09 October 2019
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Dr Robin Thomas has been elected as the new President of the Orders & Medals Research Society in the biggest poll in the history of the OMRS which saw more than 300 members cast their votes.
Graham Grist was elected as General Secretary when the results of both contests were announced at the Society’s Annual General Meeting at The National Archives in Kew.
Although the AGM was very well attended, 90% of the votes were cast by email. The two candidates for President were Robin Thomas and Simon Ovens while those standing for the role of General Secretary were Graham Grist and Nicholas Higton.
Robin said: 'It is an enormous honour to follow many of the luminaries of our hobby as President of the Orders & Medals Research Society and a personal challenge to live up to all that has been achieved in the past. One of the issues facing many societies such as ours is recruiting younger members and retaining existing ones. There are several ways to approach this, but underlying many of them is to improve communications, both within the Society and between the OMRS and the outside world. We already have a website and a Facebook page, but we also need to investigate the newer forms of social media now available, since these represent the methods of choice used by many for communicating and sharing information. We will also need to enhance the flow of information about what we are doing at various levels both within the Society and outside.
'We have all witnessed how the internet has changed many aspects of the medals world. The marketplace and the research archive have increasingly been transferred to the computer screen. The OMRS needs to embrace these changes as well as retaining our superb branch network and annual convention.'
Robin joined the OMRS in 1991 and has been a member of its Executive Committee since 2012. Graham Grist joined the OMRS in November 1978 and was elected to the Executive Committee in 1981. He has held the posts of Librarian, Treasurer and Advertising Manager.
Those elected unopposed to the Society’s Executive Committee at the AGM were Jim Lees as Membership Secretary and committee members Robert Barltrop, Richard Emsley, Jonathan Holl, Simon Ovens and Norman Gooding.
The Orders and Medals Research Society is a UK-based organisation with a global membership dedicated to studying and collecting orders, decorations and medals and through research to preserving the memory of the men and women to whom they were awarded. The Society has 19 branches – ten in the UK and seven overseas - as well as specialist branches for those who collect ribbons or miniature medals. It publishes a quarterly Journal and books by its members.
Find out more at www.omrs.org
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