NBHS OBA PRESIDENTS' REPORTS

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NBHS Old Boys' Association President's Report 2023

Norm Rodgers President

I hope that the latter part of 2022 and 2023 to date have been better times for you all and that we are now over the worst of the issues that the previous 2 years threw up. The Committee sincerely hopes that none of our members are suffering any long term consequences of those events.

My thanks to all the Committee members for their tremendous work during the last year.

As mentioned in my last report no paper copies of the dinner invitation and reports are being sent by mail to any non-financial members. Where an email address is available, we will continue to send the annual documentation to them by this method but we cannot put any effort into locating them if the emails bounce. The documents will always be available on our website. We therefore request that you ensure that we have your current email address and that it is kept up to date whether you are financial or not.

This year we are returning to our normal format of having only the one guest speaker and he has assured me that he will not exceed the 15 minute time limit for his talk.

A reminder call again for any members who have items which may be of historical significance, including photos and magazines, please contact Dick Sanders at dicksanders@optusnet.com.au with a view to either providing them to the OBA or at least having their whereabouts noted. The cataloguing of memorabilia at Newcastle Library is continuing and a significant amount has been completed. We are still looking for members with a bit of time, and who are willing, to assist in this work. Our webmaster, Greg Kentish, is also constantly updating our website and all of the Novocastrian Magazines that were produced are available there as are a large number of class photos. In fact, this is a very good site for anybody interested in events and stories etc related to the School.

A reminder too that we add obituaries of deceased Old Boys to our website as there is some interest in them. If you know of anyone who would not have minded having theirs added please forward them to our webmaster at gkentish@gmail.com.

Our financial Membership has increased slightly due to the memberships gained from the Year of ’72 for last year’s Dinner and is 972 as at the end of 2022. Hopefully the year of 73 will add to this number and those that joined last year will remain as members. However, there is still a significant  number of non-financial members and we would appreciate them renewing their commitment to the Association. We are still hoping that some “champions” will come forward for each year to encourage attendance at the dinners and/or to obtain memorabilia. If there are it would be appreciated if they could make themselves known to me during the night of the Dinner.

As Covid 19 restrictions were over we were again able to attend the various school presentations last year. My thanks to John Beach and David Gubbay who attended in my absence.
Full Report here