The 2023 Chronicle

On the heels of 2022’s Super Gaudy – the first time there were more Old Boys than current Michaelhouse boys in Balgowan – many enthusiastic OMs had the date for the 2023 gaudy dinners circled in their diaries months in advance. With about 300 Old Boys descending on Balgowan, the event was attended by more OMs representing their year groups than any other year in memory, again proving that the willingness to come together is reaching unprecedented levels. Naturally, all these endeavours draw on many budgets and resources: time, energy, insight and, of course, money. As such the club continued its new course of preparing and evaluating monthly management accounts to keep a firm grip on its finances and the means of becoming ever more useful in the lives of OMs. Coming off the back of a tumultuous 2022 financial year, a year of lessons learnt and school fees being paid, 2023 was a year of great recovery and success on the financial front. Wrapping up 2023 with a surplus, a healthy bank balance and paid-off loan accounts put the club on a sharp positive trajectory for realising

the ambitions of its new era, creating financial conditions where the focus could be more squarely on serving the OM community. An increase in membership subscriptions, surpluses from income-generating streams and generous donations from more established branches ensured the ongoing efficacy of the club’s financial management – a real team effort. The Old Boys’ Club is the repository of our school’s ethos – a set of values, a cache of shared beliefs and morals which have taken generations to cement. And this could not have been more beautifully anticipated than by this year’s leavers ceremony, that transition from being a boy of Michaelhouse to becoming an Old Boy. A decision was taken to move the venue to the Chapel – a fitting backdrop to such a moving occasion – a little more pomp and meaning were applied to the programme, and the Class of 2024 were welcomed as the 118 newest members of our unique brotherhood in rousingly memorable fashion.

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