To all Old Boys’ (and Girls) of The Doon School
Gentlemen / Ladies
Seasons’ Greetings and a Very Happy New Year to you and yours.
On behalf of your Executive Committee, I am taking the liberty of
sharing our views on “The Way Ahead” for the DSOBS. We seek
to engage the alumni by sharing these views with all and towards
this end I propose to seek space from the editor of the Rose Bowl
in the forthcoming issue as also post the same on our website. It is
our intent to attain broad-based involvement and collective
participation in a transparent and open environment.
Allow me to start by seeking to remind ourselves of our “publics”
as enshrined in Section 3 titled “Objects”, within the DSOBS’s
Memorandum of Association. There are essentially 3 publics,
1. The Doon School,
2. Old Boys’ of The Doon School, and,
3. Indian Society.
The DSOBS has been focused on these publics and our
contributions ongoing – some on a pro-active basis and others on
a re-active basis. Hence, while we render financial assistance via
our bursary corpus to sons of OB’s as needed, our contributions to
school are through a range of activities instigated or supported by
the DSOBS. On the other hand, our contribution to Indian Society
has been largely re-active as manifested through efforts to provide
relief in the aftermath of the Tsunami and the Kashmir earthquake
or even in the aftermath of the Gujarat earthquake a few years
ago. The society has been active and the level of activity increases
every year. So what should our agenda be over the next 2 years?
At this stage we think it important to share details of the DSOBS’
financial position. As on date, the DSOBS has the following funds
and we have broadly created 4 account heads within which these
monies are housed. These are,

(a) Funds held as a “Pass Through” to school – Rs.44.49
lacs. These are further sub-divided into 16 ledger
accounts as these monies are parked with us by various
classes or related to specific projects and are pending
final disbursement to school.

(b) DSOBS Bursary Fund – Rs.39.19 lacs including a
specific amount of Rs.8.48 lacs contributed by the
Singapore OB’s. Thus the DSOBS has Rs.30.71 lacs as
a capital corpus and our bursary disbursement to needy
sons of OB’s studying in school are from the interest
earned from this corpus.

(c) Navodaya Fund – Rs.2.73 lacs. This fund was set up in
the immediate aftermath of the Tsunami and reflects
leftover amounts after our relief efforts of both the Tsunami
and the Kashmir earthquake.

(d) The DSOBS Administrative Fund – Rs.1.25 crores. This
includes the balance from contributions received to fund
the purchase of our secretariat office premise which the
donors kindly permitted we retain and use the interest
earned to assist in the functioning of the secretariat. This
fund serves as the base for the EC to conduct ongoing
activities including publishing the Rose Bowl, maintaining
the Website, developing Memorabilia items and initiating
fund raising or other activity as needed.

You will appreciate that much of what we should and/or can do will
be influenced by what resources we have at our disposal. In the
immediate past, through the efforts of OB’s and the DSOBS, we
have contributed close to Rs.1.50 crores towards the extension of
the “Rose Bowl” in school as also towards the re-building of the
Art School. Our Bursary Fund renders financial assistance to 9
boys presently studying in school who are sons of old boys.
Disbursement is done under guidance of the school authorities
and clearly our contributions are only a part of what is needed for
each boy! Similarly, the Navadoya Fund was set up with the left
over amounts as contributed towards our efforts to provide
rehabilitation and relief for victims of the Tsunami and the Kashmir
earthquake and while this is a start we are challenged with whether
to be pro-active or remain re-active. On the Administration end,
each issue of the Rose Bowl costs us Rs.1.25 to Rs. 1.50 lacs and
the editor not only has to produce this valuable publication, but
also has to arrange funding for each issue! And to think that
many of us paid just Rs.250.00 many years ago to become
members of the DSOBS and continue to get this publication
free of cost – today the DSOBS fee is Rs.5000.00 for each boy
passing out of school!

So going forward, what are the goals, and, to achieve these,
activities planned. We have 13 EC members including the
President and VP. We have 13 committees – coincidence! The
list of committees is featured in our website. Leaders of a committee
need not be EC members – any willing contributor will be welcome.
Hence, the committee which will work towards producing the next
DOSCO Record and DOSCO Register (to be ready by 2010 when
school will celebrate it’s Platinum Jubilee) is headed by Nalin
Khanna (563Hb-1980) while the Website, www.dsobs.org has
been merged with www.doononline.com and renamed as
www.dosco.org (all domains will still operate and all will open on
a common landing page) and will be managed by the founder
and editor of doononline.com, Shiv Singh (654Ja-1993).
Some of the other identified initiatives will be;

A. The Bursary Fund will be expanded to include assistance
to younger ob’s seeking to pursue post-graduation
specialization. Needless to say the corpus will need to
be enhanced substantially and a team of ob’s is working
on establishing parameters to determine eligibility.

