OLD PAULINE CLUB NEWS
The OPC’s AGM on 8 July marked the end of Brian Jones’s (1961-66) term as the Club’s President. His comments on the modernisation of the Club’s governance in his President’s Report were: “The most significant Old Pauline Club (OPC) events in the last year undoubtedly took place ‘behind the scenes’ and related to the Club’s Strategy Review. I mentioned a year ago that the Strategy Review Group (SRG) would be putting forward options and recommendations to the Main Committee later that year and this was duly done in November 2020 with a report entitled “The Case for Change”. The core assessment of the SRG, taking into account the responses from surveys of the membership and the views of stakeholders, was that the momentum of the OPC was swinging away from being a club whose principal activities revolve around sport at Thames Ditton, an Annual Dinner and the production of a well-regarded magazine to becoming an integral part of the wider Pauline Community living in much closer harmony with the School. The SRG’s view was that maintaining the status quo was not an option and that it needed to change to focus on what should be its main purpose of being an integral and leading part of the Pauline Community. It did not need to change the long-established aims of the Club but needed to change the means by which it fulfilled those aims and objects.
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ATRIUM
AUTUMN / WINTER 2021
The Report was considered by the Main Committee at a Strategy Day in November with much debate on the topics of governance; the land at Thames Ditton; the relationship with the School; engaging with OPs; communications; and sport. The proposals included in the Report to take the Club forward were approved by the Main Committee. This led to two streams of work. Firstly, a Governance Working Party was set up to consider, inter alia, the roles of the Main and Executive Committees, how to make them more effective and more representative of the membership and generally how to bring our structure and oversight up to date. Secondly, a Joint OPC/SPS Committee is in the process of being set up. Its immediate role will be to explore and progress implementation of ways in which the OPC and St Paul’s School can work together better; to consider what the possibilities are for the Thames Ditton site and Colets: and generally, to build a consensus on the development of sports and other activities. The School is committed to co-operate, co-ordinate and collaborate to promote a vibrant OPC, which interfaces with the School at many points, which in turn promotes and supports the School. There are many issues for the Committee to consider and it will shortly be agreeing
actions and setting targets for the next three years.
The main proposed changes to the Club’s governance were: •T he Main Committee and the Executive Committee to be replaced by a reconstituted Executive Committee.
•M embership of the new Executive Committee to have an age limit of 75 years.
•V ice Presidents, who are currently automatically members of the Main Committee, would be able to join an Advisory Council.
•T he new Executive Committee would have representatives from each OP age group – those in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s.
•T he Executive Committee would include the SPS Director of Development and Engagement and a staff member nominated by the High Master; and a SPS governor.
•T here would be a number of sub-committees, including a Strategy Implementation Committee, a Nominations Committee and a Sports Committee.
