From the new Chair

Club neWs & VieWs From the Chair

The Club’s army of volunteers has been busy this year. Richard Llewellyn was a seriously active President, attending over 30 events – possibly a record. The Management Committee met on six occasions. YOMS Ambassadors have been working hard on new initiatives. Reunions have been held in the South West and Cambridge. Professional Networking events have thrived. I want to thank all of our organisers for their selfless commitment – not always recognised. The Club would not succeed without them.

The high-level message I would like members to take away from my Martlet commentary is that the focus of your Committee’s efforts is on, what I call, future-proofing the Club. Initiatives are varied – some offensive and some defensive.

Membership development: The Life Membership scheme operated with the Foundation remains successful. It is by far our most significant source of new members. In Autumn Term 2019, a total of 392 pupils spread across a range of class years were being funded for future Club life membership by their parents.

YOMS Ambassadors: The large volume of new YOMS members anticipated in the coming years will need to be engaged. Sive Ozer’s team of YOMS Ambassadors have developed a plan which they will start to roll out in 2020. It currently comprises two programmes:

i. Pop up events aimed at OMs at Universities. Each year the YOMS Ambassadors will hold pub based reunions in 3-4 towns where there is a large number of OM students

ii. Year reunions: 5, 10 and 15 year reunions will be organised. The precise formula for each is still work in process. Hopefully each year group can help with organising their event.

Career support: member growth and hence income growth from the Life Membership scheme depend on the Club’s proposition being attractive both to parents and to the Foundation. The scheme is funded by parents and their fees are collected for the Club by the Foundation.

Richard Lidwell’s Careers Committee has been very active this year. Increasingly, it works closely with the school’s Careers Department, providing support to school career events and activities. In addition, the Club funds sixth form pupil attendance at Professional Networking events. Career support is a major priority and in 2020 we plan to launch a unique programme aimed at current and aspiring YOMS entrepreneurs. Data sharing: GDPR has proven universally to be a major barrier to common sense. So many people think “consent” is needed for any contact to take place. In reality, there are six alternative lawful bases for communication. As a voluntary members Club, we use “contract” as our lawful basis for contacting members. We intend to use “Legitimate Interest” as our lawful basis for communicating with non-members. This requires a data sharing agreement with the Foundation which we hope to have in place before end 2019. We have been unable to communicate with non-members for nearly three years because former Foundation executives embargoed this. This embargo has held us back on many fronts and I can promise you it will be a major relief when we can finally turn back the clock to a time when we could contact all OMs.

Communication clarity: the existence of two websites each aimed at OMs and with overlapping content is not an obvious marketing strategy! In 2020 we will work with the Foundation at merging content onto one single OM focussed website and eliminating duplicate communications from the Club and the Foundation. We both have distinctive messages for OMs and the current confusion is unhelpful.

Better governance: In 2020 we will complete the upgrade of our accounting systems. Faster reporting and less time spent on monthly routines will ultimately lead to better control. We owe this to existing members, parents who fund future life members and to the Foundation who support the life membership scheme.

As many of the annual members will confirm, I am committed to eliminating time (and hence £) consuming manual accounting routines that can be automated at virtually zero cost. Standing Orders are a case in point. Out of date reference numbers, joint accounts, company bank accounts etc all conspire to make reconciliation with members records a lengthy task. By contrast, our arrangement with our Direct Debit provider uses the membership number as a reference and reconciliation is automatic via a direct feed to our accounting system.

My thanks go to the 290 annual members who are on this system. However, as I write, there are 112 members still on Standing Orders paying the incorrect membership fee, despite requests to switch. This is inequitable to members paying the correct fee. Regrettably, during 2020, we may be forced to apply Club Rule 7 and lapse the memberships of those who persist in paying the incorrect subscription.