On 21 January 2011 the OEBC launched their group on the LinkedIn platform. With an initial rush of members in the first quarter of 2011, the forum attracted an average of 15 to 20 new old boys a month.
As of the end of May 2012, over 325 individuals have joined the group. Whilst the site is open to all comers, over 95% of the joiners used to be at school at QE Boys in Barnet. It is testament to the school and the nurturing at an early stage that the majority of the members of the group are at the senior or management levels of their industries. 102 members class themselves as senior managers, 47 are company directors, 37 are middle managers,19 are business owners and a similar number are partners in their firms.
The geographical spread of members is interesting in that only 38% are in London, the balance being spread over the rest of the UK and worldwide. Over 10% of the members are in the financial service industries and 7% are in IT. Banking holds 11% of the members with Law at 4%.
The busy discussion board features polls on when members left the school (the 70s are in the lead on that one), a members in construction sub-group who are networking between themselves, careers advice, the OEs dinner and messages from the OEs and School where the OEBC can help.
With growth in the group running at 100 new members a year, we are looking forward to hitting 500 in the not too distant future.
I am also helping to manage the Queen Elizabeth’s School LinkedIn group as a separate exercise and we now boast 110 members of mainly the youngest generation of school leavers. Started by Laurent Lemberger in 2009, the growth is now accelerating as more people move to LinkedIn as a networking tool.
If you are interested in joining us, please apply at:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2685149&trk=hb_side_g
or
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2489089&trk=hb_side_g