ABOUT THISTLELONIANS
The Thistlelonians was formed in 1994 to encompass the ex-students and staff of McKinnon High School/McKinnon Secondary College.
Our goal is to celebrate and facilitate communication and involvement amongst the past and present college community.
With the generous support of the Principal and School Council we are able to interact with former and current staff and students and form an integral part of the modern McKinnon school community. Through this support we are able to maintain an office at the school, have the IT and Media Team assist with maintenance of our website, including Facebook and LinkedIn, produce this magazine and have Melanie Lynch as our Thistlelonian Administrator. We also have representation on School Council.
Our main fundraising is through our reunions, conducted each October and donations to our Scholarship Fund. With this money we are able to award bursaries to three Year 9 students and contribute to other school community activities. We are always delighted to receive Scholarship donations and you will read of some of the award winners from previous years on page 6 of this edition.
The Committee has been working to streamline our administrative procedures as we move away from costly and inefficient postal communications to email and Facebook technologies. We are actively seeking email addresses from any former McKinnon students and staff so that we can keep you up to date with Thistlelonian and school activities, such as YOUR reunion invitation.
The way the reunions now work is that we celebrate five years after graduating, then it moves to every 10 years until you hit your 40 years of graduation. This, in part, is to ensure healthy numbers at reunions, as some feedback indicated 5 years was too often.
Please encourage any “school friends” to update their details using the links here.
With the restructure we now have three categories of membership:
Life Members - as elected by members to acknowledge the special contribution of certain individuals made to Thistlelonians.
Lifetime Members - open to members who have generously donated the $200 lifetime membership fee to the Thistlelonians.
Associate Members - applies to anyone not listed above, who either attended or taught at McKinnon, and has not expressed a desire to be excluded from communications. This is free and accounts for many thousands on our database.
It is as a member of the above categories that you have received this magazine and will continue to receive information from us. We hope you enjoy a closer connection with your old school and encourage your participation.
Feel free to pass this newsletter on to your former school classmates and encourage them to update their contact information with us.
COMMITTEE & ADMINISTRATION
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