CATHEDRAL & JOHN CONNON ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
6, Purshottamdas Thakurdas Marg
Mumbai 400 001.

NOTICE

Notice is hereby given that the 25th Annual General Meeting of the Cathedral & John Connon Alumni Association shall be held in the Cathedral Middle School, 4, Maharishi Dadiji Marg, Mumbai 400001, on September 30, 2009 at  6.00 p.m

AGENDA

1. To read, confirm and adopt the Minutes of the 24th Annual General Meeting held on October 15, 2008.
   
   
2. Treasurer’s Report
   1. To receive and adopt the audited Statement of Accounts for the year ending 31st March, 2009.
   2. To appoint the Auditors for the year 2009-2010 and to fix their honorarium
   
   
3. Presidents’ Report – To review the activities of 2008-2009 and future plans.
   
   
4. To elect three members to the Executive Committee who retire by rotation and are eligible for re-election viz. Pragni Kapadia, Miel Sehgal and Prakash Thadani.
   
   
5. To receive and consider the views and suggestions of the members.
   
   
6. To discuss any other business with the permission of the Chair.

Sd/-
Shyla Boga Patel & Viral Doshi
Co-President           Co-President


Date: 5th   Sept. 2009

NOTE :

1. Members desirous of contesting elections may submit the enclosed Nomination Form, duly proposed and seconded by any two members of the Association. The last date for receipt of Nomination Forms at the Registered Office of the Alumni Association, 6, Purshottamdas Thakurdas Marg, Mumbai 400 001, is 22nd September 2009 by 3.00 p.m.

2.  Balloting, if required, will be on September 30, 2009 at 6.30 p.m.

To Download the Nomination Form Click Here

To Download Draft Minutes of the 24th Annual General Meeting in PDF Click Here

To Download Audited Statement of Accounts for Year ended 31st March 2009 in PDF Click Here

PRESIDENTS' REPORT

We have great pleasure in presenting the Annual Report for the year 2008-2009.

FOUNDERS’ DAY BRUNCH

On Founders’ Day 2008 we had a remarkable turnout at our Brunch in the Middle School. With Ernie on keyboard and vocals, a good time was had by all. The Class of 1958 was there in full force and fine voice; and we believe they especially enjoyed the morning, so well organised by Rangita Bhatnagar (Class of 1989). Aditi Shah gave us a great deal on the delicious food. Thank you both.

FOUNDERS’ DAY CRICKET MATCH

The School vs. Alumni Cricket Match was held at the Hindu Gymkhana. It was organised by Sanjay Shah (Class of 1982) ably supported by Chirag Doshi (Class of 1990). The School team won.

GOLF TOURNAMENT

The 14th Annual Golf Tournament, at the Willingdon Sports Club was once again an outstanding success. Thanks to the organisation by Akshay Kilachand, (Class of 1988), Pushpa Bhatia (Class of 1953), Meher Amersey (Class of 1960) and Kiran Kanwar. We had a record turnout of 56 participants including 10 current students. Wilson House took the honours for the Best House. Our thanks to Shivas Nath, Harsh Amersey and Akshay Kilachand, once again for their gifts for the Golf Tournament.

A SAD TIME

Just a couple of weeks later we were sad and somber. The terrorist attacks at the end of November left us all paralysed. We lost three members of the Association – Ashok Kapur (Palmer `59), Sanjay Agarwal (Wilson `77) and Sunil Parekh (Savage `80). Also nine parents, a former teacher and two little boys from the Cathedral family. There is really nothing one can say in the face of such a tragedy; we are truly sorry and our sympathies go out to all those affected by this senseless massacre, wherever they may be.

OBITUARIES

During the year we lost Mr. John Lewis, Vice-Principal, Wilson Housemaster and Head of the Mathematics Department. Mr. Lewis had been with the school for over twenty years. Gopika Fraser nee Baweja (Wilson `83) also passed away prematurely. To their families, and any others we may have left out, our deepest condolences.

THE X-CATHEDRALITE

The X-Cathedralite was released in December and was very well received and our thanks to Miel Sahgal and Udita Jhunjhunwala, for producing the magazine so seamlessly and so perfectly. Our thanks also to Rohita Doshi for getting the sponsors for this issue and, of course, to the sponsors themselves.

THE SCHOOL LEAVERS’ TEA

In January 2009 we held the school leavers’ tea; the food was good and we immediately had 153 new members from the ISC and ICSE classes. Most of these students will be studying all over the world at this stage, but we believe that when they return they will make a significant contribution to the Association. Rangita Bhatnagar did a great job of organizing the tea.

