Parents and Friends

GLENN DENNISTON

President of the

Parents and Friends Association

On behalf of The Southport School Parents and Friends Association, it is my pleasure to outline how this year’s committee has assisted The Southport School, the Support Groups and ultimately your sons in 2015. The P&F commenced the year with a new President, Glenn Denniston, and a new Secretary, Paul Shields. We welcomed back our Treasurer, Luella Smith, and returning members Mahnez Nelson, Francine Setchell, Kathryn Scaysbrook, Alan Parsons, Bob Myatt, Robert Hickson and Geoff King. I would like to thank the committee for all the hard work they have put in throughout the year. We are all busy people, but we choose to be a part of the P&F to support our boys and to help the School achieve its vision of being a world-class learning community.

I would also like to acknowledge the great work done by our retiring President, Elton Rasmussen. Elton has provided exceptional leadership for the committee and we wish him well for his future endeavors.

In the past year a major focus for the P&F was undertaking the running of a major raffle with a car as first prize. This took a lot of effort from a number of people and was ably led by Bob Myatt and resulted in some nice funds being generated for the P&F. Thanks, Bob, and all your helpers. Once again we successfully ran two functions, the first a welcoming cocktail party for new parents to the school and the second a thank you dinner for all the support groups.

As a new committee we have spent some time reviewing what our role is and what our priorities are. What came out of this was first a need for a clear business plan to be prepared covering both short and long-term goals. Second, it was reinforced that it was critical that the P&F and the 14 support groups (we have added two since last year!) work closely together looking for synergies and process improvements as well as efficiencies, in particular in purchasing. We have continued to encourage participation of the support groups in our P&F meetings.

A key initiative going forward will be to undertake a review of our store, with the potential for setting up an on-line shop to facilitate sales.

As mentioned we do now have 14 groups that provide important support for their respective areas, and these are Friends of Tennis, Rugby, Cricket, Football, Music, Gymnastics, Rowing, Sailing, Basketball, Athletics, Prep, the Hand Up Support Group who support the Indigenous students in our school, and the two we have added are Golf and Swimming. On behalf of the P&F I would like to thank all of those involved on these committees for all the hard work they have put in.

The committee would like to once again express our thanks to Les and Lachlan for their committed work and helpful advice in The Store. They are a valued part of the TSS community. We would also like to thank Sue Miller, our bookkeeper. Sue has definitely made a difference in how the P&F and the Support Groups are able to manage their financial affairs.

I would also like to express the committee’s thanks to the members of the School Council and their Chairman, Mr Fraser Perrin, for their continued support throughout 2015. Thanks also to the Headmaster, Mr Greg Wain, Chief Fincial Officer Mr Ross Cardiff, Director of Sport Mr Bryan Hain and especially to Deputy Headmaster Mr Alan Parsons, who has been our main liaison person with the School. We wish Alan all the best for his new adventures. He will be missed in particular for his quiet counsel and general wisdom. Finally on behalf of the P&F committee I would like to wish the entire TSS community all the best for a fantastic 2016.