Chairmans Report - AGM 2011

It is appropriate that our 21^st anniversary annual general meeting should be held at The Savoy and our thanks to General Manager, Kieran MacDonald for so generously hosting this evening.

2010 was a difficult year for the society in that interest in events seemed to wane and the committee shared concern about the longevity of the Society. It was decided that given the economic climate, events would take the form of canapé receptions rather than formal dinners and this proved to be a successful format with strong presence at the RAC for the ‘Back to Work’ party in September kindly hosted by Christian Horvath, the Christmas Drinks party hosted by yours truly at the Travellers Club and the new members party hosted at The Arch by David Brunt. The next event will be the Summer Party to be held at The Goring and hosted by your new Chairman Graham Copeman.

The Committee’s concern over the longevity of the society reflected on the limited source of new members. The lack of a Savoy Group per se restricted new interest in the Society but it was felt that the current membership were keen to maintain and progress the society and that there were still many ex-employees of the Savoy Group who would be eligible for membership. The Committee agreed to experiment with posting the Society as a group on the professional networking site ‘Linkedin’ and this stirred some interest and the Committee intends to develop this as an effective communication tool.  I am delighted that you have approved the resolution to accept those selected onto the Savoy Society mentoring Scheme as Associate Members affording them the opportunity to become full members upon their graduation. We could not have predicted the success of the mentoring scheme and this is such an obvious and natural way to preserve the longevity of the society with new members who have an affinity to the Savoy Group.

The mentoring scheme is now in its third year, 11 universities are involved and an estimated 50 applications from prospective mentees will be considered at the selection process later in the year. It was particularly pleasing that the Scheme was awarded The People Innovations Award and was highly commended for the Young People Award at the 2010 Springboard awards.

In these days of so much uncertainty in the world it is good to have such constants as the traditions of the Savoy Group and I would urge the membership to embrace the Society and support the new Chairman and his committee in ensuring the membership, the Committee and the Society as a whole continue to flourish.

It just remains for me to thank the Committee for their work and all the support during my two years as Chairman which has been a great privilege.