Once again, we meet to reflect on the past fiscal year and elect a new board of directors to chart our course going forward. It is not often that resolutions recommending amendments to our by-laws are on the agenda. However, such is the case this year as we seek to clarify the role, responsibility and privileges of our Life Director designation. I gratefully acknowledge the effort and extend thanks to Hugh Brandford, Dr. Ivan McFarlane, Hugh Marshall and C. Lloyd Stanford for responding to my request to research this matter and recommend a solution. After careful consideration of their proposal and further consultation with our legal counsel, Glen Miller, the Board is recommending the adoption of the subsequent resolutions to amend the by-laws.
Our key priorities remain improving our financial situation and honouring our commitment to the school. Secondary objectives include supporting selected projects with direct benefits to our membership and the wider community.
Improving our financial situation
I am particularly pleased that there was a significant increase in member donations to the association. This is indeed an encouraging sign as members responded positively to a number of appeals throughout the year. We had reasonable success with a number of fund raising efforts including the Ham and Turkey sale, the Awards Banquet and the sale of KC memorabilia. Collection of membership dues continue to be modest as contributions are largely confined to those members who attend the AGM. Our debt situation remained flat and I am confident that we will retire all outstanding obligations by the next fiscal year.
As an incentive to increase the payment of membership dues, a customized KCOBA long distance calling card will be given to each paid up member. KCOBA (Toronto) and People Telecom Jamaica have entered into an agreement that will provide for a percentage of the revenue from these cards accruing to the association. The details of the arrangement are outlined in the fund raising section of this report.
Honouring our commitment to the school
The tremendous response to the appeal for contributions in support of the “Helping Hands” project allowed us to finance the refurbishing of 20 classrooms at the Melbourne Campus by replacing the blackboards with whiteboards as requested. This project was the initiative of three KC old boys who decided that immediate action was required to address some of the infrastructure needs at Melbourne as the longer term project was behind schedule. A direct appeal was made to KCOBA (Toronto) and thanks to many of you present today, we were able to help.
We continue to fund the citizenship awards and administer the Dr. Demetrius Math Awards which are presented to the recipients at the annual prize giving at the school. I am particularly pleased that we were able to increase our contributions to the school by honouring our commitments made at the 5th KCOBA Summit hosted by our chapter last August, which resulted in an expanded lunch program for students and a monthly honarium to the cricket coach.
A tremendous lot of work is ahead of us as the school is in great need of the support from the KCOBA fraternity requiring us to redouble our efforts in the coming year. Areas of focus will be the library, cadet corps, computer lab and the development trust fund.
Benefiting our members and wider community
The Alliance of Jamaican Alumni Association (AJAA) affords us the opportunity to contribute to projects with direct benefit to our community. To this end, we continue to support the Graduates Program that awards bursaries and scholarships to needy and deserving young people of Jamaican heritage to further their education at post secondary institutions. It is our intention to establish a similar program for young people associated with members of KCOBA (Toronto). This is where we are appealing to you to help make this a reality by paying the membership dues as it is our plan to fund this effort from this source of funds.
We also continue our annual contribution to St. David’s Anglican Church, the venue for our annual service. This relationship has proven quite resilient as the leadership of the church has changed several times over the past several years but the ties remain remarkably strong. It is our hope to strengthen this relationship to the mutual benefit of both memberships as this tradition is consistent with the vision of Bishop Gibson, the founder of our alma mater.
Summit of KCOBA Chapters
Undoubtedly, the highlight of the year was our hosting of the 5th Worldwide Summit of KCOBA Chapters. Thanks to the hard work of the Board and support of the membership we staged an event of which we can all be proud. The feedback from those who attended particularly the visitors was overwhelming positive. A number of key decisions taken at this forum were implemented in short order which augurs well for future such gatherings. It is important to note that KCOBA as a fraternity has been around for several decades and this forum is relatively recent and as such is still very much a work in progress. A number of structural problems need to be addressed and the absence of a representative of the church is not productive. The next Summit will be held in Jamaica this August and Toronto will be represented. Details will be shared as soon as the information is made available.
Conclusion
We had a productive year and were able to show progress on our key objectives. The task at hand sometimes seems overwhelming when our contributions are compared to the need. However, it is prudent to heed the Jamaican adage “one, one coco full basket” and realize that we are making a difference. The school report submitted by the principal for this publication is instructive in this regard.
I thank our hard working Board of Directors and you our members for the tremendous support over the past year. I am positive that the new board will continue to receive your support and we will be in a position to report greater accomplishments this time next year.
Your suggestions and comments are welcome and I encourage you to contact us by e-mail at kcobatoronto@yahoo.com, visiting our website http://www.geocities.com/kcobatoronto/index.htm and post a message and of course in person at our quarterly Fortis Friday networking gatherings.
Fortis,
Lance Seymour
President, KCOBA (Toronto)