Doon Online - The Rosebowl Dec 31st, 2000 - 14 Minutes of the 61st Annual General Meeting

The Rosebowl Dec 31st, 2000

Present: The Vice President, Headmaster, Chandbagh Representative, Asstt Secretary and 125 members. The Meeting was called to order.

1. The Vice President, Mr. Ajay S. Shriram took the Chair and Informed the House that due to unavoidable circumstances, President could not attend this Meeting and apologized for his absence. He further welcomed all member old boys present at the Meeting.

2. A condolence resolution was passed and a moment’s silence observed on the said demise of the following Members:

1. Mr. Ladli Prasad Bhargava [ex 30-H] Class of 1939;
2. Mr. Pran Prashad [ex 90-T] Class of 1939;
3. Mr. Durga Prasad [ex 63-H] Class of 1941;
4. Mr. Mumtaz Ahmad [ex 128-T] Class of 1942;
5. Mr. Brig. Yashpal Dev [ex 16-K] Class of 1942;
6. Mr. Manmohan Malhotra [ex 182-T] Class of 1942;
7. Mr. Ramesh Malhotra [ex 183-T] Class of 1943;
8. Mr. Kanwar Rajendra Singh [ex 134-H] Class of 1946;
9. Mr. G.P. Mookerjee [ex 241-H] Class of 1950;
10. Mr. Rudra Pratap J B Rana [ex 178-H] Class of 1952;
11. Mr. Himmat Singh [ex 102-H] Class of 1952;
12. Mr. Tejbir Singh [ex 10-H] Class of 1952;
13. Mr. Arya Shah [ex 253-K] Class of 1959;
14. Mr. Somesh Pasad [ex 213-J] Class of 1969;
15. Mr. Dinesh Moudgill [ex 85-J] Class of 1970;
16. Mr. Daljit S. Swanni [ex 300-KB] Class of 1973;
17. Mr. Ashok Mohan Khanna [ex 461-JA] Class of 1975;
18. Mr. Manoj Dalvie [ex 843-JA] Class of 1981;
19. Mr. C.J. Miller [ex Headmaster] 1966-1970;
20. Mr. S. Muinuddin - ex Housemaster 1935-1951.

3. The Minutes of the 60th Annual General Meeting which had been circulated to all concerned, were duly confirmed and unanimously approved (Proposed and seconded by Brig. B.N. Singh [ex 76-T] and Mr. Tilak Badhwar [ex 178-H] respectively).

4. Annual Report by the President:

The Vice President, Mr. Ajay S. Shriram read out the Annual Report as prepared by the President, Mr. Deepak Nirula.

“The past year has been an eventful and busy year for the Society. I would like to summarise the activities of the various committees headed by the various Committee Chairmen:

A. The Archives Project is chaired by Ajay K. Swarup and assisted by Gautam Thadani, both representing the Class of 1975. This is a very exciting project. The purpose of this project is to identify, sort and scientifically archives documents, photographs and records of the school. I am happy to inform you that the Chief Guest, Mr. Arun Shourie formally inaugurated it yesterday. A sequel to the project which would enable access to these archieves through the Internet is currently under review;

B. The Bursary Sub Committee is chaired by Gurbir Mansingh. The DSOBS disbursed financial aid of Rs. 1,69,500 this year. As a matter of recent tradition the Classes celebrating their Silver and Golden Jubilee have contributed towards this fund. I hope that this practice continues in the years to come. We have also received a sum of Rs. 2,26,000 from The Supporters of The Doon School Inc. USA. headed by Mr. Bharat Sahgal. This amount has been added to our existing corpus, the interest for which will be used for future Financial Aid purposes.

C. The Credit Card Sub Committee is chaired by the Vice President Ajay S. Shriram. As you are aware we have a successful Affinity Card Programme with The Standard Chartered Bank for a visa card and Citibank for a Diners Club Card. At present we have 690 Visa card holders and 54 Diners Club cardholders, a total of 744. Of this total of 744, 64 cardholders are participating in the voluntary contribution scheme of Rs. 250 per month. May I urge more members to participate both in the Affinity Card Programme as well as the Rs. 250 per month voluntary contribution scheme as this would be of great assistance to the Society in funding its activities. The Stanchart Gold Affinity Card has also been launched for the convenience of those members requiring a higher credit limit. It allows a credit limit of Rs. 1 lakh and is now available at a special concessional rate to members of the Society;

D. The DOSCO Club project has been mooted for several years and Anoop Bishnoi is chairing this Sub Committee. He is actively searching for a suitable location that would be easily accessible from South Delhi for this purpose.

