Fellow Freemen, welcome to another addition of Company Comment
and the beginning of a new year for the Honourable Company. I am grateful to you all for your continued confidence in electing me to a second term.
Before tackling the tasks for this current year, it is with sadness that I must report the passing of Past Master Ronald Lister on July 21st, as the result of a lengthy battle with cancer. No service was held at Ron’s request. I have written to his widow Joan to pass on the condolences of the Court and Company.
I would like to reflect on the accomplishments of your Court during the last twelve months, which can be summarised here and will be addressed more fully in the following articles.
We have completed and launched the website, which has received many visits and is to be used exclusively for communications to our members. Yes, we do have members who will not be able to receive our electronic communications, and to those members we will continue to send information by mail. As you know, we incur a cost each month to maintain and keep our site current but the savings over traditional communication methods have made it very worthwhile.
We have continued to offer a varied selection of events, which continue to generate support from our members. However, we are constantly looking for other options and the Events Committee would welcome your suggestions via events@freemenlondon.org.
This year saw the first AGM to be held independently of our Annual Dinner. nineteen members attended the AGM and a good discussion took place around a number of topics. Later in this issue you will find reports on the AGM.
In May we held our Annual Dinner, which was attended by more than seventy members and guests. Our guest speaker was His Excellency the British High Commissioner to Canada, Mr. Anthony Cary who shared with us his knowledge of the City pf London and its role as the world’s financial centre.
In June we held our “Meet the Court” event at the home of the British Consul General, Mr. Jonathan Dart, in Toronto. As Jonathan was enjoying a very well earned vacation, the Acting Consul General, Mr. Ashley Prime, hosted the event. Whilst not only “meeting the Court”, we took the opportunity to induct Ashley as a new member of the Honourable Company.
Most recently, August 23rd, saw twenty four members and guests assemble on the veranda of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club for cocktails before sitting down to a delicious Buffet Dinner generously arranged by Immediate Past Master, Professor Michael Charles and his wife, Barbara.
We are now in the process of reviewing our methods of communicating our events and improving facilities for collection of funds, to make it easer for you all to book and pay for events.
Whilst we have continued to maintain our contribution to our Charitable Account from our events, our attendance numbers are not as high as we had hoped, which leads your Court to question the viability of some of the Company events going forward. I would hate to see a decline in the number of events, but would love to see greater membership participation and suggestions from our membership at large.
Continuing with the subject of Communications, I am delighted to announce the appointment of Warden Norman Morris as Chair of Communications and Editor of
Company Comment. Norman was elected to the Court at our AGM in April.
And finally as I reflect, I am delighted to announce, six new members have joined us since the last issue of
Company Comment. Their names will appear in the Membership Report later in this issue.
Membership is our lifeblood, without new members, we will not be able to offer the scope of events or other initiatives we have in the past. This year we want to establish a better way to recognise new members and to that end, we will continue to arrange a New Members Evening at which all new members will be formally introduced and welcomed. All new members will receive a City of London Freemen's pin and a new Membership Certificate, which is being developed as I write. Last year we welcomed ten new members, and this year I’d like to achieve at least this number and preferably more. I encourage all our members to consider introducing guests as potential new members, please contact our Membership Chairs at membership@freemenlondon.org.
And now to the objectives for this year:
• Improve events communications and sign-up
• Evaluate new events
• Consider an easier method of collecting fees for events
• Launch a new Membership Certificate
• Conduct a full inventory and insurance evaluation of all the Company Treasures
Your Court has three new members, with one departure. To our departing Warden, Nigel Napier Andrews, many thanks for your support and contributions over the years. Earlier I introduced Norman Morris; I would also like to introduce both Bill Motley and Ken Foxcroft who were elected to the Court in April. Both have already “volunteered” their services. Bill will very shortly assume the role of Honourable Clerk from Martin Walmsley who deserves a rest after his many years of service to the Court. Ken has agreed to join the Finance Committee and assist in both investments and audits. Thanks to these three new Court members, I look forward to your contributions over the next twelve months.
Your Events Committee is developing plans for several events before our AGM and Annual Dinner next year. The most important being on Wednesday, September 30 to welcome the Rt. Hon the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Ian Luder, who will be visiting Toronto for approximately 24 hours.
Fellow member, Brian Rose of Stickeman Elliot, has generously stepped forward to offer the facilities of Stikeman Elliot, at 5300 Commerce Court West, for the reception (tentatively scheduled to start at around 4:00 pm and end at 6:00 pm) to welcome Alderman Ian Luder.
Your events chair, John Smith, is working closely with Stickeman’s and the British Consulate to finalise the plans for the reception and once complete, we will relay to you all.
As this is a significant achievement for the Company, I want to ask as many of you as possible to attend what I believe will be a memorable event.
Other dates for your calendar:
Annual General Meeting
Date and time: Wednesday, April 21, 2010, 6:00pm
Details and Location: To be confirmed
Open to: Members and their spouses/partners
Annual Dinner
Date and time: Friday, May 7, 2010,
Reception 6:30pm, Dinner 7:30pm
Location: The National Club, 303 Bay Street
Details: To be confirmed
Dress: Black Tie or Business Suit
I would like to hear from our members with any thoughts and ideas to improve the quality of membership of The Honourable Company of Freemen of the City of London of North America. You can do this in two ways, attend our AGM scheduled to take place on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 or email your comments to me at
master@freemenlondon.org.
My very best wishes to you all.
Company Comment - September 2009
The Unique City
The City Livery Companies
Freedom of The City
The Constitution of Company