarding funding generally, we need to carefully consider whether we can afford the annual £1,000 donation to the DCT. It was noted, however, that this had been agreed ‘providing we can afford it’. JKH suggested that the Fund Raising Sub-Committee should put this matter on their Agenda for further discussion.

12    DATE OF THE 17th AGM AND REUNION LUNCH/DINNER

The date of the next AGM and Reunion Lunch (the 17th) has been provisionally set for the 13th July 2018 at the Bombay Brasserie but this will be confirmed at our next Committee meeting.

13   ANY OTHER BUSINESS                                                                                                                                                                        

BPB mentioned that the relevant documents relating to the dormant company, Old Paulites Limited, which was set up to protect the name, had been filed up to date and the registration fee of £100 had been paid.

There being no other business raised, AC closed the meeting at 12.30 pm and was thanked by all for chairing it.                     

2017

SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE OLD PAULITE ASSOCIATION (EUROPE) HELD AT THE ORIENTAL CLUB, STRATFORD HOUSE, STRATFORD PLACE, LONDON W1C 1ES ON SATURDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2017

Present:   Z Cama (ZC), A Kar (AK), J K Hammond (JKH), D A Medland (DAM), A Sarkissian (AS), Yusuf Siddiqui (YS).

1 Apologies for absence and election of Chairman:

Apologies for absence were received from B P Bhattacharya(BPB), E Cohen (EC), K Pearce (KP), N Kulisra (NK), A Choudhuri (AC). 

J Hammond was elected Chair of the meeting.

DAM noted that we would work to an Agenda he had circulated on 21 November as this was YS’s first meeting as Hon Sec.  

2 Minutes of the Meeting on 13 May 2017 and the AGM on 22 July 2017 and matters arising:

Minutes of the last committee meeting held on 13 May 2017, and the minutes of the AGM on 22 July 2017, both having been circulated previously were taken as read and adopted.      DAM noted that at the AGM it was agreed that a donation of £1000 be made to the Darjeeling Children’s Trust (DCT), and that this had now been done. This brings the total donated over two years to £2000, with the intention of continuing this at £1000 a year. It was unanimously agreed that this should continue (see item 4 below).

3 Update on Vision 2023

JKH gave an update and noted the end of the prolonged 104 day “bandh,” Members thought it is crucial to regain the momentum lost due to the bandh which had delayed and complicated the planned Strategic Review The committee noted KP would continue to communicate with the Bishop. A robust communication strategy was necessary to keep all informed and involved.

JKH reported briefly on the meeting on 13 July 2017 in London with Bishop Biswas. Attendees included KP, JKH, ZC, DAM, Rev Canning and Dr Subir Choudhury. They had had a wide ranging and very helpful, informative, conversation. The Strategic Review could help to define the future of SPS. The Bishop well recognised the political issues in Darjeeling and their impact on educational establishments in the area.

Update:

 (1)   JKH telephoned a member of St Paul’s staff earlier in November (post bandh) who noted the school is operating normally though there have been a few withdrawals.                                                                                                                                                       - The students will ‘go down’ for the winter on 10 December and staff on 15 December (term has been extended to accommodate the effect of the bandh).                                                (2) Old Paulites Tom Dobinson and Bruce Hayllar visited the school in November and in an email Tom noted (see item 4 below):

- Despite occasional evidence of the bandh Darjeeling looked remarkably peaceful.                     - The school appeared in good order, as did the boys and staff. The atmosphere was lively and the boys full of energy. There was little evidence of any impact of the bandh on the school.                                                                                                                                                        - Rev Halder said the school evacuated to Siliguri to operate on a reduced scale during the bandh, but they had learned from the experience. Rev Halder was ‘bullish’ about things and the market they were serving, though there were concerns of a shortage of pupils.                                                                                                                                                                             - At the fringes the fabric of the school appeared run down, but the core buildings looked better than when he had last visited.                                                                                                    - Overall Tom’s report was very positive and encouraging                                                                                 

 

4 Hon Secretary’s verbal report                                                                                                                     DAM agreed with YS that he would deliver this report as it was YS’s first meeting as Hon Sec.

(1) In Memoriam:                                                                                                                                        - It is with profound regret and sadness that the Committee received David’s report on the death of his brother Michael (SPS 1954-1962) on the 16th November after several weeks in hospital. Michael’s funeral will take place on the 18th December at Beckenham Crematorium at 3 pm.  David has written a piece on Michael and will send it to Arindam for inclusion on the website.                                                                                                                                                           - DAM also noted sadly that Pat (Paddy) Smith (SPS 1939-1944) died a few days before Michael. He had asked the family to send him an obituary that will be included on the website.                                                                                                                                                    (2) Membership matters:                                                                                                                           - At the AGM Vic Patel (Trustee of DCT) introduced Sanjay Agarwal who expressed interest in joining the OPA(E), and BPB had responded to him.                                                                                          - JKH noted that Subham Agarwal (batch of 2013) had been given JKH’s email address by SPS school master Arnold Mukhia, and wanted to make contact with the OPA(E). JKH responded and gave him YS’s contact details, who has in turn invited him to respond to him.                      - KP (over the telephone) suggested that it would help to have an informal gathering (say over a meal) inviting ‘new’ Old Paulites arriving in England, to help them in making contacts here. There was a discussion as to whether this could be done and where (in London or outside).                                                                                                                                                        ACTION: YS to reach out to ‘new’ Paulites and find out what would suit them best.                              –DAM reported that Tom Dobinson and Bruce Hayllar had recently visited Darjeeling and St Paul’s and Tom had sent a full and interesting article on their visit to be posted on our website. See item 3 above.                                                                                                                                          (3) Up-coming meetings                                                                                                                          - The DCT is arranging a Charity Ball next year. DAM will forward details to AC for inclusion on the website.                                                                                                                                                           - The next Hill Schools Reunion will take place on Wednesday the 21st May, at the Clay Oven Banqueting Suites, 197 Ealing Road, Wembley, London HA0 4LW, tel 0208 903 8800. 12.00 noon – 5.30 pm; £30 per person. Cheques payable to HSR and sent to Paul Dickson, 4 Gilman Crescent, Windsor, SL4 4YN, tel 01753 865972

 5 Hon Treasurer’s report

This report was delivered by David Medland on behalf of Ellis Cohen who has temporarily relinquished his duties as he has been unwell.                                                                                   - DAM reported that the financial position of the OPA(E) remains secure.                                    - Data taken from the last statement stated:                                                                                                                  - Current Account balance   £2162                                                                                                          - Deposit Account balance (not ring fenced)   £2017                                                                                - Deposit Account balance (Ring Fenced)    £13,500  (up from £12,500 due to the £1000 donation).

