OBA - Keeping the Lines of Communication Open

From my observation, our children and youth are hardly communicating vertically. Generally, interaction is confined to their peers, so hearing what elders have to say or others outside their peer group, is not the norm.

Outside of school hours, where there is interface with teachers, there is little opportunity, or dare I say, desire, to devote any of their time to anyone apart from their group or their own ‘lime’. One of the things that have survived, within our schools, is the House system and this is a means of supporting the vertical communication that is necessary, if cohesion among the age groups is to survive. I hope that the value of the House system, in this regard, is understood and that it will not be phased out.

If it is, then we would have closed another avenue through which our younger people can learn to communicate outside their own comfortable cliques.

I have said all of that to say that Associations such as the QRC Old Boys’ provide a means of keeping connectivity alive, for the benefit of succeeding generations. It is in organisations such as ours that we can keep the dialogue going among ourselves, not least through the medium of proper language skills and not substitute people to people communication with impersonal technology, as useful as it is, in the proper context.

Here, alumni of earlier vintage can serve as reminders of the fitness of things, as required at the alma mater, particularly when the plethora of low standards assail. “Reasonable” excuses are never in short supply when people wish to depart from standard good behaviour and what was known as good manners, but I have the confidence that members of this Association will not bow to pressures and will continue to defend the noble traditions that identified us, established our history and shaped the future of many of us.

It is tribute to the steadfastness of members of the Association that we are here celebrating the 75th anniversary of its founding, in 1934. All those who served at the helm and the general membership, over the years, have helped to fulfill the vision of its founders, among whom were HOB Wooding, LC Hannays, and CG Grant. The Queen’s Royal College ethos, that is to say, the promotion of critical thinking and the passion for excellence, inter alia, persists and the success of the college is manifest in the impact that its alumni have made and continue to make on the nation. I have no doubt that in this regard, this Association has contributed, in no small way, as a club whose membership has reinforced one another, in divers ways.

Moreover, among your many achievements, within the context of your mission, you have made it possible for those of lesser means to remain a part of our great institution of learning and ultimately to make their own contributions to society.

In this age of rapid response and of uncertainty, to some extent, there is, more than ever, a need for the endurance of this Old Boys’ Association. It stands as a reminder that we have a history in education, in civic mindedness and nation-building of which we must be proud. As the Association continues to build on the solid foundation of its past, it will help to foster a better understanding of ourselves and, as guardian of the ethos of the College, continue to provide the incentive for students, past and present, to maintain the QRC stamp on our nation. The dialogue must never cease.

I offer sincere congratulations to the membership on this important milestone and wish the OBA continued success in the future.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you for your kind attention and ask you to join me in a toast to the Queen’s Royal College Old Boys’ Association.