E. The DSOBS Register requires constant updating and is being done with the kind assistance of Mr. Nalin Khanna. Update forms have been sent with the recent publication of the Rosebowl as well as through the Internet requesting for amendments and recent updates. We propose to print the updated version of the register by the end of this calendar year;

F. The DSOBS Secretariat has been functioning for the past several years out of the office of Mr. Arun Bharat Ram. I would like to add that Mr. Bharat Ram, in his unstained support and generosity, has this year allocated the Society a larger space to function from. With the greatly increased activities it has been felt that a larger and permanent home for the Society be established. A target to collect a corpus of Rs. 1 crore had been set for this purpose. Gurbir Mansingh chairs the Sub Committee for locating suitable real estate for this purpose. I would like to voice my special thanks to Mr. Eckhard Schuetze, a well wisher and close friend of the Society, for his generous contribution of Rs. 50,000 specifically for this purpose;

G. The official DSOBS Website was launched at the address of “www.dsobs.org” under the Chairmanship of Hemant Sharma. I would like to thank Hemant for his continued and dynamic contribution of time and resources for hosting this site for the Society;

H. The Education and Training Sub Committee is chaired by Nikhel Kochhar. Mr. Navroz Dhondi, President of Percept Advertising and Mr. Swapan Dasgupta of India Today spoke to the boys on Advertising and Current Affairs respectively;

I. The Job Placement Sub Committee has been handed over to the Secretariat by Mr. Lalit Nirula for better coordination and greater response. The DSOBS is in constant tough with Old Boys requiring placement. Currently we have 22 Old Boys looking for placement and a list of 125 prospective employers to whom their resumes have been sent. We hope to expand this activity this year through the use of the DSOBS web site;

J. The Memorabilia Sub Committee is chaired by Nitan Kapoor. At present Dosco Memorabilia is available at the School store as well as Nitan Kapoor’s office in NOIDA. Mail order requirements are being met by use of the order form in the recent issue of the Rosebowl as well as through the DSOBS website. For the first time this year a DOSCO Memorabilia kit is being provided to the School Leavers against payment. This kit includes a silk old boy’s tie, a cap, a T Shirt, a Windcheater and a sports bag;

K. The Rosebowl Sub Committee is chaired by Samir Kuckreja who has done an excellent job in producing this quality publication. This year we have published 2 issues of the Rosebowl. A third issue is due later his year. The Rosebowl is no longer being funded by our Credit Card partners. The Society would appreciate the help of Old Boys who could help fund the publication through the means of strip advertisements;

L. The Sporting Activities Sub Committee chaired by Chitranjan Bakshi did it again this year by organising the 3rd Inter House Golf Tournament in which matches were played in London, Bangalore, Bombay and Delhi. The Delhi tournament was won by Tata House. Mr. Nalin Khanna helped to organise The Grudge 2000 - a cricket tournament between the alumni of Mayo College Ajmer, The Lawrence School Sanawar, and The Doon School in which The Lawrence School Sanawar emerged victorious;

M. The Supporters of The Doon School Inc., USA headed by Mr. Bharat Sahgal have donated US $ 50,000 to be disbursed to the following Institutions:

a. IPSS - Rs. 17,00,659.50;

b. The John Martyn School - Rs. 1,36,052.76;

c. Welham Girls - Rs. 90,701.84;

d. Welham Boys - Rs. 90,701.84;

e. Mr. H.D. Manocha - Rs. 22,675.46;

f. The DSOBS - Rs. 2,26,754.60

The money has been disbursed as per the wishes of the Supporters of the Doon School. The money given to the IPSS has been stipulated specifically for their Scholarship Fund and that of the DSOBS for our Scholarship Fund.

N. The Class of 1967 corpus fund yielded a sum Rs. 68,015.00 which was donated to The Doon School to help them fund their Mountaineering expedition to Chirbas Peak in June this year;

O. Mr. Hensman retired from the Doon School in 1985 is presently living in Canada with his daughter. Earlier this year he had a medical crisis and needed funds urgently for an operation. I would like to make a special mention of the efforts of Mr. Vinit Khanna and Mr. Arjun Malhotra who were able to galvanise funds on very short notice for this operation. I would like to add that Mr. Hensman is well and sends his regards to the members of the Society;

P. In a similar case, an old boy, K.S. Mitra from Madras needed immediate cardiac surgery. An appeal was sent out by his classmates - The Class of 71 and the Regional Representative for funds to assist with the operation. A sum of Rs. 1,22,501 was collected and Mr. Mitra was successfully operated upon in Malar Hospital in the third week of March. I am happy to report that Mr. Mitra is well.