OUTSTANDING SUBSCRIPTIONS                                                                                                        DAM reported that the full list of those still outstanding over recent years was very substantial. For just this year the position is:                                                                                  Total membership  121;  payments received  43;  Honorary members  42;  Outstanding subscriptions 26                                                                                                                                                      JKH noted that KP had said he would write to those still to pay for this year. DAM will send KP the list as above                                                                                                                         ACTION  DAM and KP to follow up on non-payers                                                                                 Regarding the regular duties of Treasurer eg sending out membership renewal notices for 2018-2019 it was decided to leave a decision on this until the next Committee meeting in February.  EC has requested that he does not resume these duties until June 2018.                      The Committee wishes Ellis a full and speedy recovery.

6 Website update                                                                                                                                    It was unanimously agreed that the website is a huge success and the number of ‘hits’ attested to its wide appeal.  The Committee expressed their appreciation to Arindam for his dedication. There was a suggestion some of the items were perhaps now out of date, and might detract from its impact. Perhaps these could be ‘archived’? In the discussion the following points were mentioned:                                                                                                                                                   - Whilst it is recognised that Twitter/ Facebook etc are the ‘normal’ mode of quick interaction a website is a very useful dependable source of news and information, acting both as an update of new items and as an archive of important events etc.                                            -  Could we ask someone at SPS to send regular updates for inclusion on the website eg their alumni office?                                                                                                                                         The website is central to having an effective communication channel to the OPA(E) but also worldwide. The number of ‘hits’ is a measure of activity but this is passive.  An additional measure is to introduce a way of assessing how the audience judge the website through for example a ‘Pulse Survey’ using ‘Survey Monkey’.                                                                                      - The data on Committee members on the website is very patchy and at best now rather dated and MUST be updated fully.                                                                                                                     ACTIONS: JKH to (1) Ask all Committee members to update their entries on our Website.  (2) to convey the discussions above to Arindam.                                                                  

7 OPA(E) Committee succession planning and constitutional matters
In view of the changes ie YS taking over as Hon Secretary and the need to accommodate EC’s absence the following was noted:                                                                                               (1) DAM will meet with YS to hand over all the documentation for the operation of the OPA(E).                                                                                                                                                            (2) YS will send out an email to all members introducing himself, and tell people that BPB’s office will be the registered address for the OPA(E ). YS will also send out the regular renewal notices                                                                                                                                     (3) the official mandate (signatories) for HSBC bank business will need updating.                                                                                                      (4) The current membership of the FRSC is ZC, BPB, DAM and YS will be added. The FRSC will include organising OPA(E) Events (eg the AGM and Reunion). The next meeting will be called by DAM/YS.                                                                                                                                                    (5) Regular communications to OPA(E) members will come mainly from YS but JKH will also send out items as President.                                                                                                                                ACTIONS: DAM and YS to liaise on the above.   
8 Date of next meeting
The next meeting will be held on Saturday 10th February
9 Any other business
YS and AK are going to India in December, and YS is attending the December dinner of the OPA Kolkata. ZC was thanked for hosting this meeting at the Oriental Club. 

2016

SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE OLD PAULITE ASSOCIATION (EUROPE) HELD AT 189 PICCADILLY, LONDON W1, ON SATURDAY 15 OCTOBER 2016

Present:  Z Cama (ZC), Ellis Cohen (EC), A Chaudhuri (AC), J K Hammond (JKH), D A Medland (DAM), K Pearce (KP), Yusuf Siddiqui (YS).

 

1 Apologies for absence and election of Chairman:

Apologies for absence were received from B P Bhattacharya (BPB), A Kar (AK), M Hossein (MH) and A Sarkissian (ASa). N Kulisra (NK) did not attend. 

Arindam Chaudhuri was elected Chair of the meeting.

2 Minutes of the Meeting on 7 May 2016 and the AGM on 17 July 2016 and matters arising:

Minutes of the last committee meeting held on 7 May 2016 having been circulated previously were taken as read and adopted. The minutes of the AGM held on 17 July 2016 has also been circularised. Summarised versions of both the minutes have been posted on our website.

1 Matters arising from the meeting on 7 May 2016

Most of the matters arising from this meeting had been dealt with apart from some hardy perennials. None of the Committee members had yet met our Hon Accountant, Mr Saha. DAM would remind BPB again about meeting up with Mr Saha this year. EC reminded the Committee his list of OPA(E) members needed to be updated. DAM would review the list with his records and update it accordingly. As regards the website, AC had cleared some old articles to the archives but needed further guidance on what else to transfer and in particular, updating the list of Committee members. JKH observed that there were now more than 104,000 hits on our website but whilst members logged on to the website, it was doubtful that they read underlying articles, particularly regarding Vision 2023 and other features. AC mentioned that he would create a separate Vision 2023 heading on which salient news could be given and liaise with JKH as to its content.

2 Matters arising from the AGM on 17 July 2016

The only other matters arising from the AGM was to review the annual subscription of £20 and the position regarding unpaid subscriptions both of which would be dealt with later in the Agenda.

 

3 Update on OPANA Vision 2023

 

JKH advised that there had been some progress in taking the Vision 2023 initiative forward. An Advisory Review Group (ARG) had been appointed (chaired by Pradip Burman) and one of their first tasks was to select a firm of consultants to carry out the Strategic Review. The ARG had invited bids from a few consultants.  JKH was a member of the ARG. KH and KP were liaising with Surajit Kar (SK) to keep a line of communication open between them and the ARG to maintain a steady flow of information. The primary objective was to get the Strategic Review underway and thereafter the setting up of the Corpus Fund in order to fund it. It was anticipated that there were funds (and pledges) already available from the OPAs in North America, Thailand and Europe to meet any initial commitment.

