Developments in the OD Union
The Old Diocesans Union had been formally established in 1894 as an association of past pupils of the College. Its purpose was to develop a register of ODs, to establish a bursary or buildings fund and to keep a common annual day. Essentially, it was to keep up a relationship with the boys who had attended the College after they had left the school.
Frank Reid was the dominant driving force of the Union from 1908 to 1954 as Honorary Secretary, and the Union was solidly established by the time he stepped aside. After his retirement, the secretaryship was a paid position, accommodated in offices in the school.
In 1999, the Secretary was Brian de Kock, a long-time Latin teacher and a former Housemaster of Founders, and the Mission Statement of the Union was couched in the following terms. “To bring together past students of the Diocesan College and the Diocesan College Preparatory and Pre-Preparatory schools (hereinafter referred to jointly as “Bishops”), to keep them in touch with Bishops and the present students, to promote the interests and welfare of Bishops and to establish and administer a fund to provide financial assistance for the descendant of present and past members of the Union (hereinafter referred to as “ODs”) to be educated at Bishops.”
By 1999, the regular annual pattern of ODU activities was well established. These included the Secretary’s being available to the ODU offices to meet visiting ODs; to arrange the AGM during what was called the Founders Weekend (decided on as the weekend closest to the founding date of the school, 15 March 1849); and to prepare for the election of the Committee members for the following year; to keep the accounts of the Union and present these to the AGM; to assist the year groups in arranging their Reunions at various times during the year; and to invite the matrics to join the Union when they completed their matric year. An important and time-consuming task was preparing the contents of the OD section of the quarterly Diocesan College Magazine. This included formal features such as the Role of Honour, the report on the AGM and of the Reunions, the list of octogenarians, but also lists of announcements of births, marriages and deaths of ODs, including full obituaries of the more prominent deceased ODs. Also included were mentions of activities and achievements of ODs during the time. While the Diocesan College Magazine, which had started in 1886, was a school magazine, it was given to all current students and sent to all members of the Union. The OD section was a key component in keeping ODs informed of activities both of the school and of ODs across the world.
The ODU was not formally represented on the Council, but invariably the list of Council members included ODs in its numbers. Council also decided in 2002 to invite the Chairman of the ODU committee and the chairs of College and Prep Parents’ Associations to all Council meetings with observer status. The local Cape Town committee, elected each year at the AGM, had come to be regarded as the central committee of the Union, and one of its functions was constant liaison with the other regional committees across the world. In addition, over time, various offices had been created – a Patron, a President, various Vice-presidents – usually prominent ODs who had played significant roles in society and in the Union. In 2000, the Patron was Michael Watermeyer, and the Chairman of the Committee was John Arenhold. There were seven Vice-presidents, and 25 Regional committees.
At the end of 2000, the OD office moved from the Administration Building to new and larger premises in what had been the old Sanatorium.
Alex McGregor died in 2000, and Michael Watermeyer was elected Patron, John Arenhold President, and Les Masterson became Chairman of the Committee. Brian Robertson took over as Chairman in 2008. Brian de Kock served as Secretary until 2008, when he stepped aside after the AGM, and Tim Hamilton-Smith, recently retired from his position as Vice-principal (Sport and Discipline), took on the role together with his wife Carolyn. Among their first objectives was improving the OD register of email addresses in order to improve the flow of communication between the Office and the ODs.
Tim and Carolyn worked hard at their tasks and several improvements were made in terms of coverage of OD activities and fuller reporting in the Magazine. But in 2011, the Principal received a letter from an OD in the USA accusing Tim of having ignored an appeal by this person some thirty years previously when Tim had been Housemaster of Founders to change the person he was allocated as fag. The boy had not revealed to Tim why he wanted to be moved, and Tim had taken no action on the request. Tim did not remember the incident. As matters developed, with veiled threats, denials and further accusations, pressure was placed on Tim to stand down as OD Secretary, leaving Carolyn as the nominal secretary. This was done with no publicity and that is how matters stood until 2014, when the full story was published in Noseweek. The OD had asked to be moved from his then fagmaster because he was being sexually abused, and he believed that Tim knew about it and did nothing. When the matter went public, there was a surge of support for Tim, and anger at the ODU committee for the way the matter had been handled. A Special General Meeting of the ODU was called with the terms of reference set by the Committee and it was agreed to get an independent third party to adjudicate the situation. A Reconciliation between the OD Union and the Hamilton-Smiths, chaired by ex-Constitutional Court Judge, Kate O’ Regan, was reached at the start of October 2014, in which the OD Committee acknowledged that pressure had been put on Tim to stand aside, and the committee issued a full apology first to the Hamilton-Smiths, and then to the broader Bishops community. The ODU accepted that the school had, in 2014, put in place systems and procedures to ensure that any allegations of sexual abuse would be addressed.
Although the matter had been finally settled, it was clear that a lot of hurt and anger still lingered in the Bishops communities. Carolyn Hamilton-Smith herself stood aside and arrangements were made for an administrator to run the affairs of the Union.
