Reunions

Two of our aims as set down by the Old Scholars Association and the School are;

Reunions are of two types
Year reunions – ie, members of a peer or Old Scholar year. For instance those in a year who attended their final year in 1967, or left in year 10 of 1965. This includes all students in that cohort, even if they left before the final year.
Area reunions – these are held in various parts of Australia and overseas eg Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and occasionally London and New York.

For a list of coming reunions, please see the Reunions page.
If you would like to hold a reunion the following information might help you.

YEAR REUNIONS

Finding your class mates
The Friends’ School can give you a list of the students in your year (as far as we know them), and the most up to date addresses we have.  If there are missing addresses or names you should contact us – perhaps the missing old scholar has a sibling whose address we have, for instance.

Tours
When planning your reunion, we would like you to consider having it at Friends’, or at least having a tour of the School before going on to your reunion lunch or dinner.

A group of current students can take your group on a tour of the School. You might like to see EVERYTHING – ie, the Argyle Street campus, the Commercial Road campus, the Boat Club, the old Boarding House, the new Boarding House (Walker House), the Libraries, Friends Heath & Fitness.

For a full tour you need to allow at least 1-1½ hours. Our campuses remain almost the same as 100 years ago and there is a great tendency for Old Scholars to lean over balconies, or sit on a bench, and say “remember when ….?”.

Of course if you only want to see, say, Hobartville and the original boarding house that would take less time.

If you are having a tour only, you might like to organise some refreshments – one group recently gave each of the guests a glass of champagne as she arrived, before setting off on their tour. After the tour they went elsewhere for their dinner.
You should contact Kalli McCarthy at Friends’ on 6210 2282 or email kmccarthy@friends.tas.edu.au to talk about these options.

Access & Parking
We usually recommend that reunion groups enter the School either off Commercial Road or the back entrance off Carr Street. If a reunion is being held on the Argyle Street Campus then the best entry point is off Boa Vista Road. Unfortunately parking on the Friends’ sites can be extremely limited.

For your reunion
We should say here that we enjoy organising reunions and are able to arrange for all postage and mail distribution, a caterer and drinks. Normally the Development and Community Relations Manager, Steve McQueeney, will help host the evening, do a slide presentation about the School today and talk about the changes that have occurred at the School since you left. Steve also likes to do a short ‘then and now’ presentation to remind your year about some of your classes achievements.

Kalli McCarthy, Steve McQueeney, Kathy Rundle (the School’s archivist) or Jenny Wood (our longest serving teacher) normally attend each reunion to assist with the event and take pictures for use on our website and Focus.

If you would like some Friends’ crested items to sell (eg coffee mugs, books about Friends’, recipe books, apron, pens, etc) we can get these for you or have them available on the night. Similarly we will retrieve old photographs from the Archives – the Archives are safely stored, but not easily accessed because of the space restrictions we have. If any of your class has items they would like to donate to the Archives that would be wonderful.

Friends’ Principal, John Green, is a very keen supporter of the Old Scholars, and is always interested in the reunions. We always let him know when they are on, and if possible he will join us to meet and talk with you. You may wish to invite him to lunch, which some groups do.

After your reunion
We would love a report of the reunion (or we will compile one if the event is held here at the School) and photographs will be published on the Friends’ website and in Focus (if you wish). We would also love an updated list of addresses – you may have found missing persons for instance, or have gathered email addresses.

AREA REUNIONS
These, of course, are held out of Hobart. The usual centres are all the Australian Capital cities. Invitations are sent to Old Scholars living in or near those cities. Reunions have also been held in London and New York. Old Scholars in those centres usually do the organisation – with the Friends’ School supplying lists of addresses, and helping to manage the event.

CONTACT US
If you would like further information, or would like to help organise a reunion, please phone Kalli McCarthy at Friends’ on 03 6210 2282, email kmccarthy@friends.tas.edu.au, or development@friends.tas.edu.au, or write to PO Box 42 North Hobart Tasmania 7002