Chairman’s Message

The most important approach is to remain positive.

My Chairman’s message comes at a time of more upheaval to our great organisation. I would love to be reporting on the opening of new Clubs and growth in membership at existing Clubs. The recent lockdowns and increased restrictions, however, indicate that return to normal for some Clubs will be challenging once again.

The most important approach is to remain positive. We are a great organisation with a plethora of great leaders in our Clubs.

I firmly believe that next year our Clubs will be going “hell for Leather” in running functions and attracting new members.

Our role as Club leaders is almost simple.

Run a great Club with interesting programs that looks after existing members and attracts new retirees.

As we come out of the Covid lockdowns, we have enormous opportunities. Potential members abound who are looking for a more satisfying, social time in their retirement.

My three years as Director responsible for South Australia & Northern Territory ends at the August Annual General Meeting. I will, of course remain on the Board for one more year as Immediate Past Chairman. I am pleased to advise that John Hall, past president of the Campbelltown Probus Club in South Australia, has been appointed to the Board in my place for a three-year term. I have greatly enjoyed the role and received a lot of satisfaction and fulfilment and, I wish John similar success.

I look back in amazement at my involvement in Probus. A chance remark at a wedding led my wife and me to join Probus and, we have never regretted it. We had not thought of Probus having been involved in Rotary for many years but, our Probus involvement created new horizons and new friends in our retirement.

What face is your Club presenting to potential new members? If you were not a member of your Club today, would you join it? Taking on something new like Probus can be daunting for some, if we have a visitor and potential new member, consider appointing a member to be their friend for three months and look after them.

The challenge for all our members is to make those chance remarks and invite retirees known to us to come to a meeting.

What continues to impress me is the resilience of our Probus Clubs when faced with challenges such as COVID, many Clubs continue to have meetings in the open air or by electronic means. If you went back a couple of years, none of these ideas would have surfaced. Once again, this emphasises the quality of the leadership teams in our Clubs.

PROBUS DAY

An initiative from Vice-Chairman Judith Maestracci last year was to nominate and celebrate Probus Day. The day she selected was 1st October which is United Nations Day for Older Persons. Last year even in the hard Covid times, it was very successful. It was impressive how many Clubs picked up the cudgel and ran a successful celebratory function in October. Let’s make it even better this year.

This past year has been especially difficult for Probus and I would like to recognise PSPL CEO Silvana Martignago and her hardworking team for their excellent work during the year under such trying circumstances. It is sometimes only in troubled times that we realise what gems we have in our organisation.

Let us move forward and seek to involve more members of our retired community in Probus. Especially now during Covid lockdowns where the experts are encouraging senior members of the community to become more involved and thus ward off the decline as we age.