I have met so many of my contemporaries from decades ago and I’ve met several Old Boys that are new to me. There are so many dedicated people out there who are very interested in the progress of the school and in the “school beyond the gates”.

General

The Gillies Project has been completed and the view of the front of the school now looks fantastic. The Administration Block now blends in with the Memorial Library, particularly the orange roof tiles, so now we have a really professional building that everyone can be proud of.

The Thomas House Redevelopment project is making good progress and it is hoped that construction will start in the New Year. Colin Murdoch’s team have put hours of work into this $3.2 million project and they have prepared a really comprehensive and professional fund raising brochure which will be available soon. The initial target is to raise $800,000 by way of donations and if you are interested in becoming a donor please contact Colin Murdoch by email at strathdon@xtra.co.nz

Branches

The Hawkes Bay branch is holding their end of year function on Wednesday 22 November at the Havelock North Club starting at 5:30 pm and several Old Girls will be attending.

The Auckland Branch held a Spring Get Together on Thursday 14th September at the Mainfreight Head Office in Otahuhu. Don Braid (1973 – 1977) is the Group Managing Director of Mainfreight and what a night he and the Auckland team put on. Stuart North was at the top of his game with this one, aided by Noel Davies, Adrian Young and Peter Mathias, Robert Densem took all the photos. The main act for the evening was an auction of several exciting items and auctioneer Colin Dick (Wellington) brought out some high bids from the 40 odd people who attended. Several thousand dollars were raised and the school will benefit hugely from this project.

The North Canterbury Branch had a great evening on 24 October with Tom Walsh being the main speaker. Organised by Dion Crooks and Lex Newbegin, it was held at the Speights Ale House in Bealey Avenue with about 30 Old Boys who enjoyed Tom’s very impressive talk. And there were lots of questions which kept the evening very interesting.

In Timaru, the South Canterbury Branch has been set up by Andrew Ross who is one of our young Old Boys. As mentioned previously, this was instigated by our Executive Chairman Don McCully who will attend the new branch’s meetings in an ex officio capacity. The idea is to let the young guys run the branch with no interference from “old codgers”! It is hoped that Andrew will provide an update for the next newsletter.

The reunion is definitely on in Melbourne on Friday 10th November. I’m going over for this function and will be there with Bill White who has been the local organizer. We only managed to get eight Old Boys to sign up but at least it’s a start. Those attending are John Black (65-69), John Blackler (40-44), Don Christie (41-45), Duncan McFarlane (70-74), Bruce McNeill (50-62), Herb Plunkett (54-59), Bill White (56-60) and Chris Moore (57-61). Several Australian Old Boys replied to the invitation and many would have come except they had other things on.

It’s being held in conjunction with the Lincoln Alumni group who meet every year at that time.

50 Years On Reunion

On 10 and 11 November there is a 50 year reunion at the school in Timaru of Old Boys whose first year at school was 1967.

Stuart North has done a fantastic job in setting this gathering up with the help of several other Old Boys including Russell Crossan, Graeme Edgar, Rodger Lamb, Vaughan McEwen, Jeff Donaldson. Stuart reckons there will be over 100 people attending which includes wives/partners.

Membership

As mentioned in the previous newsletter, we have set up a marketing/membership sub-committee with the aim of increasing our numbers of financial members. David McInnes (1958 – 1962) and Andrew Ross have put together an initial business plan of how we can progress in this area and the detail they have gone into is very professional and specific. There will be a lot more to come in respect of this project.

In the meantime, if you want to become a member of the Timaru Boys’ High School Old Boys’ Association you can do so by going through the following steps:

Log on to www.timaruboys.school.nz
Click on MENU in the top left hand corner
Click on Old Boys
Click on Membership
Click on THSOBA membership form

Print out the form and pay your $30.00 by Direct Credit to the bank account shown (with a relevant reference) or post the form with your cheque attached to the postal address shown.

That’s all it takes! And that’s all it costs for a one year subscription. In return you will receive the Timaruvian each year and if you have an email address you will receive regular newsletters keeping you up to date with activities at the school and upcoming Old Boys’ functions.

Until next time.

Regards to all of you.

Chris Moore

National President

In this issue

The PDF version of the newsletter is available here.