Whither the London ONA?

I met an ON a little while ago who had left the school about 7 or 8 years previously. He said that, whilst he was aware there was a London dinner every year, he didn’t realise there was a regional ON association in London organising it.

The London ONA is the only active regional association in existence at the present time. No doubt we all regret the passing of the other regional associations. But I believe the London ONA, by virtue of being based in the capital city, has the potential to fulfil a unique role. For this reason it’s vital we don’t let it go to the wall in the same way as the others. Of course, if any organisation is to survive across the decades, it needs to reinvent itself from time to time. If it does not do this it will lose its relevance to the age in which it is trying to operate. I believe the London ONA has reached this point in its history now. That is why, over the last few months, I have been attempting to meet with as many London-based ON’s as possible to see if we can arrive at some consensus about our future direction.

For some time now our only activity has been to organise a dinner at the RAF Club every year. Numbers attending this fluctuate a little, but regardless of the headcount there is a slow but steady trend in the demographics. The average age of the attendees is getting older every year. Has the London ONA lost its relevance to younger members? The comments of the person I met who said he didn’t know there was a London ON Association would appear to partly support this. Therefore if the London ONA is to have a long term future we need to be asking its members “what are we here for?” Should our sole function be to organise a dinner every year? Or can we be doing other things as well that would enable our association to remain relevant to everyone, young and old?

I believe there are a number of areas that we could explore. What underpins many of them, however, is the concept that as well as being merely a social club facilitating an opportunity to meet up once or twice a year we should also be active in the area of mutual self help. There has of course been some of this in the past but it has been mainly on an informal basis. It used to be quite common that, upon leaving the RGS, one went to a university where there was already an ON studying who had left the school a year or two previously. If you were lucky there might even be someone else going there from your own year cohort. This continuity of contact with near-contemporaries often continued into one’s professional life afterwards. The informal networks that resulted from this were invaluable to many in being aware of career opportunities and other openings at various stages.

This model of what happens to ON’s once they leave the school has, however, become outdated in a number of respects. There is a far wider choice of degree awarding institutions around now than existed a generation or so ago, and the routes into and through higher education and career choice are more diverse, so it is more likely now than it used to be that when ON’s progress down these paths they will not have the ready availability of near-contemporaries to associate with. Also the old certainties of a lifetime career have gone – it is more likely now that in the course of ON’s economically active lives they will make two or three career choices, often requiring further periods of study in mid-stream to facilitate these changes. People have to make more choices at different times and because of the atomised nature of modern society they cannot rely on informal networks to support them in this process so we need to be thinking about slightly more formal structures instead. Our ON’s may also need help sometimes in facing other work-related issues such as redundancy and retirement – and increasingly pregnancy,

Bruce Embleton (66-73), President of the London ONA, considers what role the London ONA should have in the future.

Whither the London ONA?

childcare and work-life balance are likely to “My own experience of moving feature as well now that the school has had toLondon entailed spending several years of female as well as male alumni. seven months in a somewhat substandard basement bedsit Another area which is particularly important in inChelsea with shared toilet London is housing. People coming to London facilities and no laundry need to know about opportunities that will provision on site.” enable them to get a foot on the ladder. Perhaps there are ON’s already established in Bruce Embleton London who could offer accommodation in their homes to new arrivals for a few months. My own experience of moving to London entailed spending seven months in a somewhat substandard basement bedsit in Chelsea with shared toilet facilities and no laundry provision on site. If we were to build up a database of available accommodation we would be able to spare many ON’s from being subjected to this sort of experience.

Of course, many of you will say “what is so special about London?” ON’s living and working in London share most of these problems with those living in Birmingham, Glasgow and Newcastle. The difference, I would suggest, lies in the fact that London, because of its nature as a capital city, has a large number of businesses and government departments whose corporate HQ’s are based here. These offer a unique range of opportunities to be explored, particularly in the field of work experience for recent leavers whilst they progress through higher education and in their early career paths. I suffer from epilepsy and I’m lucky enough to have a consultant neurologist who is Medical Director of the National Society of Epilepsy. When a colleague of mine asked me if there was any chance of her daughter getting a work experience placement in the hospital I wrote to him. She got a two week placement at the NSE and she is now in her third year doing medicine at UCL. Such opportunities as these, at the centre of a cutting edge field, are invaluable and London can offer opportunities that are unlikely to be found elsewhere.

So there is no doubt in my mind that if the London ONA goes the way of the other regional ON associations the ONA as a whole, and many of its members, will be the poorer for it. We therefore need to address the question of how we should reinvent ourselves to keep our Association relevant to people whose life experience is likely to be very different from those of us who left the school 30 years ago. I’d be interested to hear from you if you would like to join in this debate. Please e-mail me at bruce.embleton@yahoo.co.uk with your comments.

2009 Annual ONA Dinner

Over 130 Old Novos and guests attended the 2009 Annual Dinner, commencing with sherry and presentations to teachers who’d retired earlier in the year. The dinner itself was interspersed with toasts and speeches, with the entertaining speech given by guest speaker Professor Ian Gilmore (55-65) the highlight of the evening.

Old Novos of all ages attended, and group tables included the 2002 Leavers table, The Novo Rugby Club, 1989 Leavers, and a table of Old Novos athletes celebrating athletics as it was 50 years ago at the RGS. Next year’s dinner will be held on Friday 15 October.

Top left: Retired teacher Norman Baker and Robert Newton (68-78).

Top Centre: Chris Calver (60-71) with senior prefects.

Top Right: Old Novos at the reception.

Bottom right: Guest Speaker Professor Ian Gilmore (55-65).

Bottom left: The athletics table: 50 years of athletics at the RGS.