 

Following discussions with SK, KP outlined some basic issues of the modus operandi of the ARG in relation to the Strategic Review. The members of the ARG appeared to be experienced and well versed in undertaking the task of appointing consultants, hopefully, to meet the principle objectives of the Strategic Review. Communications between the ARG and JKH and KP needed to be maintained throughout the process with JKH/KP keeping the OPA(E) Committee informed. JKH had been assured by a member of the ARG that the process was going well despite some sparse communication to date.

 

ZC mentioned that he would be making a personal visit to Delhi in November and would be happy to meet with Pradip Burman to discuss these matters. Furthermore, DAM suggested that, because of the importance of the Strategic Review, it would be desirable for JKH to visit Delhi and meet with the ARG to ensure that it was predicated on a proper footing. In addition KP would be visiting Bangkok in November and December and he was going to pay a visit to Kolkata as well. Whilst he was in Kolkata, he was also considering paying a courtesy visit to the Bishop to update him on progress to date.  The Committee agreed that this was a good and positive step forward if these visits could be co-ordinated timewise. ZC requested if he could be properly briefed as to the up to date position before his visit.

 

KP had prepared a written progress report on Vision 2023 to date which had been sent out to all OPA chapter heads, secretaries and leaders and to OPA(E) committee members. JKH advised that he had also compiled a ‘risk register’ categorising risks which might arise during the process of the review. The proposed visits to meet with the ARG in Delhi in November by JKH and ZC should help with this. JKH, ZC and KP were asked to coordinate their visits to Delhi and Kolkata and to liaise with SK to keep him informed.

4 Hon Secretary’s verbal report

DAM mentioned that he had a few matters to report: 
  • He had received comments and reservations from two members on the recent Reunion lunch regarding the venue, food and cost. DAM suggested that these comments be taken on board and the matter considered further at the next FRSC meeting. 
    
  • DAM drew the attention of the Committee to the recent demise of Hari Dang, an ex Rector of St Paul’s which had been commented on quite extensively via the Twitter link on our website.
    
  • DAM had recently heard from Chris Hudson, an OP who currently resided in South Africa, who had visited St Paul’s in March this year with members of his family. He had thoroughly enjoyed his trip and had met up with the Headmaster who showed him round the School. He thanked the Committee for helping him to ‘open the door’ to the School.  
    
  • There had been other visits to the UK from OPs. K K (Kam) Gupta (with his wife Champa) had recently visited London and had met up with some of his contemporaries for dinner (ZC, EC and Falguni Ray with wives). Whilst in Washington on his way to London, Kam had also met up with OPs Maung Ba Han and his brother Maung Tha Din and A K Roy who all had a telephone conversation with ZC in London. OP A N Roy had also recently visited London whilst on a tour of Europe and had been in touch with ASa.   ZC mentioned that he had also been contacted by OP S Dialdas and another member by OP A K (Pointy) Ganguly.
    
  • ZC mentioned that the Class of 1963 were thinking of having another reunion next year (either in Mauritius or Sri Lanka) but that it was not to be restricted to only the 1963 batch. This had been suggested by Chris Tobin and the Committee will be kept informed as matters progress.
    
  • DAM mentioned that he had got a note from Hugh Heron of the Darjeeling Childrens Trust saying how much he had enjoyed attending our AGM and Reunion lunch and making a presentation at it. Hugh said that DCT’s Chairperson and another committee member was going to visit Darjeeling in November and were hoping to re-establish contact with Rev Halder whilst they were there. 
    
  • There were a number of subscriptions outstanding for 2016/17 as also indicated in EC’s report to be discussed later under the next item on the Agenda.
    
  • DAM still had in his possession some 20 copies of the PF souvenir brochures. Committee members who had not bought a copy were urged to do so. KP had also written to Syed Haider of OPANA informing him that we had some surplus copies of the brochure together with the costs involved. AC would also prompt them about this by email and put a suitable note on our website. 
    

 
5 Hon Treasurer’s report
EC tabled his Report and Accounts for the period 1 May 2016 to 30 September 2016 noting that 14 members had not paid their subscriptions for 2013/14, 21 members for 2014/15, 39 members for 2015/16 and 46 members for 2016/17. EC observed that the outstanding subscriptions amounted to some £2,400 which was a lot of money. DAM mentioned that according to his records, all persons attending the Reunion lunch had paid their dues.  
As at 30 September 2016, the HSBC bank balances of the three accounts stood at some £17,103 (including £12,518 in the ring-fenced SPS Development Fund and the balance of £4,585 in the current and ordinary deposit accounts, representing the General Fund). EC confirmed the Association’s finances remained in good order, but that every effort should be made to collect the outstanding subscription monies. 
AC mentioned that he had an outstanding bill relating to website costs which he would submit to DAM in due course.
EC was thanked for his report.
In the light of the continuing large amount of outstanding subscriptions and the difficulties in collecting them, JKH suggested that the Committee should give some thought as to how the OPA(E) should be funded in the future and the composition of the Committee. JKH reminded the Committee that whilst the OPA Kolkata was funded by the School, other OPAs were funded by donations, annual subscriptions, etc. This was particularly relevant given the proposal to set up a global OPA in the context of Vision 2023 whilst still keeping the existing OPAs operating in local chapters. Currently certain chapters operated on different bases and perhaps we should find out how each chapter operates. JKH urged the Committee to consider this further bearing in mind funding of its operations and the onerous burden placed on certain of the members holding honorary positions and how to share these burdens amongst members of the Committee. In the meantime, members should continue to be chased to pay their outstanding subscriptions and DAM will provide a list of those members who need to be chased in writing to KP.  
6 Website update
AC reminded the Committee of the continuing success of the website with over 104,000 hits to date. He also requested Committee members to review and consider what separate heading should be placed on the website, such as Vision 2023 matters, etc. JKH reminded the Committee that the website had transformed the way the Committee disseminated news and information not only to its members but also the rest of the OP fraternity. 
 7 OPA(E) Committee succession planning and constitutional matters
This was discussed generally under Item 5 of the Agenda above. In this context, DAM confirmed that he would be resigning his position as Hon Secretary at the 2017 AGM for personal family reasons.
KP asked the Committee to consider, under the Vision 2023 proposals, how we could raise funds for the Corpus Fund in due course by possibly appealing directly to members for contributions to it.  
8 Date of next meeting
The next meeting of the OPA(E) is due to be held in February 2017. DAM will circulate dates closer the time. 
9 Any other business
There being no further matters raised, the Chairman brought the meeting to a close with thanks to BPB (in his absence) for his usual generous hospitality in providing the venue and nibbles. 

