Present: Pat Barron, Jim Brown, George Campbell, Brian Caulfield, Gerry Devine, Tony Duncan, Fr.Stephen Dunn, Chris Dunn, Mark Dunn, Iain Dunn, Joe Dunn, Ralph Giulianotti, Owen Halloran, Eric Harrison, Martin Harrison, Lawrence Hogarth, Vinnie Igoe, Paul lombardi, Tom McLaughlin, Shane Mackenzie, Angus Mackinnon, Tom Murphy, Henry Murphy, Alasdair Macdonald, Jim O’Heay, Tom O’Heay, David Seed, Maurice Taylor, Mike Turnbull, Richard Welch,
Apologies: Billy Sinclair, Gerry Martin, Colin Bryce, Ralph & Mark Giulianotti, Chris Stephenson, Colin & Iain McAllister, Paul Valet, Colin Petteranna.

1. Opening Prayer: Our Chaplain, OB Fr. Stephen Dunn opened proceedings with a prayer.

2. Minutes 2008 AGM: Proposed for adoption as an accurate record by Maurice Taylor, seconded by Mark Dunn.

3. Matters Arising: Sadly, our President, 97 year old Abbot Alban Boultwood, passed away. He spent his later years at St. Anselm’s Abbey Washington DC, a foundation of Fort Augustus. He was extremely proud to be our president and his final letter to the OBs was read out. An obituary by Mike Turnbull which appeared in the press can be read at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6274820.ece. Thanks and apologies were received from the late Mike Drummond’s wife Lorna who felt unable to attend the dinner. We still get a few orders for Mike Turnbull’s book ‘Abbey Boys’ and we have only 42 left from a run of 600. Sales have raised £3,091, thanks again Mike. The Raven Group have started to clear out the Abbey Church in the next stage of their development, but the back of the church where the apse was is still open to the elements, however the overall development is looking much better.

4. Website; Colin Bryce sent his apologies and gave us the following report : The forum on the website continues to initiate lively discussion on a number of topics. This year saw an epic introduced by William Wattie (59-64) requesting contributions from OBs on” how they rated the Abbey School in general terms on the basis of their personal experience”. After 5 months, 142 posts had been submitted and the subject was read over 5,100 times. The forum currently holds 818 posts from 216 registered users. In the photo gallery 93 new photos were posted. The move of the website to a new server did cause some issues which have been rectified by Chris Stephenson. The challenge for 2010 is to revamp the website but this requires web design and some programming expertise. The members gave a vote of thanks for all Colin’s hard work and expertise.

5. Committee Report: We had four social events this year.
(a) We started in June with a Dinner Dance at F.A. preceded with a lunch at the Boathouse Restaurant, this sucessful event was organised by Martin Waugh and Colin Peteranna. After dinner Iain Dunn gave a fantastic recital with actions of Tam O’ Shanter.The next day eleven fragile OBs took on Fort William C.C. who now play on our old pitch. The OBs scored 61 all out but Fort William managed 84 for 7 and so won the day!
(b) Also held in June was a day at the Perth Races, attended by 34 OBs and friends. This year as there was no main sponsor they kindly gave us their room instead of our usual marquee. The facilities, company. weather and racing were first class and a good time was had by all.
(c) The golf outing was held in August at Strathmore , numbers were disapointing. The weather was fine and the course in good condition. Owen Halloran won the Stableford Abbey Quaich and David Sutherland the F.A. Handicap Cup.
(d) The highlight and last event of the year is tonight’s dinner at OB Maurice Taylor’s renowned Holiday Inn. The speaker is Lord Matthew a well known after dinner speaker. I am sure it will be an enjoyable and fun night with the usual excellent meal and service. Many thanks to the following OBs for providing tonight’s drink Maurice Taylor the wine, Alasdair Macdonald the port and Ralph G. the Bennies.

6. Treasurer’s Report: Mark Dunn reported on the accounts, which showed a healthy balance of £6,962, an increase of £250 on last year. The members warmly thanked Mark for all his hard work and for continuing the good work which his father Joe had done for many years.

7. Elections: Fr. Benedict Seed our Vice President was voted in unopposed as President. Chris Dunn proposed Owen Halloran as Vice President, seconded by Ralph Giulianotti and carried unanimously. The Chairman Ralph Giulianotti who had been in the seat for15 years and gave warning last year that he would only do another year was persuaded to run till our seventieth AGM in two years time. He accepted on condition that someone else would come forward to organise the Golf Outing perhaps in the West and the Race Day. Maurice Taylor offered to organise a tour of Glasgow for OBs coming from abroad if the Annual Dinner was combined with a Golf outing to make a long weekend.

8. AOB: Alasdair Macdonald informed the meeting about Leo Harris and his brother Francis who had been at St Andrew’s Priory, Canaan Lane and lived in Jersey. Francis was  the youngest ‘Political Prisoner’ for hostile acts against the ‘Reich’ awaiting transport to Germany but luckily the war ended in time. As he says” yet another first for the Priory/Abbey”. A proposed letter of Welcome to Pope Benedict XV1 was read out and agreed upon by the meeting. A stipend was voted to be given as usual to Chaplain Fr.Stephen Dunn for masses for deceased OBs. It was agreed to give £500 to the charity ‘Mary’s Meals’ a feeding programme providing a free meal at school for the world’s poorest children, it is run by Magnus Macfarlane- Barrow, whose father and uncle went to our school. Finally, the Chairman urged members to keep the Committee informed of Births, Marriages Deaths and any other news.

9. Date of Next Meeting: AGM Saturday 2nd October, preceeding OB Dinner.