I'll start by introducing the two new members of our committee – Sarah Buckley and Iain Hathorn. Sarah was installed as the new President of UBDSS in November and as such automatically became a member of our committee – Iain, on the other hand, needed some persuading ! Sarah was born and grew up in Poole, Dorset. Here in Bristol, in addition to onerous duties associated with her presidency, she is a girl guide leader of a pack of 30 10-14-year-olds, and enjoys ballroom and Latin-American dancing – she obviously is pretty good at it because she and her dancing partner came third in last year's national university competition. Iain Hathorn needs no introduction to many alumni – he was a consultant orthodontist in Bristol from 1979 until his retirement in July 2007. He remained busy as Chairman of Council of the British Orthodontic Society and now, as his 3-year term of office ended in January this year, he continues to keep busy playing golf and working on his allotment – so busy, in fact, that he needed to be primed with a few beers before he could be persuaded to join our committee. He was the driving force in persuading the University to approve the establishment of a bar in the 1985 students' common room, the bar that, quite rightly, bore his name and is now perpetuated in the new common room bar.

Our major project over the last year has been the setting up of our own website. This means we can post changes rapidly. The site retains a link to the Dental School site – and vice versa. No less than nine reunions have been held since last April: 1958, 1966, 1973, 1978, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1988 and 2003. Reports have been received from most of them, and also from the 1971 year who held theirs in April 2007. This show of solidarity with their Alma Mater is most impressive – I very much doubt if any Bristol University department, or any other dental school, can match that ! Several group photographs were taken, adding to our collection from previous years. For this we must thank Nye Fathers – not only has he found his way to venues all over Bristol but has then shown commendable patience organising graduates in celebratory mood into some sort of order for his photographs. Our original plan was to hang the photographs on the walls of the students' common room – but that was the old common room, which had plenty of wall space; unfortunately the new one does not. We're working on the problem ! As usual, the elective reports describe interesting projects and exciting experiences in far-away places. In addition to our regular support we have this year established a Dental Alumni Elective Prize. Projects are selected by Dental School staff to compete for a number of prizes, and the students present their projects orally before a panel of judges, which now include our Alumni Committee representative. Our prize was then awarded to Joe Williams during the  School’s annual Prizegiving Ceremony in July.

Who could not be hugely impressed by Ian Callaghan's Tour de France ? Covering the full distance of Le Tour and riding the same distance each day as the professionals do – that was a real tour de force. Reading his story in the Alumni Magazine evoked memories of my own, much more modest, cycling challenge through Spain a few years ago. A fantastic challenge and a fantastique achievement, for which Ian and his friend Matt deserve many congratulations. The full account of their trip is in their blog – www.ianandmatt.blogspot.com .