2015

MINUTES OF THE 13TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE OLD PAULITE ASSOCIATION (EUROPE), HELD AT 189 PICCADILLY, LONDON W1, ON SATURDAY 18TH JULY 2015 AT 6.00 PM

PRESENT:  B P Bhattacharya, Z Cama, A Chaudhuri, E Cohen, Ravi Ghosh, J K Hammond, P Holroyd-Smith, Md Monir Hossain, A Kar, Surajit Kar, N Kulisra,  D A Medland,  D Mukarji, K Pearce, Y S Siddiqui

1   WELCOME AND APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE 

 Ken Pearce was elected Chair for the meeting and welcomed all members attending, particularly Surajit Kar from OPANA who would be addressing the meeting under item 9 of the Agenda.

Apologies for absence were received from: E Cohen and Arshak Sarkissian. The following members and honorary members indicated that they would not be attending the AGM (but some would attend the Reunion dinner after the AGM): Max Aldridge, Trevor Aldridge, J Billington, J Burrows-Watson, D D Chanrai, T Dutta, G Elloy, F Khundkar, E P Lawrence, L Lee, K Lewis, R Mandal, D Ray, D Sanyal, C Shaw, C Wadia.                                                                                                   

2   MINUTES OF THE LAST AGM AND MATTERS ARISING

The meeting accepted the Minutes of the last AGM meeting held on 28 June 2014 and circularised previously in draft, as a correct record. These were signed by the Chair of that meeting, Monir Hossein (MH) and the Hon Secretary David Medland (DAM).

Matters arising had been dealt with in the Hon Secretary’s report which had been emailed and sent in hard copy (only to those without email) to all members of the Association. Substantive items were to be discussed as Agenda items later in the meeting.

3    HON SECRETARY’S REPORT

As the Hon Secretary’s report (dated 20th June 2015) had been sent to all members it was assumed that it had been read. DAM highlighted only a few items, the most substantive were discussed below and subsumed in later Agenda items. 

  • DAM drew attention with sadness to the OPs and members who had passed away since his last report. In addition, a former master at the School, Mathew Lobo, had also passed away during this period and had not been included in his report
  • To continue to encourage younger members to agree to join the Committee on a rotational basis to get a more representative age group in relation to when they attended the school, DAM questioned whether a process could be set up to inform the OPA(E) (possibly by the OPA Kolkata?) of OPs coming to the UK for their further education after leaving the School, so the OPA(E) might be available for them to contact if they required assistance and/or advice.
  • Feedback on the very successful and enjoyable event ‘Paulite Forever’ held at the School at end October last year had been provided on our website. The Committee has been giving further consideration to follow up matters following the ‘Way Forward’ discussions held at the event; Surajit Kar would be giving some feedback on similar discussions held at the recent OPANA meeting in San Francisco under item 9 of the Agenda. 
  • As reported in the previous year, no response had been received from Rev Halder nor the Bursar regarding any financial assistance the OPA(E) might give the School . Further consideration of this matter has been held in abeyance until the follow up matters arising from the ‘Way Forward’ discussions referred to above and under agenda item 9 were clarified.
  • DAM drew attention to the continuing difficulties in persuading members to pay their annual subscription on time. A brief discussion ensued as to how members could be incentivised to pay their subscriptions in a timely fashion, perhaps through a discount. The OPA(E) Committee would give further thought to this matter. For the moment the AGM agreed the present annual subscription be maintained at £20.
  • DAM mentioned that an additional Committee meeting was held this year in December 2014 to discuss feedback from the ‘Paulite Forever’ event. KP reminded the meeting that although some expense items had been reduced as a result of increased use of the internet for communication (eg. stationery, postage, Newsletter production, etc.), it still costs money to run the association.  Committee members attended committee meetings, at least 4 times a year, at their own expense without claiming legitimate and not inconsiderable travel expenses. Additionally BPB had always generously provided the room and meeting facilities together with light refreshments entirely without charge. Were the association to be charged for those facilities and were members to claim quite legitimate travel expenses, the annual subscription would be insufficient to cover costs and would certainly need to be raised. 
  • Financial matters would be discussed under item 4 of the agenda.
  • The popularity of our website continues to go from strength to strength with over 70,000 ‘hits’ to date with the Twitter link proving an on line platform for members to discuss matters of mutual interest.  Our thanks go to our webmaster, committee member Arindam Chaudhuri, for his able stewardship of our website.
  • Usual communications by email were held with members during the year (eg notifications re AGM etc) and included on our website.  DAM had also heard recently from Lucinda Gibbs with news of her father, (and the OPA(E) patron), David Gibbs and of his recent trip to India (in February this year). David is now 89 years of age. Lucinda would keep him abreast of OPA(E) matters.
  • The changes to the Rules of the OPA(E) had been ratified by the members at the previous year’s AGM.
  • DAM referred to the table relating to the membership of the OPA(E) given in paragraph 6 of his report. Since the table was prepared, a new member, John Burrows- Watson, had joined the OPA(E) and was going to attend the dinner following the AGM.

     

    4   HON TREASURER’S REPORT

    The Hon Treasurer Ellis Cohen had sent his apologies for his absence on holiday with his family. In his absence, DAM tabled copies of his report and the Accounts for the year 1st April 2014 to 31st March 2015. DAM affirmed that the Association funds continued to be in a healthy state and drew members’ attention to the following matters:

  • Membership fees were slightly down from the previous year reflecting both the numbers of members who had reached the age of 80 years and were now exempt from paying the annual subscription and the drop in numbers of eligible members who had not paid their annual subscriptions and thus not accounted for in the Accounts which were prepared on an actual fees received basis.

  • Expenditure included an amount of £500 which the OPA(E) had contributed as seed capital towards the Paulite Forever event and which was unlikely to be recovered.

  • Provision had been made in the Accounts for expenses incurred by the Hon Secretary in respect of postage and stationary amounting to £54.

