Dear RMO and all Returners,

What wonderful news is this? A 40th Dinner on Saturday the 4th June. I will do my very best to be there ‘Though hell should bar the way!’ We all owe our dear RMO our sincere thanks for getting things moving on this front and I think that it is quite right that such an occasion should be truly ‘splendid’ (to use one of Peter’s own words) and heavily subsidised form Peter’s funds. My own preference would be to hold it in the Old Dining Hall in OB but I am happy to go wherever it is decided.

Such a momentous occasion is indeed an opportunity to review where we are now and where we hope to be in the future. Much the same happened prior to The Great Double 16 and much of value came out of it including The Great Charter. So, I see the 2011 AGM as an occasion to make some pretty serous resolutions about the future. However, because of the seriousness of the situation and the need for the best resolutions possible there needs to be plenty of debate in advance so that when the time comes for the AGM we can have worked up some clear options to debate and finally resolve. Good old Bob Fonow has led off with some excellent thoughts and I know that Bill and Stu have also contributed valuable ideas. I know that most people use things like Facebook etc but in order that we can all share the debate I think that it is important for the debate to be put on the Website and I can see that Stu has started this.

In attempting to summarise the ideas expressed so far, I think that there are three main areas to be debated and eventually decided, as follows:

1. There is general feeling that something positive should be done in the very near future with some, if not all, of Peter’s money.

2. We also need to engage with the issue of the future of St David’s, Lampeter. We should take a view on this and in so doing help and support the 16 Club at College (Ref The Great Charter)

3. We also need to take a distinct view on The Returners and their future.

If I may, I would like to offer my own thoughts on the above.

First of all, I will open with the issue of doing something useful with Peter’s money. While I think that this is absolutely right and totally opportune to do this for the 40th I have to express some concerns regarding the idea of setting up some form of scholarship or trust to help a disadvantaged student. In my work at Harper Adams I have been directly involved with alumni attempts to do just this but always it has met with real problems. One problem is with promoting the scholarship so that genuine people have the opportunity to find out about it but the real problem is one of selection. What criteria do you use to select somebody who genuinely deserves and how on earth do you verify this? This inevitably involves you with means testing, interviewing and all sorts of intrusions into people’s lives. This is not something that a society like The Returners has time, experience or the organisation to carry out. Disability is not a useful criterion either. Universities are well provided for to look after disabled students. What ever you do don’t go down the overseas route as the organisational aspects are even worse and the reality is that one year of tuition fees alone would blow away all Peter’s money. It may seem more prosaic and less heart –warming but I would prefer to go down the physical gift route; not a statue-we are all agreed on that-but something permanent and serving a purpose. I think that Bob has a very good proposal to make here. It would, of course, make sense to discuss this with the VC/Principal. (Or whatever the top person at Lampeter is called these days)

Secondly on the future of Lampeter, I have to say that the prospects look bleak indeed. The Conservative Government (along with those phoney pledgers in the Liberal Party) are going to rip into higher education and radically alter the whole way higher education has been done for centuries. For all universities, with the exception of a few Russell Group Universities and some STEM subjects, the three year full-time degree will become a thing of the past. As for the Arts and Humanities -God help us! It genuinely grieves me to have to say it but we have to face the prospect of their not being students in Lampeter but if there are they will not be living and studying in a way that is at all familiar to us. I hope that I do not sound too pessimistic here but I think that it would be wise to hope for the best and plan for the worst. My view is, and always has been, that while there are students at Lampeter who want to be in the 16 Club then the Club should continue and The Returners will, as enshrined in their Charter, give them every support.

Finally, and more happily, there is every reason to see a long-term future for The 16 Club Returners. The Returners can survive most things they throw at the dear ‘Old Coll.’ and at The Club at College. If the worst came to the worst and The Club at College died out there would still be the possibility of resurrection at a later date when the world has returned to some level of sanity. The Returners, of course, regenerate themselves through 16 Club graduates but they are not entirely dependant on this means of recruitment. The Redemption Process enables us to expand our membership to include suitable people who share our values. The Redemption Process has been employed most happily in the past and could be used more fully in the future. Perhaps it would help remind and reassure us all if a copy of the Redemption Process Form was posted on the website? Finally on the matter of Redemption I have to acknowledge that at the moment this is for men, only. Here I have to say that I am of Bob’s way of thinking (yet again) and that if we were to go down the road of using the Redemption Process for Returners more fully I would be inclined to allow the inclusion of women. I don’t see why we should not include this issue as part of our on going debate on the future of The Returners.

I do pray for your indulgence on my ramblings above but hope that they will contribute to the whole debate and look forward to further lively and fascinating discussion.

Gaudeamus semper

Jop.