Headmaster's Alumni Address

Dear Old Sedberghians,

Well, here we are in our 71^st year, how I wish I was a student at Sedbergh now!

As you may know, Tony Vintcent will be retiring this Thanksgiving after many decades of dedicated, enthusiastic  support of Sedbergh School.  Over the last two years, Tony has been of particular help to me, as he is the only current staff member who has a connection to Sedbergh’s past and active communication with Alumni.  In order for me to maintain the level of communication Tony established, I am looking to establish regional centers across Canada as well as two international centers to create active communication between past graduates of Sedbergh.

In Canada, the centers would be:  Vancouver, British Columbia , Calgary, to represent the rest of the western provinces, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax to represent the east. The international centers would be located in Mexico and Hong Kong.  I have been in touch with a number of folks already about helping in each region. Halifax and Montreal (who boast they will have the biggest gathering aiming for 75 alum) are quite strong; Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto are only just getting things together – more help is needed here.  I am still searching for representatives for the Ottawa region if anyone is interested.

If you did not receive an e-mail from me about getting involved in the organization of communications and gatherings in your region, don’t be shy, send me an email and I will help get the ball rolling.

My main mission is to continue to improve our Alumni communication from within the school through specific Regional Alumni Directors. The individuals will communicate directly with the Headmaster to get to know more about the school’s new direction/vision and help spread the word in their region about the great things happening at the school.  It is essential that our Alumni are up to date with our new vision, our new direction, and our current needs.  In addition, the school will be re-broadcasting the Valley News online and will appear in the Alumni section of the Sedbergh website.  The Valley News will serve as the main tool to update Old Sedberghians on new programs within the school, reports on alumni contributions, reports on alumni events, etc.  Since this is your news, I would welcome any bits of information you can add so we can keep our list of active alumni as current as possible not only to keep in touch but to  celebrate all the successes and achievements of all our Old Sedberghians. 

My secondary mission is to establish a more engaged alumni community through the Regional Alumni Committees.  It will be the committees job to generate enthusiasm to get together, to set some goals for fundraising, and to get involved in supporting the school.  Specifically, the Regional Director will organize an annual regional gathering, help with communication and feedback within their regional, and help drive the annual fundraising campaign.   

By dividing up the bigger job of Alumni Communications into smaller parts, I am hoping each smaller job will be fun and exciting, and will generate an active interest from a larger group of alumni.  I envision that a person would stay on a committee for no more than two years. 

We have an exciting new program; we have a great staff, and a solid direction.  Developing an active, dedicated, enthusiastic alumni group is an important part of the plan moving forward. If you are interested in helping out in your region in any way, I would appreciate a call or an e-mail.

I look forward to meeting you over the course of the next couple of months.

Sincerely yours,

Mr. Andrew Blair, Headmaster