  • Exceptional bank charges of £100 had been incurred in respect of remittances to India for the seed capital referred to above and the purchase of OPA memorabilia made available to members at last year’s AGM and Reunion lunch.

    The ‘Headline’ figures are as follows. The income from membership fees, donations and interest was £1,453 and expenditure was £710. The excess of income over expenditure was £743 (2013/14 £1,213).   Total cash at bank amounted to £17,789. The balance in the Development Fund was £12,507 following a transfer (which was ratified at last year’s AGM) from current and deposit accounts in the previous year. BP Bhattacharya formally proposed and Joe Hammond seconded that the accounts be accepted. Members present approved the accounts unanimously. The meeting thanked the Honorary Treasurer Ellis Cohen in his absence for his diligent work and his report.        

    5   HON INDEPENDENT ACCOUNTANT’S REPORT

    DAM reported that, following an introduction by BPB, Sukumar Saha of ARN Hoxton, Chartered Accountants, had been appointed as Honorary Independent Accountant by the OPA(E). This appointment, together with his reappointment, needed to be ratified and approved by the members. Sukumar Saha’s appointment was proposed by Yussuf Siddiqui, seconded by Joe Hammond; his reappointment was proposed by BP Bhattacharya, seconded by Joe Hammond. These approvals were carried unanimously.  The Independent Accountant was thanked for his Report which was included in the Accounts which had been approved.

    6    ELECTION OF OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS

    The current OPA(E) Officers and Committee members are:        

    Patron: D S Gibbs,   President: K Pearce,   Vice-Presidents: J Martin, A Sarkissian                                 Hon Secretary: D A Medland,   Hon Treasurer: E Cohen                                                                                  Members:  B P Bhattacharya, Z Cama, A Chaudhuri, J K Hammond, M Hussain, A Kar, N Kulisra,  A Singhania, Y Siddiqui (co-opted alternate member)  

  • The full complement of Committee membership is 10 (this does not include the Patron, President and Vice-Presidents who are also members of the Committee). Yusuf Siddiqui had been co-opted earlier on in the meeting as a member of the Committee in place of Amitabh Singhania.
  • Whilst individual members of the Committee were required to rotate every two years, all committee members present were asked if they were willing to be re-elected and all agreed. 
  • As advised at last year’s AGM, our President Ken Pearce stood down as Hon President of the OPA(E) following the AGM and Joe Hammond was appointed in his place. KP would continue to be a member of the Committee as a Vice-President.  Members expressed their gratitude to KP for acting as Hon President over the past five years, a position he held with much commitment, passion and diplomacy with the welfare of the School at the forefront of his thoughts.

7    APPOINTMENT/REAPPOINTMENT OF HON INDEPENDENT ACCOUNTANT

This was dealt with under item 5 of the agenda above.

8    THE ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION

This was dealt with under item 3 of the agenda above.

9    OLD PAULITE ASSOCIATION UPDATES

The Chairman introduced Surajit Kar of the OPANA and invited him to speak to the meeting about the OPNA proposal entitled Vision-2023.

SK presented an abridged version of the Vision-2023 concept given to the reunion in Pleasanton and tabled a proposed framework for future OPA interaction with the school and the governors, largely in accord with the views of the OPA(E). He had worked closely with members of the OPA(E) committee in developing and refining this vision. He advocated the concept of an ‘endowment fund’ to benefit the school.

The meeting noted the unanimous acceptance with which the complete Vision 2023 presentation had been received at the recent OPANA meeting in San Francisco and assured SK of OPA(E) support in presenting the proposals in India. The AGM agreed the committee could help finance future OPA(E) participation in promoting Vision 2023, subject to the rules of the ring-fenced ‘school development fund’ being observed.

The Chairman thanked SK for his lucid presentation which was well received by the AGM.

10   SCHOOL PROJECT SUPPORT AND FUND RAISING

This had been covered in the discussions under items 3 and 9 of the agenda.

11    DATE OF THE 14th AGM AND REUNION LUNCH/DINNER

The date of the next AGM and Reunion (the 14th) in 2016 is yet to be agreed and will be discussed at the next Committee meeting.

12   ANY OTHER BUSINESS                                                                                                                                                                        

There being no other business raised, Ken Pearce closed the meeting at 7.30 pm and was thanked by all for chairing it.

2014

MINUTES OF THE 12TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE OLD PAULITE ASSOCIATION (EUROPE), HELD IN THE PRIVATE CONSERVATORY AREA OF THE BOMBAY BRASSERIE, COURTFIELD ROAD, LONDON SW7 4QH, ON SATURDAY 28th JUNE 2014 AT 10.00 am

PRESENT:  B P Bhattacharya, Z Cama,  E Cohen, T Dobinson, J K Hammond,  A Kar, F Khundkar, N Kulisra,  Md Monir Hussain, Danny Juttla, Dilbar Singh Juttla, D A Medland,  K Pearce, Y S Siddiqui

1   WELCOME AND APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

The formal start of the meeting was at 10.15 am. Monir Hussian was elected Chair for the meeting and welcomed all members attending.

The following members and honorary members indicated that they would not be attending the AGM (but some would attend the Reunion lunch after the AGM): D Avery, Ursula Bery, J Billington, D D Chanrai, Mary Dickinson, T Dutta, G Elloy, A Ghosh, L Gibbs, P Holroyd Smith, E P Lawrence, L Lee, R Mandal, D Ray, D Sanyal, C Shaw, C Wadia. Apologies for absence were received from: A Chaudhuri, A Singhania and Arshak Sarkissian.                                                                                                    

2   MINUTES OF THE LAST AGM AND MATTERS ARISING

The meeting accepted the Minutes of the last AGM meeting held on 22 June 2013 as a correct record and these were signed by the Chair of that meeting, David Medland (DAM) and the Hon Secretary Joe Hammond (JKH).

Matters arising had been dealt with in the Hon Secretary’s report which had been emailed and sent in hard copy (only to those without email) to all members of the Association. Substantive items were to be discussed as Agenda items later in the meeting.

3    HON SECRETARY’S REPORT

As the Hon Secretary’s report (dated 24th June 2014) had been sent to all members it was assumed that it had been read. DAM highlighted only a few items, the most substantive of which were discussed below and subsumed in later Agenda items. 

