Reminisces of Twenty Years' Enjoyment in our ClubRoy Lawrence – Charter Member and President 1994-95
Peter Langford, our first President and convenor, spoke at the ten years Celebratory Dinner giving the highlights of the first ten years of the Club’s existence and how the Probus concept had worked so well. In fact in his view the Club had exceeded everyone’s expectations in how much its activities played in adding to the life of members retiring from the all-consuming routine of daily work life.
As a fellow charter member, I also attest to the value of the Probus idea of an association of retired people who join together in a club, the basic purpose of which is to provide regular opportunities to keep our minds active, expand our interests and enjoy the fellowship of new friends. The Club quickly became part of my life and continues to be so. Amongst my memories is the very large number of members who have contributed to the Club’s success by volunteering their time and skills. Rarely has a member rejected a request to help and then to my knowledge only for an understandable reason. This is a wonderful basis for a great Club of people.
In the early days there were a couple of issues which required debate but these were worked through. One decision was to allow/invite our wives to all our meetings –not common practice in most Probus Clubs then and now. I believe that practice has been a main strength of our club, especially in the success of the social life of the Club. Only recently was I invited to speak to another Probus Club, envious of the success of our many activities, and whilst naturally I gave credit to the calibre of our members I added that the Club owed much to the wholehearted support of our ladies. We continue that approach with our invitation to wives of deceased members to remain connected if they wish to do so. Some do, some do not - over to them. Whatever they do we wish them well.
Our archivist, Ian Davidson, tells me we have lost eighty nine members, many deceased unfortunately - others leaving for a variety of reasons. Incidentally I like the idea of having an archivist for two reasons - one it shows our intention to go on forever and the other in case we forget something that happened in the past. All of the eighty nine have left their mark on the Club but I would like to mention five of them: Max Primrose our first Editor, George Laxton who introduced us to computers, Ray Arthur to investments, Bill Artis Vice President in our first year and President in the following year and Malcolm Stewart Secretary of the Club. I find it interesting that each year about a fifth of the club - twenty members - are involved in various voluntary roles in the Club.
Most of our interest groups have continued to thrive since their gestation at various times of the twenty years. One or two have disappeared whilst others have fluctuated in member interest as we would expect in a live and changing people association. The convenors of the activity groups have therefore been many over the years and every one of them has made a great contribution to the success of our Club. They are too numerous to mention or to single out.
A major decision of the Club after about fifteen years was to encourage future membership to be at a lower age and to show a history of enthusiasm so that they can take over the tasks of leading the Club in future. We, charter members and other long-term members, can now sit back and enjoy the efforts of the ‘newies’, who already have shown the same willingness and ability to progress the Club as their predecessors. The alternative decision for us was to ‘slowly fade away into the west’ as some Probus clubs have done and are doing.
So the future of the Club is very sound and we all look forward to many enjoyable Probus years together.
Roy