B. Funds will need to be raised continuously if we are to
become a vibrant, robust and involved society. We seek
to organise one major event, a “Summit”, within the term
of each President, and surpluses, if any, from this event
will be split in 3 parts for credit to the Bursary Fund, the
Navodaya Fund, and, the society’s Administrative Fund.
This Summit will seek to engage a broad cross-section
of OB’s via topical discussions and debate and in amongst
other things, can serve as a useful platform for us to take
stock of the society’s contributions and achievements visà-
vis the objectives set out in our original mandate.

C. Involvement of the younger OB in the DSOBS – with the
Headmasters blessings, we will visit school annually and
introduce the DSOBS to the batch of boys passing out
that year. This is considered useful as younger OB’s have
limited knowledge and/or exposure to the DSOBS.

D. Identity Card – there is a proposal to issue all OB’s an
“ID Card”. This will be a customized piece of plastic akin
in size to a credit card which will serve as an Identity
Card – to be used when an OB seeks to visit school or
attend a local OB get-together. Going forward, we will
assess the viability of creating an affinity program around
this card. The initial cost of the card for all OB’s will be
approximately Rs.1.00 lac and we seek a “partner” who
will get suitable co-branding, to fund this so that it is a
no-cost item to the OB.

E. DOSCO Record and Register – already referred to
above.

F. Website – www.dosco.org – again referred to above.

G. In addition to all of the above, the society needs to
generate adequate funds as mentioned above – we
propose to levy a 5% admin fee to all “pass through”
funds which will be then equally split in 3 parts and
credited in equal portions to the Bursary Fund, the Admin
Fund, and, to the Navodaya Fund.

H. As many original donors towards the society’s office
premise have commented, we should, in the future, seek
a better office premises. We have therefore set up an
“Establishment Committee” who will look into this in a
more holistic manner and marry resources with reality
and advice appropriately.

I. The Rose Bowl (the DSOBS publication) – as stated
above each issue costs us approximately Rs.1.25 to Rs.
1.50 lacs – this despite free paper contributed by Gautam
Thapar (200Ha-1979). We propose each old boy who
passed out from school prior to the year 1998,
contribute an amount of Rs.3600.00 – OB’s living
abroad will be requested to pay USD150.00 or
equivalent in INR to cover extra postage costs. We
assume this one-time payment should cover our
costs for the next 8-10 years.

Existing activity on the sports front will continue as will the effort to
expand the lifetime free co-branded DOSCO credit card with
ICICI Bank apart from existing relationships with Standard
Chartered Bank and Citibank for the co-branded Diners card. We
will continue to work together with school and the IPSS to assist
the school in their needs, financial or otherwise. For the Navodaya
Fund, we seek to initiate a debate and search within the fraternity
so that we can identify a suitable cause and lend our support on a
pro-active basis as appropriate.

One last issue. At the DSOBS Annual General Meeting held over
Founder’s on 29 October 2006, it was felt that the existing “system”
for election of the President, the VP and EC members, may need
to be reviewed. We have hitherto, most successfully, pursued a
path of consensual convention vis-à-vis election. However, given
that the society has grown and is more active and involved, there
may be a basis and/or need to review the existing system.
Consequently, as mandated, I have set-up a committee to reflect
on this issue and I am pleased to inform that Arun Bharat Ram
(36K-1958) has agreed to chair this committee. Arun has been a
past President of the society and was involved in the previous
exercise which established the existing convention and will thus
bring knowledge, understanding and appreciation in his leadership
of the committee. The committee will present their
recommendations to the Executive Committee who will in turn
present their view to the next AGM scheduled to be held over
Founder’s in October 2007.

Needless to say, all of the above will seek the active support and
involvement of all old boys’ across geographies and ages. The
Executive Committee will endeavor to play a key catalyst role.
Together, we look forward to fruitful and engaging years ahead.
Best Wishes,
Gautam Chadha
President
The Doon School Old Boys’ Society
New Delhi, India
p: +9111 2335 0960, 2331 1362-65
m: +91 98100 28775
f: +9111 2372 2878
e: gchadha@tirun.com