  • To encourage younger members to agree to join the Committee on a rotational basis to get a more representative age group in relation to when they attended the school as students. Those present (proposed and seconded by individual members) voted to co-opt Yusuf Siddiqui as a committee member to replace A. Singhania who had requested leave of absence. Yusuf Siddiqui was welcomed on his appointment.
  • DAM mentioned that there had been little formal interaction with other OPA associations during the year, with the exception of that associated with the proposed ‘Paulite Forever’ celebratory event about which Ken Pearce (KP) would give the meeting an update under item 11 of the agenda. KP did mention that he maintains informal contact on a periodic basis, in particular, with the OPA (North America) and the OPA (Thailand). In addition, he observed that there seemed to be further associations being formed in India (eg in Delhi, Mumbai, Gauhati, Katmandu, etc) and he agreed to try and obtain further contact details about them in order to update our website in this regard. 
  • To date, no response had been received from Rev Halder or the Bursar regarding any financial assistance the OPA(E) could assist the School with on any infrastructure or other projects being contemplated. It was decided at the last FRSC meeting that this should be pursued on a more personal basis by any committee member, possibly, whilst attending the ‘Paulite Forever’ event.
  • DAM drew attention to the continuing difficulties in persuading members to pay their annual subscription on time.
  • Financial matters were to be discussed under item 4 of the agenda.
  • Attendees expressed their sadness at the deaths of David Arratoon and Surdasan (Khepu) Sur. In addition, DAM mentioned that Kim Taylor, a former master at the School, had also died since the last AGM and drew attention to an article about him in the Daily Telegraph. Appreciations of all three have been posted on the OPA(E) website.            
  • Website:  Our webmaster, committee member Arindam Chaudhuri, was unable to attend this meeting. The popularity of our website was exemplified by having over 40,000 hits to date, since inception. The inclusion of social websites has also proved to be popular amongst members, encouraging interaction between them.  
  • Usual communications by email were held with members during the year and included on our website.  DAM also requested that should members have any more personal exchanges between them regarding matters of interest relating to the School, to please submit them for inclusion on our website.
  • DAM tabled the Rules of the OPA(E) showing the proposed changes which had been discussed and agreed at the last committee meeting which needed to be ratified by the members at the AGM.
  • Under Rule 1, the change in the registered office of the OPA(E) to 189 Piccadilly, London W1, with BPB’s permission which he gave.

  • Under Rule 4a, an addition to the paragraph that members who reach the age of 80 shall be re-registered as Hon Members in the financial year following them reaching that age.

  • Under Rule 8c, this should be deleted because withholding the UK Newsletter to members who do not pay their annual subscriptions for over 6 months when due was now academic insomuch that the UK newsletter was now replaced by the inclusion of the Magazine on the website.

  • Under Rule 11 relating to the annual accounts, this should be amended to state that the Hon Treasurer should present a set of Accounts for the year ended 31 March each year which should be reported on by a suitably qualified independent Hon Accountant appointed each year for this purpose. There was no real necessity for an audit (with all its attendant professional rules and regulations) to be carried out following the change in the regulations relating to small and medium sized organisations , which the OPA(E) was.

  • Under Rule 13a, clarification was required in that the Hon Secretary was required to report annually to the AGM, on behalf of the Committee and not to the Committee itself.

  • Under Rule 14, in view of the proposed change referred to in iv) above, the Hon Accountant shall be appointed at the AGM, rather than the Hon Auditor.

    BPB proposed and another member seconded that the proposed new Rules be adopted. The motion was ratified and carried unanimously.

  • With regard to future events, the ‘Paulite Forever’ event was to be discussed further under item 11 of the agenda.
  • DAM drew attention to the table relating to the membership of the OPA(E) given in paragraph 6 of his report which showed that in recent years the membership was being maintained at over 100 members and honorary members.             

4   HON TREASURER’S REPORT

The Hon Treasurer Ellis Cohen tabled copies of his report and the Audited Accounts for the year 1st April 2013 to 31st March 2014. He reported that the Association funds were in a healthy state. The ‘Headline’ figures are as follows. The income from membership fees, donations and interest was £1,709 and expenditure was £496, so the excess of income over expenditure was £1,213 (2012/13 £1,246).   Total cash at bank amounted to £18,353. The balance in the Development Fund was £12,500 following a transfer (which needed to be ratified at this AGM) from current and deposit accounts of £4,019. This transfer was proposed and seconded by individual members respectively and ratified unanimously.

Following a brief review of the Accounts by the members present, BPB formally proposed and a member seconded that the accounts be accepted, and the motion was carried unanimously.

The meeting thanked the Honorary Treasurer Ellis Cohen for his diligent work and his report.        

5   HON AUDITOR’S REPORT

The Hon Auditor Fazle Khundkar explained the nature of the audit he had carried out and his relationship as a member of the OPA(E) and with a committee member. He confirmed that the Records were kept in good order, and he maintained a close interaction with the Honorary Treasurer Ellis Cohen during the course of his work. He was thanked for his diligence and for his Report which was included in the Accounts which had been approved.

In view of the impending appointment of an Honorary Accountant following the change in the Rules, he now wished to stand down as Honorary Auditor. Individual committee members paid tribute and warm regards to Mr Khundkar for his help and advice over the years he had acted as Honorary Auditor.

6     PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE RULES OF THE ASSOCIATION

This had been dealt with under item 3 of the agenda.

7    ELECTION OF OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS

The current OPA(E) Officers and Committee members are:         

Patron: D S Gibbs,   President: K Pearce,   Vice-Presidents: J Martin, A Sarkissian                                 Hon Secretary: D A Medland,   Hon Treasurer: E Cohen                                                                                  Members:  B P Bhattacharya, Z Cama, A Chaudhuri, J K Hammond, M Hussain, A Kar, N Kulisra,  A Singhania   

  • The full complement of Committee membership is 10 (this does not include the Patron, President and Vice-Presidents). Yusuf Siddiqui had been co-opted earlier on in the meeting as a member of the Committee in place of Amitabh Singhania who had requested that he take leave of absence.                                                                                    
  • Whilst individual members of the Committee were required to rotate every two years, all committee members present were asked if they were willing to be re-elected and all agreed.  
  • Our President Ken Pearce had agreed to continue as President until the next AGM and thereafter would be happy to continue to be a member of the Committee as a Vice-President.

