Page 4 - OM Newsletter - Issue 43 - 2020

OPERATIONS DIRECTOR’S REPORT 2019
Alumni Engagement
In 2019 we hosted 23 events at College (15 in 2018), with over 1100 attending, including pupil); 25 (23) further OM events off-site have drawn some 600 OMs. Once again, we have looked to expand the appeal of being an Old Malvernian, by broadening the range and frequency of Society events.
Highlights included the Malvern Festival Chorus featuring Quentin Hayes (5.72-76), the Ballet; a guided tour of the Sorolla Exhibition at the National Gallery, courtesy of Edmund Peel (SH.61-64); Ascot, Beaufort Festival of Polo, Champions Tennis and the Salon Privé Classic Car Show at Blenheim. These events all proved attractive, I am delighted to say.
This year we tried to co-ordinate a schedule of presentations by OMs. A report appears on p.1234.
The two House reunions (No.3 and No.5) were both well attended (see reports on pp. X-X and Y-Y). The 50-Year reunion sparked healthy attendance, and the inaugural 25-Year reunion attracted nearly 40 OMs and guests.
The four ‘Malvern in London’ receptions (see pp. 12-34) were well attended, with over 70 coming along to the early Christmas drinks at the May Fair hotel. Following on from the initiative in 2018 of putting together Malvernian constituencies, this year we have organised very successful gatherings of OMs, prospective, current and past parents in Milan, Vienna, Munich, Singapore, Mumbai and New Delhi. There was also a visit to the Somme battlefields when we honoured our fallen in the WW1 campaign, and a trip to Verona, Venice and Florence. The ‘Malvern in Malvern’ reunion in December 2019 was once again a great hit with those returning home for Christmas.
New Engagements
Parents were welcomed into the Society in November 2018 and we are delighted to see more parents coming along to our receptions, especially abroad.
We are also pleased with the progress to welcome alumni from Malvern College’s wider family of schools: from June 2020, those leaving Malvern College Chengdu will be enrolled into the Society.
Career-mentoring
In February 2018 we launched our new website OM Connect, and we now have over 2500 registrations.
We monitor traffic between OMs (and parents) to note the levels of engagement, so we know how well the platform is being used, but, of course, once OMs ‘connect’ the mentoring is often progressed ‘off-site’. Please let us know of mentoring relationships, not least so that we can publicise to everyone else the effectiveness of the service.
We use the data to suggest OMs for careers talks at College: apart from the careers seminar (March), there was also an OM Law Panel (November). More usefully, careers department staff now have access to our directory, so that they can see which OMs work where and who is available to help pupils; we hope that this facility will be used substantially and coherently for the benefit of pupils.
Clubs and Societies
You will see later in this Newsletter (pp. 12-34) that the sports clubs are in good nick. There have been 85 (53 in 2018) sports fixtures (including cricket, football, golf, netball, men’s and women’s hockey, sailing, court games, cross-country running and shooting). In March about 80 OMs returned to the College to take part in sports fixtures (3 football teams, 2 netball teams, men’s and women’s hockey, fives, squash, rackets, chess and shooting). This proved once again to be a thoroughly enjoyable day. The cricket XI reached the semi-final of the Cricketer Cup and the veterans’ football XI retained the Derrick Moore Veterans’ Cup, but pride of place must go to the Golfing Society. with wins in the Halford Hewitt and the Senior Darwin, and reaching the final of the Grafton Morrish. Clive Edginton (3.64-69) has been appointed Captain of the R&A for the year.
Communications and Profile
There are daily posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, as well as a weekly Newsletter via OM Connect. We currently reach about 3000 OMs every day.
We hosted a lunch at College for Foundation Year pupils (November), when we explained the history of the College and the Society; and we introduced the Society to Upper Sixth leavers at a lunch in College (March), when they bought £4k of OM merchandise in 15 minutes!
Thank you to all the OMs who contribute financially to the College through the Society. In the ‘Development Impact Report’ of this edition you will discover how the College is benefiting from your philanthropy. In particular, you will read of the focus of our fundraising efforts in the coming years: to ensure, by the provision of assisted places, that a Malvern College education is available to talented boys and girls who might otherwise not be able to come here. The Malvernian Society Assisted Places scheme will be the key element in our 2020 Annual Fund, and it will be central to the work of the Society, as we look to build up our endowment fund.
Finance
Work on fund management has been substantial. Sarasin & Partners, our investment managers, reported to the Investment sub- committee (September) on a promising
2019. They also satisfied the trustees on their ‘Environmental and Socially Responsible’ credentials.
Merchandise sales have been very strong; the profit has increased tenfold in two years.
Archives
Some key work has been undertaken on our WW1 and WW2 archives. Two further names are to be added to the list of the fallen in chapel: AW Cook and EV Richardson. A third name, CD Mattox, has been identified, and several others are being reviewed. With regard to WW2, the name of CG Bird to be added to the list of the fallen given on the memorial in the narthex. This same memorial originally bore 241 names; this will be corrected to read 249.
New plaques have been mounted at College to honour the work done at the College between 1942 and 1946. The first (in the Main Building foyer) lists 17 eminent scientists, including 11 FRS and three Nobel Laureates. The second is on the main gate near School House, and reads ‘Malvern College home of the Telecommunications Research Establishment 1942-1946 and the ‘boffins’ who developed radar and pioneered radio astronomy and modern computing’. A replica has been mounted on the Faber Gate. A fourth plaque, on the Pavilion, honours Freddie Williams’ and Tom Kilburn’s work on Random Access Memory, the foundation of all modern computing.
I hope you find plenty to interest you in these pages.
Paul Godsland
4 | Old Malvernian Newsletter