The Cryptian 2022-2023

SECTION 2 - THE OLD CRYPTIANS’ CLUB

Founded 1901

President – Simon Smith (1982-89)

Editor - Adam Ashby (1973-78)

Website

http://www.oldcryptians.org/

PRESIDENTIAL REFLECTIONS

It’s Easter Sunday as I write this. By nature, a time of hope and new beginnings. I’ve also just mown the lawn for the first time this year, which always gives a sense that spring has truly arrived. I probably didn’t share that same sense of hope when I wrote in the Cryptian a year ago just before taking on the role of President. We’d had a year filled with quite a bit of soul searching about our future, not least set against the launch of the 1539 Foundation and working out our competing or complementing purpose. I said “I don’t pretend that the next year is going to be easy, but it’s going to be necessary if we are going to reshape the Club to be able to better face the future”. Not the best closing sentence (and I’ve just removed a typo), but English was never my strongest subject.

That said, the sentiments were not that far off. We’ve continued to have some tough but absolutely necessary and rewarding debates on the committee about how we should reshape and operate for the future. And more importantly, how we ensure that we have the right skills around the committee to support us in our direction of travel. More on that in a bit.

The highlight of my year so far was being able to get our Annual Dinner back to being annual. We welcomed 78 guests into the school hall at the end of March for what was a much welcome opportunity to re-connect after the disruption of recent years. We were also very fortunate to welcome Ian Dench (1975-82) as our guest speaker. Ian was the lead guitarist and song-writer for local band EMF, who went on to carve out a successful career in the music industry, continuing his song-writing for the likes of Beyonce, Shakira and the Prodigy to name but a few. Ian also brough his electric guitar with him to weave into his speech, which made for a unique and memorable end to the evening. My thanks to Lacey Bradley and Wyatt Dundas (Head Boy and Head Girl) for their perfect introduction for Ian and to Mr. Stanlake for managing to weave multiple EMF song-titles into his earlier remarks!

It was also great to see many non-members at our dinner – a sign that our efforts on social media and other channels had paid off. In addition, we had 15 at the dinner who had started at the school after the year 2000. In 2019 we had 2. We had 13 people who joined the school in the year 1970, thanks to the sterling efforts of Steve Mace, who deftly reignited his role as primary dinner organiser after the recent hiatus. An additional causes for optimism was a 6% increase in our membership over the course of the year.

At our AGM, we said farewell to Richard Briggs from our Committee. Richard’s efforts have been tireless across so many facets of the Club’s work in the past ten years as a committee member and much more besides and before. He was instrumental in bringing us into the digital age, supporting the Pembroke and Founder’s Day Dinners for many years, leading on efforts to digitally archive our club’s history and on successful membership drives. He will remain on the Centenary Bursary Fund Committee, so he’s not disappearing entirely, but I thank him again on behalf of all the Committee for all his efforts and achievements. We also welcomed our first female committee Member, Catherine Shore (04-06).

I was voted by the Committee to remain as President for another year. It is true to say that in serving a one-year term, you just start settling into the role and then it’s time to hand over. I hope during this second year we can reach out and further enhance the skills and diversity of our committee and membership, broadening our online and digital activity, so that we can be a Club that serves former Crypt pupils of any age. If you want to help us along that journey, you can find me at president@oldcryptians.org or @oldcryptians on Instagram.