8    APPOINTMENT OF THE HONORARY INDEPENDENT ACCOUNTANT

The meeting agreed to leave the matter of appointment of a suitably qualified person to act as the Honorary Accountant to the Committee. Once appointed initially by the Committee, this appointment would need to be ratified by the members at the next AGM.    

9   THE ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION

The annual subscription has been held at £20 for many years, and up to now has been used to cover the day to day running costs and the production of the Newsletter. The latter has now been amalgamated as the Magazine on our website. In keeping the annual subscription at £20, it was agreed that members should be informed that the subscription should cover not only the administration costs of running the OPA(E), but also a certain percentage would be transferred from any surplus arising each year to the School Development Fund once ratified by the members at each AGM. Several suggestions were made as to how the School Development Fund could be employed, such as sponsoring of special prizes for students at the School, the additional training of local teachers and IT projects, etc. However, the meeting agreed that the members needed to be consulted on any proposed major item of financial assistance to the school before implementation.

10   SCHOOL PROJECT SUPPORT AND FUND RAISING

This had been covered in the discussion on the annual subscription under item 9 of the agenda.

11    OLD PAULITE ASSOCIATION UPDATES AND THE EVENT PAULITE FOREVER                                                                                                         

KP reported a committee had been formed for this event which would be disbanded once it was over. A separate website has been set up by the PF committee for registration purposes, and regular updates about the event have been posted on our website. KP has been in regular touch with Old Paulite, Jaswant Sokhey and further elaborated that the initiative to hold the event entitled ‘Paulite Forever’ was the brainchild of Jaswant Sokhey in Gauhati. It is intended to be a weekend celebration to bring Old Paulites together and closer to the School and to mark its move 150 years ago from Calcutta to Darjeeling. It has been supported by the OPA(E), being in line with our objectives. Guidance has been given as to how to register on the PF website (‘pauliteforever.com’). Members are encouraged to register on this website whether or not they would be attending the event. Any profit arising from holding the event would be given to the School after repaying any seed capital contributed to finance the setting up costs. (The OPA(E) has contributed £500 seed capital towards this event).

12    DATE OF THE 13th AGM AND REUNION LUNCH

The date of the next AGM and Reunion (the 13th) in 2015 is yet to be agreed and will be discussed at the next Committee meeting.

13     ANY OTHER BUSINESS                                                                                                                                                                        DAM drew attention to the memorabilia put on display in the restaurant for sale to the members.

There being no other business raised, Monir Hussain closed the meeting at 12.00 pm and was thanked by all for chairing it.

2013

MINUTES OF THE 11TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE OLD PAULITE ASSOCIATION (EUROPE), HELD IN THE PRIVATE CONSERVATORY AREA OF THE BOMBAY BRASSERIE, COURTFIELD ROAD, LONDON SW7 4QH, ON SATURDAY 22nd   JUNE 2013 AT 10.00 am

PRESENT:  B P Bhattacharya,  Z Cama,  E Cohen, J K Hammond,  A Kar, F Khundkar, N Kulisra,  Md Monir Hussain, D A Medland,  A Sarkissian, C Shaw, Y S Siddiqui

1   WELCOME

The formal start of the meeting was at 10.15 am. David Medland was elected Chair for the meeting, proposed by Joe Hammond, seconded unanimously.

2   APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from:                                                                                                       D Gibbs, K G C Pearce, A Singhania, A Chaudhuri, L Gibbs, R Mandal, P Massey, C Borthwick , D Avery, J Hunt, J Billington 

3   MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

The Hon Secretary suggested that three Agenda items, namely the Minutes of the last meeting (2012), Matters Arising and the Secretary’s Report (items 3, 4 and 5 on the Agenda) could be combined. The meeting accepted the Minutes as a correct record and these were signed by the Chair David Medland and the Hon Secretary Joe Hammond.

4    MATTERS ARISING

Matters arising had been dealt with in the Hon Secretary’s report which had been emailed and sent in hard copy (only to those without email) to all members of the Association. Substantive items were to be discussed as Agenda items later in the meeting.

5    HON SECRETARY’S REPORT

As the Hon Secretary’s report (dated 26th May 2013) had been sent to all members it was assumed that it had been read. JKH highlighted only a few items, the most substantive of which were discussed and subsumed later Agenda items. 

  • Attendees expressed their sadness at the deaths of Andrew Tong, Hector Will and Olpherts Gregory. Appreciations of all three have been posted (with photographs) on the OPA(E) website.             
  • Website:  At the last AGM Arindam Chaudhuri  noted that he was about to launch the website. The creation of the OPA(E) website www.oldpaulites.org by Arindam is arguably the most significant step forward made by the Association. This is an open website allowing easy access for all to information and news of the OPA(E), the School, other Associations, updates on initiatives and forthcoming events, and links to other sites. To date the site has recorded over 14,000 hits. The site has certainly been instrumental in attracting new members to our Association.
  • Interaction with the School, other Associations and the board of Governors.                            (1) It had been agreed at the last ordinary Committee meeting that progression of the discussion document Daring to be Different (DTBD) would be discussed at the AGM. It was agreed that the document was a fine paper but releasing DTBD widely was not appropriate. In fact, since much had changed in the School in recent years, it would be best to reconsider it in the present context.                                                                                                                      (2) Fund Raising. An explicit targeted fund raising drive has been held in abeyance as we waited to learn of the priorities of the Rev Joy Halder. At the most recent Committee meeting a list of priorities was made known and this led to a specific proposal for an ambitious targeted fund raising drive. This was put to the AGM and received unanimous support as the prime objective for the OPA(E).  A target should be set to raise a significant amount (over a three year period) to support both infrastructure projects but also to set up a Trust/Endowment to recruit/retain high quality staff.                                                                        (3)  In order to progress this it was agreed that the Fund Raising Committee (DAM, ZC, BPB, EC) should set down ideas to be discussed at the October Committee meeting to lead to a formal paper explaining the objectives and the strategy for achieving the aims.  

