Probus Club of Templestowe Valley Inc

ABOUT OUR CLUB

Probus clubs in our area have been very quick to establish a full membership and thus a wait list of people wishing to join. Periodically, local Rotary Clubs take the initiative and organize the formation of new clubs to take up the wait lists of existing clubs. Our club was started by Manningham Rotary under the guidance of Ken Murray and Max Didier on June the 12th 2003 when the inaugural meeting was held. Subsequent to the Foundation Meeting, 59 foundation members signed up. These were members who joined at the Foundation Meeting or before the first fellowship meeting held in July 2003.


Constitution and By-Laws
The club members at our inaugural meeting agreed to adopt the standard constitution and by-laws of Probus South Pacific. However, due to local Victorian regulations we had to adopt a special Constitution and By Laws. The club was incorporated in 2004. Due to government regulations, The Secretary must take on the Public Officer Role.
By being properly incorporated, any litigation has to be directed to the incorporated body and cannot be directed to individual members.

Our Committee
The committee for 2024 is made up of nine members all of whom have been the only nominations to their position and so have been elected or re-elected unopposed:

President:
Vice President: TBA
Past President:
Secretary:
Asst. Secretary:
Treasurer:
Activities:
Membership:
Welfare:
Our 2023 President,handed over the president's Regalia to last year's Vice President,at the March AGM. The President rotates each year between male and female with the previous years Vice President automatically filling the post.
Our Committee have also appointed other positions not in the management group.
They are:
Newsletter Editor.
Speakers Officer. .
Webmaster.

Committee Activities Committee meetings are held monthly, on the same day as and after the regular club meetings. Committee members have all been generous in offering the use of their homes for these meetings. All of the committee meetings have been congenial, friendly and productive. Several important issues have been dealt with and improvements to procedures developed. The committee members regularly communicate with one another and keep us all up to date.
Financial The membership numbers we have has enabled the club to operate without increasing fees so far and it is not anticipated that there will be any major change in the financial situation this year. Due to diligent financial management by our committee, there have been opportunities to supplement events with assistance from club funds. At some of our functions the club provided drinks and raffle prizes for members.
Fellowship Meetings Our meetings are on the 2nd Monday of the month. We are able to book the hall a year ahead thus ensuring that we always have a comfortable meeting place.
Tea Roster: To do the work needed to provide our Fellowship Tea at the meetings, a roster is managed by one of our members.
Hall Entrance: We have many volunteers who manage the attendance register with friendly greetings from our Meeter and Greeter waiting at the hall entrance to meet incoming members and making them and any guests welcome.
Speakers: Choice of speakers over the years has been excellent with all of the speakers so far receiving a warm welcome and stimulating questions and discussion.
Luncheon:
Part of the Probus tradition is for members to gather for a luncheon after fellowship meetings.
We use a variety of venues for our lunch.

Club Events and Activities
There is in place, an approval process for events where funds need to be collected or deposits paid. This has been done to minimize the risk of financial cost to the club and ensure that all member’s interests are catered for in organizing events. Guidelines for event organizers were also issued to those members involved in event planning. This process is working well with activities leaders co-operating by passing their requests and attendance list on to the committee through the Activities Officer.
Members, have continued to arrange some very enjoyable outings. It has become very apparent that we do enjoy each other’s company and some very firm friendships have been made through regular support of our events. Sometimes the fun we have together is the main feature with the venue being "just somewhere to get together and have fun" This was certainly the case during our “Getaway” experiences during the past years. Other gatherings of members where details are advertised in the newsletter but no booking or collection of funds needed, have worked very well with walking, bike riding, BBQ picnics, dinner outings being enjoyed by a number of members. These events are important as they take little organization and give members a choice without the pressures of minimum numbers.

Trips and Getaways
Day Trips by bus or train or by car pooling are regular events and include vists to Exhibitions and concerts.
Stay over trips of several days duration are also organized and proved popular.

Walking and Cycling
Members and friends get together every second Wednesday to walk through the many tracks around our area with lovely scenery and interesting history. Coffee or lunch afterwards are usually taken. On the alternate Wednesdays, a group of cyclists travel the many cycle tracks around Melbourne. Sometimes these two groups organise a same day and join together to meet afterwards.

Theatre and Movies
Individual members organise theatre to local and city live theatre as well as movie outings.

