Circular No 569

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 29 of September 2012, Circular No 569

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Dear Friends,

Here you have the Exchange on the MINUTES that were approved at the Association's meeting.

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RE: Minutes of the Board Meeting held on May 21, 2012

FROM: Joseph Berment-McDowald

Tuesday, September 18, 2012 8:52 PM

Dear Dennis,

Given the urgency of your request, I made the time to read the minutes and have no problem with anything contained therein, the only correction being rightly instead of righty in the second minute. I second the adoption of the minutes as rendered and amended, although I can't remember Ladislao's correction. I agree with your suggestion of sending copies of the minutes to all old boys.

As for your other observations, I have been reluctant to be the 1st to respond to you and have been waiting for others so say how they feel, rather than attempting to over influence their thoughts.

Nonetheless, in the absence or candour from elsewhere, I must say that I agree with your proposal and Peter's sentiments to make any information which is already public freely available; However, I understand the Articles of Incorporation to be a not for profit association's equivalent of a limited liability company's Memorandum of Association. The Articles of Association (or whatever would be the equivalent for a not for profit association) would seem to provide an opportunity for the association to insist on financial participation, when we provide a copy to the dues paying member. Doing it this way could create a greater sense of ownership minimizing a noticeable tendency to excessive uninformed comment and criticism, from those who have little at stake, too much free time and absolutely no intent to be satisfied with the efforts of others.

From what I have read my argument may be weakened if Articles of Incorporation and Articles of Association are one and the same and consequently public documents: if so we nonetheless have the option to require a fee when we provide a personal copy and should do so.

I don't feel strongly about this and I am willing to go along with the majority and your comfort threshold. I must say however that we run the risk of being harassed by some, without ever receiving a cent and having onerous accountability.

Joseph Berment-McDowald

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From: DGurley@jdsellier.com DGurley@jdsellier.com

Subject: RE: Minutes of the Board Meeting held on May 21, 2012

Received: Tuesday, September 18, 2012, 6:43 PM

Joe and other fellow Directors

Please reply to my email communications of the 3^rd and 17^th below addressed to the Directors.

Regards,

Dennis

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From: <DGurley@jdsellier.com>

Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:37:16 -0400

Hi Joe;

Please refer to the paragraph numbered 5 of the unconfirmed Minutes. Gary replaced James Samaroo.

I filed the necessary Notice of Change of Secretary at the Companies Registry on the 26^th June.

Regards,

Dennis.

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From: Joe [mailto:bermentmcdowald@yahoo.com]

Sent: Monday, 17 September 2012 12:09 PM

Dear Dennis,

Would you clarify: is Gary the secretary?

Sincerely,

Joe

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From: <DGurley@jdsellier.com>

Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2012 11:59:25 -0400

Hi Peter,

I am encouraged by your response, but I would also really like to hear from my fellow Directors and from Gary, the Secretary.

Regards,

Dennis

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From: Peter Sammy [mailto:peter.linda.sammy@gmail.com]

Sent: Monday, 17 September 2012 10:47 AM

Dennis,

I agree with you, this information is fairly standard and I feel that not providing a copy will only lead to a conspiracy theory which cannot be helpful. As far as the minutes are concerned I would move a motion for their acceptance as you presented them.

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Peter Sammy

On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 9:06 AM, <DGurley@jdsellier.com> wrote:

Dear fellow Directors;

I refer to my e-mail of September 03, and look forward to hearing from you in connection with the approval/confirmation of the minutes please. If we cannot deal with this by e-mail round robin we shall have to convene a meeting of the Board to confirm same.

I would also like to know your views on circulating the minutes to the alumni.

Please also authorise me to provide a copy of the Articles of Incorporation and last Annual Return to the alumni. I see no harm in doing so considering that these documents are filed at the Companies Registry and are available to any member of the public.

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FROM: Peter Sammy

Monday, September 17, 2012 10:17 AM

Dennis,

I agree with you, this information is fairly standard and I feel that not providing a copy will only lead to a conspiracy theory which cannot be helpful. As far as the minutes are concerned I would move a motion for their acceptance as you presented them

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From: Dennis Gurley

Sent: Monday, 03 September 2012 12:09 PM

Dear Fellow Directors and Alumni;

Ladislao has suggested the amendments shown in red in the new paragraph 12 on the attached revised unconfirmed minutes. I have no difficulty in accepting his suggestion. Please indicate if you require me to make any additional additions or amendments.