             

6   HON TREASURER’S REPORT

The Hon Treasurer Ellis Cohen tabled copies of his report and the Audited Accounts for the year 1st April 2012 to 31st March 2013. He reported that the Association funds were in a healthy state. The ‘Headline’ figures are as follows. The income from membership fees, donations and incidental sales   was £1798 and expenditure was £552, so the excess of income over expenditure was £1246 (Current Account). The balance in the Development Fund is £8476, the Reserve Fund is £4009, and the Current Account is £4206. The Auditor Fazle Khundkar (present at the meeting) had signed off the Accounts earlier. B P Bhattacharya formally proposed that the accounts be accepted, and was seconded unanimously. In the discussion that followed the following is noted.

  • In response to questions relating to the apparent shortfall (between numbers of members and the subscriptions received) it was noted that there are a number of Honorary Members who do not pay, and neither do student members. But there are some (persistent) non-payers, who have been pursued with limited success. It has been decided that after three years of non-payment they will be dropped from membership and circulation. The list of non-payers is made available at the regular Committee meetings.

  • There was a discussion on the level of the annual subscription and this is reported under Item 10.

    The meeting thanked the Treasurer Ellis Cohen for his diligent work and his report.        

    7   HON AUDITOR’S REPORT

    The Hon Auditor Fazle Khundkar noted that the Records were kept in good order, and he maintained a close interaction with the Treasurer Ellis Cohen. He was thanked for his diligence, and the Report was accepted unanimously.

     8     APPOINTMENT/REAPPOINTMENT OF THE HON AUDITOR

    Fazle Khundkar was unanimously invited to continue as Auditor. He agreed and was so appointed.

    9   ELECTION OF OFFICERS/COMMITTEE MEMBERS

    The current OPA(E) Officers and Committee members are:         

    Patron: D S Gibbs,   President: K Pearce,   Vice-Presidents: J Martin, A Sarkissian                                 Hon Secretary: J K Hammond,   Hon Treasurer: E Cohen                                                                                  Members:  B P Bhattacharya, Z Cama, A Kar, N Kulisra, A Chaudhuri, D Medland,  A Singhania   

  • The full complement of Committee membership is 10 (this does not include the Patron, President and Vice-Presidents). Currently our membership is 9 and JKH noted that Amitabh Singhania had requested that he take ‘leave of absence’ until next year.                                                                                      All Committee members present (excluding JKH) were asked if they were willing to be re-elected and all agreed.  For those not present, namely Arindam Chaudhuri and Amitabh Singhania, it was assumed that they too will continue (unless we subsequently hear otherwise).                                                                                                                                                      It was Md Monir Hussain’s first AGM, and he was asked if he would be happy to join the Commitee. He agreed and was voted in unanimously.
  •  JKH reiterated what he had said at the last AGM and later about succession planning for the position of Honorary Secretary. He confirmed that he was stepping down as Hon Sec immediately after this AGM, but said he would wish to remain on the Committee. This was accepted by the meeting.  JKH reported that at the previous Committee meeting David Medland had been proposed as the next Hon Sec. David said he had given this considerable thought and subject to a few conditions would be willing to take on the position; the two principal conditions are (a) that the appointment is for a fixed term of 3 years (b) that he would need some support on the technical (IT) operational aspects. These conditions were noted by those present and BPB kindly volunteered to provide this support from his staff.                                                                                                                   Accordingly JKH formally proposed David Medland as Hon Sec and this was supported unanimously. JKH will work with DAM in the coming months to ensure a smooth transition.
  •  JKH then relayed the message from our President Ken Pearce who confirmed that he wished to step down as President, but would be happy to be a Vice-President. Ken wished to do this preferably at this AGM but could continue for the coming year allowing for a successor to be named. There was unanimous agreement that Ken had been an ideal President, carrying out the role with authority, diplomacy, distinction and unstinting energy.  Finding a successor would be difficult.                                                                                        Arshak Sarkissian was proposed but he declined noting that (a) he had been the founder of the OPA(E) in its present form and had effectively been President for about 6 years, and (b) felt that a younger person was appropriate, and one who visited India regularly.

 The meeting agreed that finding a successor to Ken Pearce required considerable further consideration.   

                                                     

10   THE ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION

The Annual subscription has been held at £20 for many years, and up to now has been used to cover the day to day running costs and the production of the Newsletter. JKH noted that a major change this past year has been the increasing use of electronic communication, both email and through the website. This has meant that postage costs have reduced (only those members without emails received hard copy of material). Further, the Newsletter (written and edited by Ken Pearce) will be more in the form of a Magazine as news will posted on the website. This Magazine will also be posted on the website and only a limited number will be printed for mailing.                                           In view of this, the rationale for and use of the funds accumulating from the annual subscription will be reviewed. It was proposed that the subscription should remain at £20 but that it should be used also to contribute to the School Development fund, once the operational costs have been covered. This was agreed and it was proposed that members will be informed of this change once the Committee had agreed the priorities to be funded. This will be communicated to members through circulation of these AGM Minutes, and explicitly at the time of requesting membership renewals for the year beginning 1st April 2014. 

11   OLD PAULITE ASSOCIATION UPDATES                                                                                                           The initiative entitled ‘Paulite Forever’ which is being driven by Old Paulite (Gauhati) Jaswant Sokhey has gained considerable support from all Associations in India and abroad. The target is to hold the celebration (of SPS being in Darjeeling for 150 years) on the 30th and 31st October 2014. The aim is to hold it in Darjeeling.  Jaswant is in constant dialogue with Associations and very recently also Rev Joy Halder and Bishop Biswas discussing aims, objectives, format etc. We in the OPA(E) have offered our support wherever we can, particularly in publicising it on the website. Members will be kept informed of developments.

Other updates are covered under Item 5.           

12   SCHOOL PROJECT SUPPORT AND FUND RAISING                                                                                         This is covered under Item 5 .                                                                                                  

13    DATE OF THE 12th AGM AND REUNION

The date of the next AGM and Reunion (the 12th) in 2014 is yet to be agreed.

14   AOB                                                                                                                                                                         (1) The Committee should consider whether to include email addresses of members on the website.                    (2) A scanned version of the School Chronicle might be included on the website.                                          (3) Material/articles received should be considered for inclusion on the website.

David Medland closed the meeting at 12.00 pm and was thanked by all for chairing it.