I thought that, as the newly elected President of The Probus Club of Wahroonga East, I should let you know what transpired at our truncated General and Annual General Meeting on Monday 23 March. Minutes of the meetings will be forwarded in due course. Our sincere thanks to those 28 brave souls who came along to the meetings as without you the AGM could not have proceeded. This is not at all the way I had hoped nor expected to commence my Presidential year but COVID-19 has changed the world as we know it.

The reality is that, for much but hopefully not all of this year, our activities will be severely curtailed. Our meetings today recognised and reflected this sad fact. We were fortunate that we managed to beat two ‘deadlines’; the first being the necessity to achieve the required AGM quorum of 25% of our membership and the second being to conclude the meetings before mid-day by which time the Turramurra Bowling Club was required to close under the new NSW lockdown requirements.

Prior to these two meetings the Management Committee had approved a recommendation that the monthly club meetings be suspended until further notice and that virtually all other activities of the club be either cancelled or postponed. The attached activities calendar details the result of this recommendation.

Some thought has been given to how we can best maintain club communications in this period of inactivity. There seems little point in producing a monthly newsletter in our traditional format so it will be replaced with a simplified newsletter which will notify members of any developments. The Management Committee hopes to establish a meeting protocol using the internet which will enable the social distancing now required. If this is successful, we may be able to extend this to a form of general meeting of members.

The general meeting approved the recommendation that annual subscriptions be maintained at $65. Whilst this may well prove more than is required, it was felt prudent not to vary the subscription as it is not clear at this time exactly which of our costs can be reduced or avoided. To the extent that it becomes apparent that the subscription is more than required we will either refund or credit the excess against next year’s subscription. The Treasurer will be requesting you to make payment directly to the club’s bank account.

Other business approved at the meeting was the election of officers for the new year and the details of this are set out on the attached schedule. This schedule also reflects some recent changes to conveners and assistants as a result of the retirement of previous incumbents. Our thanks are due to those who have retired; David Harricks (Past President), Mike Pailthorpe (Walking Group), Warwick Finney (Golf), Steve McGregor (Investments) and Ian Davidson (Bridge).

I wish also to sincerely thank Graham Barclay for his unstinting hard work, particularly these last few months with the strain of COVID-19 uncertainties, as President. A hard act to follow.

In conclusion, as we are unlikely to meet each other again for a little time, I wish you good health and safety from this awful virus. If you become aware of any health issues affecting yourself or other members please let either Howard Gardner or me know so that, if appropriate, this may be communicated to other members.