Concordia

Concordia Winter 2019 21 Concordia Winter 2019 20 Development I n a year when the school has had much to celebrate, from outstanding exam results to Cricket World Cup winners, England, training at Merchant Taylors’ School during the tournament, life has been busy as ever for the Development and Alumni Relations Office, and we have many people to thank. Our programme of events, communications and fundraising is busier than ever, and for that reason we are delighted to have grown to a team of four for the first time. Helen Ison joined the team in August from the Dragon School in Oxford. She has responsibility for regular giving and our stewardship programme. She joins fellow Development Executive, Emma Bindloss – who has already worked in the office for a full year, running our events and communications programme – and Diane Friend, our Development Administrator. I can’t quite believe I have been here for over eight years now; it is amazing to see OMTs at our events who wereThird Formers when I arrived! The team is pictured above. Our individual contact details are available on the website, but if you have a general enquiry, please do feel free to email development@mtsn.org.uk . On page 18 you will see our Roll of Benefactors. We are enormously grateful to everyone who has made a donation to the school this year, whether in support of bursaries, pledges towards our Indoor Cricket Centre (see page 21), other l t specific projects around the school, and those who have left it to the Head Master to decide (see Merchant Taylors’ Fund article on page 22). Every gift, at whatever level, makes so much difference to the school and the lives of the boys and staff. You will also see on page 23 a short article about volunteering at Merchant Taylors’. We thank everyone who has given their time to help the school. I would like to make particular mention of those who have supported our careers events this year. We held three main events to help our boys in various ways make decisions about their next steps: Fourth Form Career Inspirations, Lower Sixth Careers Networking, and University Choices. These three events alone involved 80 volunteer speakers. On top of this there were mentors forYoung Enterprise, Oxbridge Interview Preparation, lunchtime lectures, to name just some of the vast array of careers help you provide the boys. I’m also regularly made aware of success stories from OMTs accessing help from fellow OMTs through our online careers directory, which now has over 1,000 members. Thank you to everyone who shares their details and expertise with OMTs in this way. For more information about this, please do get in touch. Our programme of events has grown so much since I joined the team in 2011, and we are now involved in between 40 and 50 events each year. Many of these are reliant on organisers working Development & Alumni Relations Update with us: drinks parties in NewYork, Dubai and Sydney, to name a few – these would be very difficult for us to run, so we are so grateful to the OMTs who make them possible. At the other end of the scale there are the events we organise for you, such as our programme of networking events – the City Network, Arts and Creatives Network, and Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceuticals all have editions planned in 2020, as well as major reunion events at the school. Concordia continues to be our main publication. Hopefully you noticed that this edition is wrapped in compostable material. While this is a step in the right direction as far as sustainability is concerned, it is still a lot of paper we are using, and we are consulting OMTs on whether we may go digital for at least one edition per year, or at least allow people to opt to receive it digitally. Speaking of digital communication, much of our communication is now conducted by email. If you receive this, but not our emails, please do get in touch – there’s a lot you are missing out on. As well as our e-Newsletter, Parvae Res, and events roundups, there are other mailing lists you can opt in to, for example our Archive E-News which launches this year (with many thanks to Sally Gilbert, the school Archivist and her team of volunteers). Looking ahead there is much to be excited about. We hope this year, with your help, to complete the fundraising for the Indoor Cricket Centre, which would mean that construction could begin. This would be a major boon for school and OMT cricket and hockey, not to mention all the other members of the Merchant Taylors’ community who would make use of the facility. Early in 2020 we will be sending a survey to all OMTs and parents. This is so we can better understand what you would like to see us do in future with our events, communication and fundraising programmes. Then, in the summer, we will be running our fifth telephone campaign. Over the course of this two-week campaign, we hope to speak to as many as 800 of you. Of course one major aim is to raise money for projects like bursaries, but this campaign is another way that we can better understand our relationship with you, and in much greater depth than any survey could provide. So, if you are called during the campaign, please be assured that the callers look forward to having a conversation with you, even if you are not inclined to support financially. Thank you to everyone who has told us this year of their intention to leave a legacy to the school in their will. We are so grateful to you, and hope to see many of you at our next 1561 Foundation event in 2020. The scale of legacy giving is such that – while we hope it doesn’t reach us for many years yet – the fund pledged is in excess of £1.6m; already enough to endow three bursaries. If you do intend to leave the school a legacy, we would be delighted if you were to let us know. We can then ensure that we are able to meet your intentions when the time comes, and in the meantime you can join other OMTs who are members of our 1561 Foundation at events, as well as to hear more about the progress of the fund. Finally, in the last edition of Concordia we publicised the fact that Merchant Taylors’ is now a receiving charity on Amazon Smile. Since then, quite a number of you have chosen us as your recipient charity and are clearly using the platform for your shopping. We are grateful to all of you for doing so. While we don’t find out who you are, we do receive your donations. Please help us to spread the word. Amazon have recently released an Android app for Smile, so iOS can’t be far behind. This will make it even easier. We know of other charities who are more established on the platform who raise significant amounts each year by this route. It would be wonderful to match them, and it is a pain-free way to give, after all! Thank you all for your support – in all its guises – and for your interest in what the school and the OMT Society are doing. F undraising continues for our state-of-the-art Indoor Cricket Centre. We have been delighted with the response so far, with a number of individuals committing their support to the project, taking the amount pledged to over £1.6m of the £3m required. In the last few weeks our planning application was submitted and, if successful, will mean that as soon as we have raised the full amount, we can begin work on the building. The impact of the project will be huge, both for cricket and hockey. Cricket will have a world-class indoor facility, the like of which there are very few of in the world, which will give our cricketers (at all levels) the opportunity to train indoors all year round. For hockey, having an elevated, covered viewing balcony overlooking the main school and OMT pitch is both long overdue and sorely needed. If you can help us reach our goal of £3m, or know someone else who may be interested, please do get in touch with the Development Director, Nick Latham (nlatham@mtsn.org.uk) . All our supporters will be recognised in the building, whether naming the Long Room, or a name on our honours board. Indoor Cricket Centre Development