Joe B-McD, with the consent of the other directors, I think that we should share these minutes with the alumni. Doing so may (with a little luck) spark some fresh ideas and enthusiasm.

Regards,

Dennis

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From: Dennis Gurley

Sent: Monday, 27 August 2012 04:17 PM

Please find attached unconfirmed Minutes prepared by me for your consideration. Please review and indicate any amendments you consider necessary. Please return the attachment to me (and forward to other directors and secretary) showing any suggested corrections additions and/or amendments thereon with tracked changes.

Note: the Notices of (1) Change of Director and (2) Change of Secretary have been filed at the Companies Registry.

Where do we go from here?

Regards,

Dennis Gurley

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Subject: Longing to Belong

From: nigelboos@yahoo.ca

Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2012 23:49:13 -0400

To: cureperoundabout@hotmail.com

Joanne,

I'm delighted to know that SOMETHING is being done to recognize the Centenary of MSB. I had made a number of solid proposals earlier in the year, but received zero response from Fr. Abbot. Don't understand why, but he must know something I don't. Anyway, in the absence of any response from him, we Old Boys of the Abbey School have gone ahead and planned a number of reunions in various countries, in recognition of the Centenary.

It's possible that the Abbey School Alumni Association (ASAA) would like to join the effort to recognize Dom Mayuel de Caigny, so I'm passing your request onto them for their further consideration.

Nigel

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On 2012-07-16, at 10:51 PM, Joanne Williams-Schmidhammer wrote:

CONGRATS ! This is all wonderful news....

We shall check it.

And place also on our CR-Facebook.

I shall fwd your mail to Nigel Boos.

He shall be very interested.

Would you support us with a small ADVERT for BOOK SALES...a QUARTER PAGE B&W would cost you TT $1,000 ?

A FULL COLOURED QUARTER page ad is TT$2,000.

I currently print 12,000 copies of Curepe Roundabout. My hope is to print 15,000 this Special 50th Independence edition.

Joanne

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From: jaebp@live.com

To: cureperoundabout@hotmail.com

Subject: RE: THANKS from CR

Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:53:19 -0400

We have just published a book to mark the centenary.

The book is called, "LONGING TO BELONG" and it is biography of DOM MAYUEUL DE CAIGNY, the founder of Mount St Benedict in 1912.

Copies of the Book will be available in THE PAX ABBEY SHOP at the Mount from August 2012 for the price of TT$220.00.

At present it is already available on-line at AMAZON.COM and Barnes & Noble.

On the website of the PARIA PUBLISHING COMPANY there is a blog where you can get more details and a link to the online stores: http://pariapublishing.blogspot.com,

I am also now preparing a new website for the abbey and I have placed some information about the book on the HOME PAGE.

You can check it out at www.mountstbenedictabbey.org,

What do you say?

We would appreciate some of the publicity for the sale of the book.

John

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From: cureperoundabout@hotmail.com

Subject: THANKS from CR

Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2012 19:20:54 +0000

That was so fast....thanks a million !!!

How are your Centenary plans coming along...?

Please check us on FACEBOOK...Like & Share us...

Oh, IF there is any info which you wish put out to the public, please send it to me as regular email, and we'll put it on our CUREPE ROUNDABOUT FACEBOOK

Joanne

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Ladislao Kertesz at kertesz11@yahoo.com,

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Photos:

11UN0002AAMSON, Antonio Aman

12LK6317UNIONTOWER, Lunch, Gabriel Faria and Robert Date

12LK0010UNIONTWR, Invitation card

12LK0011UNIONTWR, Invitation card signatures

Circular No 568.2

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 26 September 2012 No.568 extra, extra

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MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE DIRECTORS OF

ABBEY SCHOOL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION,

TOGETHER WITH

INVITED ALUMNI

HELD ON THE 21^ST MAY, 2012

AT THE OFFICES OF J.D. SELLIER + CO.

