What a fantastic year for OPGA in 2023! I am honoured to have been President for the association this year and to see the incredible progression, new connections and positive engagement within our alumni community, which only seems to improve year on year.

This year, we have hosted 11 alumni events and reunions, plus helped many alumni become involved in school events as guest speakers, foundation day representatives, careers days, sporting traditions and much more. A highlight of the year was undoubtedly our Hall of Fame event, where we inducted 45 deserving individuals for their extraordinary contributions to their industry or Peninsula Grammar/OPGA. It was, in Wendy Leaver's words, 'a night that sparkled from start to finish' and we are immensely proud of our latest cohort of inductees. We can't wait to host this event again in 2026 and to gather your nominations over 2024 and 2025.

Our social media and alumni platforms have seen a large level of engagement with record numbers of people updating their details and engaging in our news and 'Flashback Friday' posts. Communication and improvement of our database remains a key focus for 2024 so we strongly encourage you to keep your details up to date and remain connected with us!

2024 is set to be another fantastic year with all reunion dates already shared across our platforms. This year, we will host the Penturion Club lunch for all alumni who graduated up to and including 1974, honouring the cohort of 1974 as our newest 50+ club members. We will also be hosting new interstate reunions in Sydney and Brisbane in June as well as a joint boarding house reunion with Toorak College in August for those who were alumni living in the boarding houses in the 60's, 70's and 80's. More information will be released on these exciting events in early 2024.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with our wonderful committee and encourage anyone with a shared love for the school and alumni community to join us as general committee members next year. We meet once every other month to discuss events, our alumni strategy and to give back to the school that gave us all so much. Please email myself or Laura at opga@pgs.vic.edu.au to find out more. All welcome!!

I would like to thank Laura Vatousios for her tireless work as Alumni Manager, Becca Smith in archives for all her support, our OPGA committee for their ongoing advice, passion and contributions and finally, Principal Stuart Johnston and the board who continue to support and encourage OPGA and our strategy to reconnect our community.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

David Clarke ‘82