President’s Welcome

Welcome to the latest edition of our magazine

A long association with the RGS, first as a pupil and more recently as a member of staff, has culminated in my becoming President of the ONA, a position which I am privileged to hold. I must thank my predecessor Rod Etherington (80-90) for all the valuable work he did during his presidency. I am very much looking forward to working with the ONA committee, and the new Headmaster, Dr Bernard Trafford, to take the Association forward.

I am pleased to tell you that three younger Old Novos, who all left in 2002 recently joined the committee. They, together with the new Vice President, Adam Goldwater (87-97) are already bringing in fresh ideas and suggestions. So far, they have set up an ONA Facebook group, which will be linked to a new ONA website, currently under construction, and are now helping to source new ONA merchandise.

The committee is working on my predecessor’s idea of bringing together groups of ONs in other parts of the UK, and indeed the world. At present this would be no more than informal gatherings, either to renew friendships or make new ones in the wider world; that is the RGS family. I have found when talking to some of you that this would be more attractive than say, a formal event such as a dinner.

With this in mind, I will be contacting those of you who live in the Sheffield and the East Midlands areas, to see if we can arrange meetings along these lines. If there is interest elsewhere, please let the ONA office know and we will do our best to help. My wife and I were in Vancouver recently, and met up with Jim DeLaHunt (75-78), who is willing to act as a coordinator on the Western seaboard of Canada. He would be delighted to hear from those of you who live in or visit that area. His contact details are on page 2.

Finally, as well as concerts and plays at the RGS (listed in the enclosed Arts Diary) there are two events, in particular, to pay attention to: the Northern Chords Chamber Festival and the London ONA dinner, being held on the 20 March. Details of both events can be found in this issue.

Mike Barlow (53-64) ONA President