The Honourable Company of Freemen of the City of London of North America

    

The Honourable Company of Freemen of

 

the City of London of North America

 

Company Comment - Spring 2012

Master's Report:
Masters Remarks for the Comment 2012
The Honourable Company of Freemen of the City of London of North America
By Commander Michael J. Green CD (Retd) Master

Fellow Freemen, Liverymen and members of the Court of the Honourable Company I extend felicitations and very best wishes to you and your families for good health and prosperity in 2012.

My second consecutive term as your Master will conclude after the annual general meeting in April 2012 and I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on my two years of office which have been a most rewarding experience for me and my family. Indeed it has been a great honour to have been of service to the Honourable Company with memories which I will cherish as we move forward.

In 2010-11 we welcomed a number of new members from Canada and from other countries some of whom have already taken their Freedom or have committed to apply in 2012. I am pleased to report that your Court is fully compliant regarding its membership in all respects with the requirement of the City of London. At the 2012 annual dinner I made commitments to the members to increase our membership and to review our Constitution, which has not changed for several years, notwithstanding eventualities that may have certain impact on our governance. Under the Stewardship of your Deputy Master a select Committee comprising past masters and members of the Court was formed to examine the Constitution and report their findings and recommendations for possible changes at the 2012 annual general meeting.

2010-11 has been a good year relative to events some of which will be covered further in this issue. However, I would like to make some comment on events of significance. We were honoured to Have His Excellency Dr Andrew Pocock British High Commissioner as our guest at the 32nd annual dinner and we look forward to seeing him at further events. We are delighted to have as guest of honour the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman David Wootton, at our 33rd annual dinner.

With the generous hospitality of Hugh Oddie, Liveryman and Past Master, we held a very successful Meet the Court in June at his residence. A change of venue to the Angus Glen golf club made for a fine summer event in August and our calendar of events concluded with a wonderful wine tasting event for the Charity. The wine tasting event was organised by Past Master John Bishop and Events Co- Chair John Welch with communications assistance from Chair Norman Morris. I extend grateful thanks to all who made these memorable events a success. The Performing Arts Lodge Toronto, have continued to support the Honourable Company through making their facilities available to our Court and I extend thanks to their organisation.

We expect to advise members of some key events now being developed for 2012.More on this to come so please stay tuned to our announcements.

I am pleased to report that through cost saving measures introduced this year and efforts of the membership; our financial status has improved greatly for both our operating and the charity accounts. The Court will continue to place emphasis on this most important aspect of our Company in 2012.Finally I look forward to continuing to serve the Court as immediate Past Master and supporting the new Court Members as they take up office on your behalf.
Finance:
Treasurer's Report to the Company Comments – April 3rd 2012.

I am very pleased to report that you company has recorded a successful financial year 2011/2012. Reporting a net income of $4.268. This is in stark contrast to a loss in operations for 2010/2011 of $ $5179.70. Reasons for this turn around in fortunes are a result of:-
  • Better expense management especially with regard to our web management costs
  • Improved member attendance at events and better planned events with regards to costs.
  • Fewer delinquencies in Quarterage and an increase in membership.
I can also report that our Charitable Trust enjoyed a successful year adding some $3,000 to its resources namely $1825.00. by way of donations received with quarterage and the successful November wine event which raised an additional $ 1,122 via the silent auction and some special donations. The Charitable Trust now enjoys total resources of $29,733.00; and this strong position has allowed the trustees to extend our support to Western University to assist students with their studies in the UK.
Membership Report:
We are delighted to welcome the following new members who have joined this year:

Commodore Bruce Belleveau and Mrs. Anne Belleveau who joined on March 16th, 2011
Mr. Dean Smith who joined on June 1st, 2011
Ms. Ishrani Jaikaran who joined on August 3rd, 2011
Mr. Roger McMillan who joined December 7, 2011-12-09
Mr. Julian Adams also joined December 7, 2011-12-09
Mr. Jonathan Lamb , December 7, 2011 and
Mr. Robert Greenstreet who resides in the United States also joined on December 7, 2011.

The Court and members of the Honourable Company wish to extend warmest welcomes to all our new members.

Fellow Freemen, the life-blood of any organization is its members. At least four of these new members will be joining three of our established members in initiating the process to be granted the Freedom of the City of London in early 2012.

If you know anyone who you might consider as a potential member please invite them to view our website http://www.freemenlondon.org/ .

Why not ask them to join and sponsor their application. You might perhaps consider giving the “Gift of Membership” to a close friend or a member of your family.

Without our members our organisation will not be able to grow both in terms of our Events and our Charitable Trust. 

Tom O' Carroll
Chair membership Committee
Events:
Meet The Court
On June 14th, the Master invited all the members to Meet the Court at Past Master Hugh Oddie's house in Toronto. For those of you who have attended events at Hugh's house in the past, you will know Hugh is a very generous host and once again left nothing to chance looking after us with great hospitality putting on a fine spread for supper and an excellent selection of wines for our enjoyment.