“MAGIC”

On April 16th we had a hugely successful happy hour at “Magic”. The remarkable turnout reassured us that the camaraderie lives on. We plan on having more such events. Our thanks to Romil Parikh (Class of 2000) for toning down the prices and to Amit Advani (Class of 1994) for his help.

THE CATHEDRAL SUMMER SCHOOL

The Eighth Cathedral Summer School was organised by Shyla Boga Patel at Manori at the end of April. Once again it comprised of 45 Cathedral children and 25 from Manori village. The children engaged in various activities including pottery, dance, art, astronomy and magic. The Alumni Association contributed Rs. 35,000 and Rohita Doshi Rs. 50,000 from the Walchand Hirachand Premier Trust. These donations went towards the costs of the Manori village children.

WEBSITE AND DATABASE

Our main thrust this year has been to focus on creating a new website and updating our database. The idea was to revamp the website in time for the 150th year celebrations. This was ably executed by Miel Sahgal and Udita Jhunjhunwala. No doubt we are having a few teething troubles with both the website and database, but are working very hard at setting these right.

HONORARY WEBMASTER

We are fortunate to have as our new honorary webmaster, Gautam Shewakramani (Class of 2001). Gautam has been called a ‘genius’. We are sure he will get things on track very soon. Databases are dynamic, so please get in touch with Gautam at gautam@catalumni.com and update your details or just contact him to put your news and views on the website. We must have all of you on our database long before November 2010, so please volunteer to be Class leaders or Chapter representatives.

HELPDESK

We now have a Helpdesk operating from the Green Room of the Junior School from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. three times a week. You can call 9930577120 for further information on it. Thank you Mrs. Isaacs, for making this possible.

FOUNDERS’ DAY DINNER 2009

On November 14th we will have a marvelous evening with a live band, a great dinner and lots of alumni at the Blue Sea from 8.30 p.m. onwards. We want to make this evening very special to launch our 150th year. Various items including a special commemorative tie, wallets, t-shirts and mugs will be on sale. Please come.

CRICKET MATCH

The Alumni vs. School cricket match will be played that morning. Please contact Sanjay Shah (Class of 1982) at 98210 15871 for further details.

THE 150^th YEAR CELEBRATIONS

Schools don’t turn 150 every day. So what are the plans? The big plan is to start a Medical Benefits Scheme for retired teachers and staff. We have already got a panel of 82 doctors who will give free or partially-free treatment (thank you all so much), and about 35 retired teachers who were most enthusiastic and hoped the scheme would start soon. Since hospitalization is cripplingly expensive we are working on an insurance policy scheme for each teacher who had been in the school for ten years or more. The premium could be anything from Rs.12,000 to Rs.18,000 per teacher, per annum. This means we need a HUGE financial outlay to make this a success. We look to each of you to make this, our dream for the sesquicentennial year, come true. Please contribute generously; we really want to leave a legacy in place for retired staff. The kudos for working on this scheme goes to Pranay Shah (Class of 1970) and Rama Iyer (Class of 1984). They have worked so hard!

Alumnus Fareed Zakaria will be give a talk in December 2009 and we hope many of you will attend it. We will have a mega golf tournament in February and perhaps, some more talks and sport events during the year.

Our committee member, Rangita Bhatnagar (Class of 1989) has been appointed Chairperson of the 150th year committee. We intend being an integral part of this team and helping in every way possible. The culmination of the year will be a dinner on November 13th 2010 at the Turf Club for parents, teachers and alumni. We will keep you posted as more concrete plans are made.

After years of talking about it, we are finally in the process of applying for a FCRA registration to enable us to receive donations in foreign exchange to help with our plans for the 150th year. Bureaucratic wheels turn very slowly and there has been much delay in getting this through. No effort is being spared to speed it up. We hope it will happen soon and we will be able to accept these contributions. We have a sizeable amount promised to us by one alumnus, but just have to wait for the requisite permission. We are sure many alumni will follow suit.

Coming to matters of finance: Our treasurer, Chitra Rajkumar has played a truly stellar role this year and we cannot thank her enough for all her meticulous hard work.

Our thanks also to Anand Shroff, Amit Advani Rangita Bhatnagar, Pragni Kapadia and Prakash Thadani for being such supportive committee members.

And finally, to Mrs. Isaacs, a very big thank you for all her time, support and advice amidst her already madly busy schedule.

SHYLA BOGA PATEL & VIRAL DOSHI
                  (Co-Presidents)