The Doon School Old Boys' Society (informally DSOBS) is the alumni society of The Doon School, an all-boys boarding school in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, founded in 1935. It is considered to be among the most influential old boys' networks in India, with its alumni including a former Indian prime minister, politicians, diplomats, officers of the defence forces, writers and artists. The first president of the society was the Englishman Arthur Foot, who was the first headmaster at Doon. Alumni of the school are known as Doscos and after graduating gain life-membership to the society. In the media, it has often been described as "elitist", and in 1985 the Washington Post reported: "[It] raises the question of who should run India, and whether it is healthy that a minuscule elite exerts such influence on a democracy whose founders were determined to break from its caste-ridden, imperialist past." In another report in The New York Times, Steven Weisman wrote: "Not surprisingly, Doon School people are sensitive to criticism that they are sharpening the worst tendencies in a country long burdened by caste and social hierarchies." This was followed by a quote from Ajit Narain Haksar, an old boy, who stated: "We are not an elite in the conniving sense...Merit is still the basic criterion." History Although the society met ever since the first cohort graduated in 1939, the Memorandum of Association of the Society was formulated in 1945 and it was registered under the Societies Registration Act in 1946, with Arthur E. Foot, the then headmaster of Doon, as the founder president. The second headmaster J.A.K. Martyn succeeded Foot in the post. After Martyn's retirement, Surender Kandhari became the first 'old boy' president of the society. The society is officially recognised through memorandum of association under Indian Societies Registration Act. The motto of the society is An Aristocracy of Service, borrowed from Arthur Foot's statement at the formal opening of the school on 27 October 1935: "Truly, we mean that the boys should leave the Doon School as members of an aristocracy, but it must be an aristocracy of service inspired by the ideals of unselfishness, not one of privilege, wealth or position." Dosco Register John Martyn conceptualised the first 'Dosco Register' in the 1970s, inviting responses to a questionnaire from alumni across the world. It was to include details of every Dosco, Doon School Old Boy, graduated ever since the school