| StorageSite | UCL Institute of Education |
| Description | Papers regarding the Friends of the Trust, including records on the foundation of the Friends and its constitution; minutes of the Board of Management, the Executive Committee, the publicity committee, the centenary fund committee, travel scholarship committee, and other committees; papers regarding the Annual and Extraordinary general meetings; financial records; membership records; papers regarding publicity and appeals; news letters; and events.
The papers appear to come from two sources: the records kept by the Trust and papers sent to the Trust by Miss Watkins in 2005. Miss Watkins was the Honorary Secretary of the Trust from the 1970s until 1994. Many of the files from Miss Watkins contained duplicates which were removed and returned to the Trust.
The Education Committee of the Trust proposed the formation of The Friends of the Girls' Public Day School Trust in 1946 to raise funds and promote the values of the Trust. Membership was to be open to anyone who was interested in the Trust and there were be to four classes of members: ordinary, life, associate and honorary. The inaugural meeting was held on 31 March 1951 and the organisation was later constituted as a company with charitable objectives in April 1952.
The management of the Friends was carried out by two committees who met twice a year: the Board of Management, the main administrative body which comprised elected members and representatives of each Old Girls' Association, and the Executive Committee, which discussed issues in depth to be presented to the Board. The main administrators of the Friends were the Honorary Secretary and Honorary Treasurer, who also sat on the Board and the Executive Committee. From 1976, the Executive Committee only held meetings when requested by the Board, as it was felt that the two committees replicated each others work. Very few executive committee meetings were held until 1987 when it was decided that it should meet at least once a year. An additional Publicity Committee was formed in 1990 to discuss how the Friends could encourage new members to join.
In 1994 all the subscribing members of the Friends were transferred to the Minerva Network and the Friends ceased to be the main supporting organisation for the Trust. The Friends' Board of Management was retained and its main activity became the management of the Centenary Fund (now renamed The Friends' Centenary Fund) and it continued to be responsible for various prizes, scholarships and grants. In November 2003 the Friends officially handed over their responsibilities to the Trust. |