This Months President’s Message    

Once again another successful general meeting on 4 September, by Zoom. Successful because 77 of our members tuned in and because we were fortunate to have another excellent guest speaker in the person of Katelyn Fryer, the Boroondara Council Waste Education and Projects Officer, who gave a very professional presentation on the developments in relation to the collection and treatment of household waste . Some very impressive methodologies are now in train, with Boroondara seemingly leading the way.

Once again thanks to our” Speakers person,” Trish Abbott , for arranging such an interesting speaker for us .   Having done that job for two years I know how welcome  recommendations  from club members as to guest speakers   can be, so please keep your ear to the ground, so to speak, and pass information on to Trish. At a recent meeting I realised that in this modern, Zoom era, guest speakers may speak to us virtually from anywhere in the world, so that widens the scope considerably.

Yes – we had 77 members attend our last meeting which is roughly only about 50% of our membership and about the same as the previous meeting. We would like to have more of you join in. If you are not participating because of a lack of confidence in your ability to master the technology, please don’t hesitate to contact our webmaster, Mike Pavey , who will be only too happy to help you out. To this end, please see the article by Mike on page 4 of last month’s newsletter as a good place to start.

On 21 September I attended a district  meeting of Probus clubs, accompanied by Jan Lester (vice-president) and Peter Matthews (secretary), the aim of which was to share with other clubs how they are managing during this time of COVID-19 . It was a very informative meeting and we heard of the innovative things which some clubs are doing. Following are some extracts of a subsequent  communication from Robert Renshaw, Rotary District Probus Chair, who ran the meeting:

All attendees gave a précis of what has been happening in their clubs to stay connected with members - generally phone trees, emails and newsletters were the main forms of contact. Some clubs have been very active with Zoom , having monthly meetings and guest speakers.

Probus South Pacific has the following services and membership strategies in place :          Weekly “Staying Connected” E -newsletter.

            Monthly Active Retirees E-newsletter.

            Quarterly Probus News.

             All of these are available on the PSPL website in the drop down “About Probus”.

Ideas from other clubs included E-Pen Pals, creative writing, crossword  puzzles, exercise classes, playing an inactive game with yourself or a friend (sic), solving mysteries, which is about deciphering hints to complete a puzzle, riddle or code breaker, Make Music Day- guess the song -game.  And there were more ——.

Your committee will discuss these outcomes and other matters from the meeting. In the meantime if any of them strike a chord with you please contact me and we will endeavour to assist in getting them started.

The use of the Zoom facility by activity groups within a club was discussed. Our Brew and Chew group, as I have mentioned in a previous newsletter, are having regular weekly meetings in this way. Also, as  I have written previously, Mike Pavey, would be happy to assist any activity group which would like to establish this means of keeping in touch. Regrettably we have to accept that this COVID thing is likely to prevent us from physically meeting together as a club group for a considerable time. Anything therefore we can come up with to facilitate maintaining contact with other members is encouraged.

Stay positive – look after one another – and stay safe.

Tony Smythe

President