The Master welcomed us all, thanked Hugh for his gracious hospitality and introduced the Court for 2011-2012.

In all we were close to close to 30 members and guests with the evening generating a small surplus.

Summer Evening Buffet Dinner

Regrettably, as some of you know, the Summer Buffet Dinner held at the RCYC Island Club House had to be re-scheduled to another venue as the RCYC has discontinued its Sunday Summer Buffet Dinners.

After evaluating many different venues, most of which would have been cost prohibitive, we decided on The Angus Glen Golf Club and booked Sunday August 21.

In all we were 29 members and guests for dinner and enjoyed a very pleasant reception followed by the Buffet Dinner. Regrettably, the weather didi not allow us to be outside for the reception. The reception commenced at 6:00pm with dinner at 7:00. We were warmly welcomed by the Master who, following his remarks and welcome, invited us all to enjoy the buffet.

Later, Doug Wilkinson ably proposed the toast to the Guests and John Smith proposed the toast to the Honourable Company.

We broke up at approximately at 9:30pm having enjoyed a very pleasant evening.

Wine Tasting Fund Raiser

Our wine tasting fund-raiser was a success, based on the number of people who attended. The feedback from all participants and attendees was positive in all aspects. The event was held at the Green Room of the Performing Arts Lodge that welcomed attendees with a cozy ambiance. Jim Walker of Arthur Cellars provided an excellent selection of Châteauneuf du Pape wines from the Rhone region and was on hand throughout the evening to provide commentary on each wine to the attendees. The wines were complimented by an array of tasty hors d’oeuvres from Catering For You. Both the silent auction and raffle ticket sales were enthusiastically supported.

Through the good efforts of some of our members, friends and sponsors, we have so far netted over $3,000.00.

Despite the success on the night we were not able to achieve our goal to raise $5,000.00. As you know we have committed to provide $5,000.00 in scholarship funds per year to the University of Western Ontario to enable a student to attend their final year of undergraduate study or first year of post-graduate work at a university of their choice in London, England.

Obviously it would be impossible to accommodate all Freemen at a limited space venue on the night. But for those who could not attend, you can still participate in the success of our fund-raising evening and help in achieving our goal by making a tax-deductible donation today to our scholarship fund.

As such we are asking you to make a donation of $70.00, $100.00, or $150.00. If all Freemen generously respond we can ensure that we fulfill our continuing commitment to the University of Western Ontario and a deserving student. Charity

Charity

All three above events generated a small to medium gross profit and after administration expenses to be determined by the Treasurer and approved by the Court, the surplus will be transferred to our Charitable Account,

John Bishop and John Welch
Event Chairs
Charitable Giving and the Honourable Company:
As is articulated in the introduction to our charity found on our web site there are centuries of tradition of the Livery Companies in the education and training of young people evolving over time to the support and even founding of institutions of higher learning, the endowment of chairs, student scholarships and industry related research grants. This excellent tradition is carried on in North America through our annual scholarship at the University of Western Ontario provided to a student wishing to carry on study in London, England. This historic commitment to charitable giving is captured in the preamble of the companies By-Laws.

“To support our charity and each other through meetings and social events, and to foster growth between ourselves and for the company”

So it is within this regard that the company established the University of Western Ontario scholarship and why it continues to this day. In order to meet and sustain the scholarship we need to raise a minimum of $5000.00 per year that in part assists a student to study in London, England for a year.

When joining the company each member is committing himself or herself to support the goals and objectives of the Honourable Company. Integral to that commitment is the support for our charity. Once a member and to remain in good standing we ask each member to pay an annual Quarterage of $75.00. The annual Quarterage however is used to meet our annual administration costs such as maintaining the web site, mailings and other sundry outgoings. As it just covers our costs we are reliant on the generosity of our members, friends and supporters to meet our charitable obligations.

As we approach the new-year membership renewal please consider renewing your commitment to the Honourable Company's charitable objectives by donating generously to our University of Western Ontario scholarship fund.

In particular we would ask you “to support our charity and each other through meetings and social events, and to foster growth between ourselves and the company” and actively participate in our social and fundraising events in the year to come by joining in and even bringing a friend or two who share our commitment to higher education. In doing so we can continue to send a worthy student to continue their studies abroad.

John Welch and John Bishop
Events Chair, Chair of the Charitable Trust
Annual General Meeting (AGM) - April 2012:
Your Court 2012-13, elected at the April AGM 2012.
Master: Ken B Foxcroft
master@freemenlondon.org
Deputy Master and Honorary Clerk Frances Sommerville
clerk@freemenlondon.org
Honorary Treasurer: Roger McMillan
treasurer@freemenlondon.org
Immediate Past Master and Charity Chair: : Michael Green
Events Chair: John Welch
events@freemenlondon.org
Membership Chair: Tom O'Carroll
membership@freemenlondon.org
Communications Chair- Norman Morris
Editor - "Company Comment": editor@freemenlondon.org
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