It's been a while...

 15th July 2021

It has indeed been a while since my last Blog post.

When I set this up and set out to Blog regularly during my Presidential term who could have imagined what we have been through these past 18 months.

At every stage when I thought that we were about to open up sufficiently to enable the OMC events to start up again, we have been thwarted by a surge in cases and new Covid variants.

But at last we have good news earlier this week that the opening up will go ahead on Monday 19th July. This means that the OMC annual summer Cocktail Party can go ahead on Wednesday 21st July at the National Liberal Club. I realise that some people will still be cautious about attending such events, and I understand this. However, I do hope to see a decent turnout and look forward to catching up with many OMs.

We haven't been inactive during these past many months.

A couple of weeks ago we held the OMC AGM via Zoom for the second year running and this went very smoothly. We had 44 people log in. We had intended to make this the first "hybrid" but had to abandon that plan when the opening up date was put back 4 weeks. After two years as President I shall be handing over to John Gallagher at the Annual Dinner on 1st October. Before we get to that there will hopefully be a few events including OM's day at the school

Several professional networking events have been held on Zoom including the Medical and Engineers and both were well attended - in fact perhaps not surprising the attendance is greater online than face-to-face. This points the way for future networking, although I still believe that face to face is the most effective if possible, whereas online opens up participation to so many more members.

The OMC Committee continues to operate via Zoom and plan for the future and in particular the centenary of the passing of Sir John McClure the inspiring head of school through the turn of the 19th/20th century. 

Well, with uncertainty still quite high, lets hope that this will be the first of several blogs over the coming months. Till the next one......stay safe.

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