A questionnaire was sent out to ODs in preparation for a strategic planning session to reset the functioning of the Union after the upheavals of the past year. In March 2015, the Patron, Michael Watermeyer, the President, Raymond Ackerman, a number of Vice-presidents, and the OD committee met, under the guidance of Nicky Bicket, to review, and where necessary, redefine the ODU’s purpose and refocus the ODU strategy on the key objectives it needed to fulfil its purpose. The meeting redefined the ODU Mission Statement and agreed on the following strategic objectives, which had already been in place in 2014.
1) Build and promote a Mentoring and Support framework for ODs worldwide
2) Segment and broaden Functions and Events to appeal to the widest possible OD audience
3) Communicate with ODs worldwide in a way that is meaningful, relevant, and timely, using a range of traditional and social media technology
4) Advocate for and promote Bishops.
The meeting also wanted to achieve the following. The ODU Chairman and committee should be regarded as an umbrella and not just a Cape Town specific body. There should be a Western Cape regional body. An ODU Secretary should be appointed as soon as possible to manage and deliver many of the functions of the ODU committee. The ODU database should be brought up to date as soon as possible.
In 2016, Bruce Jack was elected chairman of the ODU Committee and in June 2016, applications for an Executive Director of the ODU were called for. After interviews, WP van Zyl (Senior Prefect in 1997) was appointed as Executive Manager towards the end of 2016. Relationships between the school and ODU improved, as WP van Zyl made a big impact on the school. His report of his 2017 activities delivered to the 2018 AGM contains an impressive list of actions and events. During the year, WP van Zyl’s title was changed back to Secretary, even though the list of duties remained as they had been when he was appointed. It was in 2017 that the school decided to discontinue the Diocesan College Magazine, the quarterly publication to which the ODU also contributed its news, and to replace this with an annual publication. The ODU then decided that they would produce a bi-annual publication of their own, to be called The Old Diocesan, its content being structured round the strategic goals of the 2015 strategy. The magazine was edited by Tim Richman and the team of ODs who produced the content.
When Bruce Jack stepped down as Chairman, the new committee under Adam Pike had a different view on the Secretary’s duties and a distance developed, which culminated during April 2019, when the Chairman, Adam Pike, sent out a very terse email to all ODs informing them that the Union and the secretary had parted ways, and according to WP they had, “in good faith, reached an amicable separation agreement.” This produced a wide and vigorous response, charging that the letter and the action were not in line with Bishops values. In a matter of days, Adam Pike issued a formal apology, accepting that the notification was not in line with the values that Bishops and the ODU espoused. A meeting was arranged between various representative interested ODs who supported WP, and the full committee and the Patron. Despite attempts for the two sides to come closer together, a group of ten ODs then called for a Special General Meeting to express their lack of confidence in the whole OD Committee. Despite desperate attempts to resolve the conflict, the SGM, with Judge Craig Howie in the chair, was held with over 600 ODs attending in person and more on virtual platforms. There was heated discussion from both sides, until a proposal was made that a vote would not be in the best interests of both the Union and the school, and it would in fact be damaging. The SGM concluded that in a spirit of reconciliation, an agreement was accepted that the motion of no confidence would be withdrawn by its sponsors, and the Committee would agree to the formation of a Standing Committee of 7 members, chaired by Judge Howie and involving three members each from the WP10 and the Committee. The purpose of the Standing Committee was to consider and make recommendations to the full Committee on reconciliation, unity, healing and governance. In March 2020, a new Committee was elected with Wilbur van Niekerk as Chairman to implement the new strategies emerging from the OD 20/20 Strategy. This included a strong IT push to get ODs linked together through LinkedIn. WP van Zyl was elected to the Committee in 2023.
When Covid struck and the world went into lock-down, the activities of the Union necessarily had to slow down. Many events across the OD world, including the 2020 ODU AGM and the annual Founders Weekend were cancelled. However, various initiatives around connectedness continued, the review of the OD Project 20/20 was competed, and a new entrepreneurial OD-to-OD initiative was set up. When Covid came to an end, activities in the Union started up again, with the launch of the “Invest in our Future Foundation” in late 2021. This venture was set up by the ODU in partnership with Citadel Wealth Management to assist new talented ODs who required assistance with their tertiary education or other activities that demanded capital and financial assistance as they ventured out into the world. This alongside the mentoring initiative which started in 2015 goes a long way to achieving one of the ODU’s main purposes. Funding comes from various sources driven by ODs, and already eight young ODs have been recipients of this initiative.
In 2022, Dr Paul Murray was appointed as ODU Ambassador, taking on some of the duties of the secretaryship. The ODU Office is run by Dedry Weich who is the Office Administrator and the ODU Events Co-ordinator, and Lynn Swanevelder is the ODU Communications Manager. Another OD survey was held during 2022, and a number of the opinions revealed in the results showed that class reunions were the most prized activity of the Union, and helping to set up these reunions was the area that the Union should be concentrating on. Next was managing the OD database, which shows that ODs value the chances for connection, and the mentoring programme was also highly regarded.
