In 2000 the national secretary, Gale Stiles, left the service of the QCOBA after eight busy and effective years, to be replaced by Kate Ellison who had been headmaster's secretary at the school for many years.
Kate was in turn replaced in March 2003 by Margie Milne, wife of long serving teacher Mr Tubby Milne. She has combined her full-time secretarial duties with the keenest interest in archival work and sleuthing for missing alumni!
It has been, for all three incumbents, a demanding and responsible office.
The Millennium Reunion of the QCOBA passed off in fine style over the weekend 14-16 April 2000 and, bravely facing the new century, Robin Butler of Queenstown was elected national president, with Harold Atkinson his first national vice-president and John Ralph his second vice-president.
The QCOBA came of age technically speaking in 2002, when it established its original website. www.queenscollege.co.za.
Reunion for a number of years was privileged to have as guest speakers the head boy of ten years prior to the event. James Twort (Matric 1993) (tragically killed soon after this occasion) was, for example, the speaker at the Reunion Sunday service of 2003, where he impressed all with his dignified and intelligent address.
Working on the last digit of the matric-leaving year, this had been the occasion when all the threes (1973, 1983 and so on) looked forward particularly to making the journey to the Queen's College Reunion and the opportunity of renewing former friendships.
In 2004 the QCOBA held a symposium at Port Alfred, where very special hospitality, in addition to the booked accommodation, was extended to all delegates at the home of John and Jenny Ralph. Papers were delivered by branch representatives focusing on how the future of the association was to be viewed ten years hence.
It was indicated then that only the Foundation and Mother branches contributed to the national office, with the proceeds from the annual Bonanza providing funding for this purpose. It was decided that, in future, Bonanza was to become a national project and that the running of the national office was to revert to the Mother Branch, with the national president and the vice-presidents being drawn from all branches and having a more ceremonial function.
At the symposium, advance planning and drafting were also done for the sesquicentennial celebrations in 2008, and the 150th anniversary of the school.
The passing on 2 February 2004 of DC Scott, first national president and subsequently PRO officer for the QCOBA, was observed and also deeply mourned. His death notice in the ‘Queen's Contact' No. 1/2004 was captioned ‘Queen's Legend Dies'. DC's death was a time for the whole of the QCOBA to reflect on what membership of the association should mean to all Old Boys of the school.
Later in 2004, prominent Old Boy and member of the QCOBA, Robbie Muzzell, was invited by Louis Opperman, director of the 150 Celebrations and long serving Queen's Junior vice-principal, to become the event's fundraising convenor.
Writing in the QCOBA ‘Contact' No. 2/2004,Muzzell informally launched the appeal for the sesquicentennial gift to the school. It was hoped the latter would take the form of a Design, Arts and Culture Centre, a rich legacy for the generations of Queenians who would follow.
2008 will forever be remembered as the year in which QUEEN'S COLLEGE celebrated its SESQUICENTENARY. The efforts of the Headmasters, their staff, the QCOBA and its administrative staff as well as the dedication of all involved in the School Governing Boards, all played a signinifcant role in the renewed interest that OLD QUEENIANS showed in their revered Alma Mater.
In 2009, Brian Bowren was inducted as President of the QCOBA. Ian Dorrington and Alasdair McDonald were respectively appointed First and Second Vice-Presidents.
2009 was also a significant year due to the creation and launch of the new QCOBA TRUST. This new vehicle was established to galvanise the energy and goodwill of OLD QUEENIANS with the specific intention of raising the much needed capital and collateral that QUEEN'S COLLEGE required so urgently. The Trustees were Stuart Phillips (1979), Allan Vickers (1984), Heidi Raymer and Des Raymer (1978).
The three years leading up to the QCOBA Centenary in 2012 were arguably the most important in the history of the QCOBA. At the first -ever QCOBA meeting held in Johannsburg on 20 April 1912, WEA Lehmann gave as its purpose, ‘the fostering of good relations between the school and its Old Boys and with the interests of the former always at heart.'
In April 2012, the QCOBA will be able to display a century of the achievements that OLD QUEENIANS have created both nationally and world-wide.