AT 129/131 ABERCROMBY STREET,

PORT-OF-SPAIN

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PRESENT:                   Joseph Berment-McDowald

Christopher Knowles

Dennis Adrian Gurley

Ladislao Kertesz

ALSO PRESENT:        Peter Sammy – Treasurer

Gary Matthews

                                    Enrique Bonaparte

                                    Joseph Habib

                                    Michael D’Ornellas

                                    Winston Kerry

REGRETS:                   James Samaroo - Secretary

                                                                                                                                   

1.      The Convenor of the meeting, Dennis Gurley, called the meeting to order at 4:15 p.m. and gave a brief introduction of the Association, in particular that it was a non-profit association incorporated on the 22^nd March, 2010 under the Companies Act and that the Directors were himself, Joseph Berment-McDowald, Ladislao Kertesz and Christopher Knowles, who were the first members of the Association.  He then invited Joseph Berment-McDowald, as President of the Association, to chair the meeting and Mr. Berment-McDowald took the chair. 

2.      Mr. Berment-McDowald pointed out that Mr. Samaroo, Secretary of the Association, had sent his regrets and that Mr. Peter Sammy was the Treasurer.  He informed the meeting that the purpose of this meeting was to put some flesh on the skeleton structure of the Association which was a statutory structure under the Companies Act.  In particular, although the Articles of Incorporation stated the objects, which were all charitable in nature, it was a question of what activities the association would become involved in as there was a general feeling (righty so) that the Association was doing nothing.  Mr. Berment-McDowald gave a history of the attempts made by past students to become involved in various activities and to assist.  The general feeling was that the Abbot was likely to object to the Association “interfering” and that it might be necessary to establish some goodwill with the Abbot before attempting to get involved in any project or matter.  

3.      Michael “Specks” D’Ornellas reported that some years ago Gary Matthews had suggested the establishment of a museum and he (Michael) was quite excited about the idea and felt that it was not likely to be considered controversial by the Abbot and it might give the Association an opportunity to do something useful in preserving the artifacts of the Benedictine Order at Mount St. Benedict and perhaps also providing an archive for matters of interest to the Alumni of the Abbey School, but that the experience of the Benedictine monks  (several examples of which were provided by Mr. Berment-McDowald) have been such that the Order was apprehensive about partnering with third parties.

Indeed, reference was made to the attempts made by the Abbot to block the use of the words “Abbey School” in the name of the Association.  Mr. Peter Sammy read a letter from the Abbot to J.D. Sellier + Co. which was copied to the Registrar General objecting to the use of the name.

4.      Various potential activities were discussed and in particular the rehabilitation of the tennis courts and pool, however, it was pointed out that this matter was subject to some controversy involving the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago which was the subject of an enquiry/audit.  Joseph Habib indicated that he was friendly with someone (Bob) at the Sports Company and he could make an enquiry as to the status of that audit and the possibility of advancing the renovation and rehabilitation.  . 

After some discussion it was agreed that Gary Matthews and Michael D’Ornellas would pursue this matter, co-opting such other members as they may think fit. They would develop a plan of action for the organising/set-up of the museum and propose the plan to the Abbot. Considering that 2012 is the 100 anniversary of the Monastery, this project would be timely

5.      It was agreed that it was necessary to inject new life into the association and as such  Joseph Habib was invited to join the Board (he being a representative of the 1975-1980 era).  Considering also that James Samaroo operated a betting pool business and had little time to devote to the Association, his retirement would be accepted and Gary Matthews would be appointed Secretary in his place.

6.      Ladislao Kertesz expressed some measure of frustration in the operation of the Association and endorsed the need to breathe new life into it.  He felt that it was critical that the Association should have a live web page where people could interact with each other and the Association, and that there should be representatives of the different age groups in order that the Association might be considered relevant to all.  He suggested that there should be a contact person for each grouping, whether by age, nationality or otherwise.

7.      Enrique Bonaparte indicated that he knew someone who develops web pages and that he would pursue this matter but he needed to be supplied with information with regard to the content of the web page.

8.      Ladislao Kertesz also suggested that there should be a “wall” where the Alumni would have their names (and dates) engraved in commemoration of the time spent at the Abbey School.

9.      Peter Sammy expressed concern that he was the sole repository of the funds of the Association and suggested that a bank account should be established. He would provide an account of the funds held.

10.  There being no further business, the Chairman called the meeting to a close at 6:30 p.m.

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                                                                                    Confirmed……………………..                     

            Recording Secretary                                                                       Chairman

                                                                                    Date         :                               , 2012