Golf
Our golf group members participate in regular games and lessons. They have some "getaway" trips every year where golfers and walkers and other members and friends who wish to attend, spend a happy week end enjoying golf and walking at picturesque locations.

Games
Our club has a popular games group with regular games nights in card games, and other fun activities being held in a local church hall. There have also been a series of bridge lessons commenced and some great Crazy Whist nights. Well organised "Trivia" nights are also a great success.

Scrap Book-Photo Book
There are regular gatherings for members wishing to find out how to get a good scrapbook together. Some members have since set up great family history scrapbooks. There is a scrap book for the club which is available for loan from our meetings. Some volumes of the scrapbook are available for members to view as well as being accessible on our web site.The group is now moving on to the Digital PhotoBooks Applications now available on line.

Dine Out
A list of two groups per month to dine out together has been very well received and promotes interaction between members that may not otherwise get together.

Genealogy
The group visits public offices where information concerning their family history can be researched.

Craft Group
A group of members meet regularly to produce some fine craft items. The results of their efforts have been seen at our Christmas functions. The group is continuing with their project to make special pillows and drainage bags for breast cancer and other patients. Financial assistance has been generously provided by the Manningham Council, local Rotary and private businesses and a "Brunch" is organised at a members home with auctions of donated items carried out to contribute towards costs of materials.

New Skills
It has been a good year for the New Skills group.Crocheting -now called Needles and Stitches has been held several times throughout the year.And a Mahjong group has been very successful in learning and enjoying the Mahjong games as well as a Crosswords Group.

Garden
Interested members visit garden sites around Melbourne regularly. There have been several visits to beautiful and famous gardens over the years

Book Reading
A group of reading enthusiasts get together to discuss and evaluate books they have identified as interesting reading. as well as a "book swap" arrangement where members bring in books they have read to put in a collection that all members can access at the fellowship meetings to borrow and enjoy.

Entertainers
"The Entertainers Group" continue their monthly rehearsals of comedy,music, and song, and present a show at our Christmas Lunch and many other club events.



Membership History
After starting with 59 members and a limit of 120 in 2003, the limit was increased to 130 then later to 150 as it stands now. Couples may, under our rules, join together even if there is only one vacancy. Making a temporary membership of 151. The next vacancy is then not filled so, reducing the numbers back down to 150.
After a drop in membership during the Covid Virus time we are now moving closer to our 150 member ceiling.

Summary of Membership
The club has thrived very well with an average of only about 5 members per year resign or pass away since our foundation year in 2003. We have a rule for Non Active Members.These are members who have applied for leave of absence thus retaining membership but not required to attend the mandatory number of meetings until leave of absence is expired.Our membership is usually at the full limit of 150 and usually get attendance numbers of around 100 members at fellowship along with several guests each month.

Our Newsletter
The newsletter has proven to play a vital role in keeping members informed on activities both future and past.The Newsletter is emailed out and also put on our web site in the week prior to the meetings. This allows time for members to make arrangements and have any payments ready to be passed over at the next meeting. Some copies are also made available at meetings. The current month’s newsletter and all previous newsletters are available on the club web site via a private link not publicly accessible. Without the newsletter, the club could not function properly. It is important that all club "happenings" are communicated to members quickly and in time for decisions to be made before fellowship meetings.

Our Connection with Local Council
Manningham City Council maintains contact with most organizations in the municipality and we get regular correspondence from them regarding their events and plans. One of the Council events we have had participation with, is the Citizenship Ceremonies. Due to communication from the council, some members have represented us at these ceremonies.

Our Connection With Rotary
Manningham Rotary Club is our foundation sponsor and we will be eternally grateful to them for instigating the club and supporting us whilst we were in the formation stages. It should be emphasized however, that although we are associated with Rotary, we are not a subsidiary group nor are we a fundraising organization. (We are a "FUN" raising organization). However, we would expect that as we grow, many of our members will participate in volunteer community help activities as Probus groups and this would be welcomed and encouraged. Rotary were also very helpful with the craft group comfort pillows project. Some members are volunteers in the local Rotary “Op Shop”.

Summary
The Probus Club of Templestowe Valley Inc. has been an outstanding success during our 20 years of operation which we celebrated in July this year. We have many activity groups and many successful events have been planned and enjoyed by members and friends. Administration procedures and rules have been developed and other management tasks such as incorporation and liaison with local council and other clubs have been worked on along with other tasks planned for the future by the committee.
(Revised May 2024)

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