The Meeting proceeded according to the Agenda drawn up. The demise of U K Dayananda the brother of U K D Jinapriya a member of the 62 Group was recorded. The Headmaster presented his Report which was very detailed and informative. To read the report please click here.

Matters relating to offering tuition to students were discussed at length.

Mahen informed that the Sub Committee had decided to have a Fellowship Dinner on a more elaborate scale in early October 2008 instead of the Dinner Dance originally proposed. A further meeting had been fixed for May 14 to decide on the venue and the date. Mr Sunil Watawala had been persuaded (almost) to chair the Committee. The Membership Directory was to be re printed to include nearly one hundred new members and made available for sale at the Dinner.

It was also disclosed by Mahen that a completely new Junior Dormitory Toilet building was the project the OBA was concentrating on.

Under Any Other Business Mr.Lakshman Jayatilaka referred to an e.mail he had received from Mr.Muditha Dissanayake, the Old Boy who designed and setup the Web Site for College wherein he had stated “……………….. it seems that the College does not benefit from the website anymore. However, I have managed to bear the cost of the website.” At this point the Headmaster mentioned that the website was a very useful tool and Mr.Kaviharan of the staff was competent to manage the site. He however mentioned that there appears to be some doubt whether www.stcguru.com was the site of the College or of the OBA. L J informed the Headmaster that there was no dispute whatsoever on this matter and that the site was that of the College but was being run and managed by the OBA. LJ explained the history and the circumstances under which the site was designed and created by Muditha. LJ informed that he had advised Muditha to co-ordinate with the Headmaster and operate the site under the control of the Headmaster, and the reasons why it should be so. The Headmaster then inquired why the College website had not provided a link for the 62 Group website. LJ pointed out that a) he had received this inquiry from many Old Boys living here and abroad ; b) the 62 Group, perhaps, was the most Senior Group in the entire Thomian Family to have a site of its own; c) the Websites of STC Mount Lavinia ; STC Mount Lavinia OBA; STC Bandarawela; East coast Thomians Association (USA) had all provided links to the 62 Group Web Site; d) the College website itself and the Newsletters of the STC OBA had acknowledged the assistance given by the Web Site of the 62 Group at the very inception; e) although the College Website had provided links for various classes and groups of STC Mount Lavinia and STPS Kollupitiya sometimes more than once it had ignored the 62 Group website which was a group totally dedicated to Guru; f) He too was unaware why this had happened, and he would leave it to others to solve the mystery. The Ex-Co agreed to appoint one or two of its members to co-ordinate with Mr.Kaviharan and the Headmaster to look in to this matter and to arrange for the smooth transition in the handing over of the Management of the website to College under the control of the Headmaster.

LJ also appealed to the Headmaster to make available atleast monthly Reports to be uploaded on the Web Site of the 62 group, which had a wide reach now. As so many activities were taking place in College the need to harness support from all avenues should be realized. It would be to the advantage of College to keep Old Boys, particularly those in far off lands, informed, and apprised of development projects at Guru. The Headmaster agreed to co-operate and mentioned that L J had previously too made this request.

Thereafter LJ mentioned that he had an unpleasant task of referring to certain remarks His Lordship the Bishop had made at several public forums in Gurutalawa and elsewhere with regard to “interference by Old Boys and/or the OBA in the Management of the College”. LJ appealed to the Headmaster to inform the Bishop that interference was furthest from the minds of Old Boys or the OBA; that they have always rallied round to assist the College and not only when College was facing serious financial, Administrative and Management problems; that none of the Old Boys have any vested interest in the College as no return or financial gain was anticipated in whatever way they involved themselves; that their children were not students in College; that each time Old Boys visited College it involved much financial expenditure apart from utilizing valuable time and energy ; that it was purely due to the love the Old Boys had for their alma mater that motivated them in their activities in connection with the development of the College; that hence these remarks had hurt the feelings and sentiments of a wide section of Old Boys who are still hurt and concerned about it etc, etc. The Headmaster assured all, that this matter had now been completely forgotten and that he was certain it could be laid to rest.

At the invitation of the Headmaster a team headed by Mahen inspected the Junior & the Senior Dormitories and awarded marks for arrangement of beds, lockers etc & cleanliness to be reckoned in the final selection of the best kept house.

The Headmaster engaged in cordial discussion with Old Boys after the Meeting and until their departure.