After Dinner Speech
The Probus Club of St Annes-on-the-Sea
by Geoff Hayman, Speaker Secretary

On Monday 15th February 1971, a major event took place which affected us all – the pounds, shillings and pence which we had all used for years was replaced with decimal currency.  Ten days later, on Thursday 25th February 1971, the Probus Club of St. Annes was founded.  Both of those important changes have been successful, very successful, I am sure you will agree.  Most Probus clubs seem to have their origins in the Rotary movement.  As you may know, membership of each Rotary Club was restricted for many years to one member from each profession – apparently so that a club would not be dominated by people from one line of work.  I am told there were ways of stretching this restriction and was quoted the instance when a bishop wanted to join a club which already had a vicar among its members, the club defined the bishop as “religion, wholesale” and the vicar as “religion, retail”.

However, in many Rotary clubs there were waiting lists – prospective members waiting for a vacancy which might be years ahead.  These prospective members were looking for regular meetings where they could meet and converse.  It seems that a Rotarian from Welwyn Garden City, Fred Carhill, conceived the idea of Probus clubs, without the membership restrictions, to satisfy this overflow, as it were.  The overflows were mainly of professional and business men and so the name Probus was chosen to reflect this and an added bonus was that Probus is the Latin word for good.  And so Probus Clubs came into being, many being sponsored, as ours was, by their local Rotary Club.

The aims of these clubs were defined as :

1.  The clubs were to be simple in structure – so we don’t have a membership committee to vet applications for membership

2.  They were to be free from the constraints and obligations of other clubs – i.e. we were not to restrict our membership to certain professions or age limits and the clubs would not be involved in activities for a specific purpose such as charity work.

3. Members to be involved in minimum costs – and in our case a membership fee of £12 for more than twenty talks seems to achieve that aim.

I think our club, now celebrating 40 years, has met these criteria and performed the function for which it was originally established.  Someone once said to me “A club is only as good as its officials” and I think this has been borne out in our club.  I find it depressing when visiting other clubs to hear an official say “I am only doing this until they can find someone else to do it” or “I didn’t want this job, but I was pressed into it.”  Our club in St. Annes has had some excellent officials whom I cannot praise too highly.  There was the late Geoffrey Read who, for 20 years, combined the posts of Secretary and Speaker Secretary and gave the club a solid base.  When Geoffrey decided to stand down, no pleading with members was necessary as Norman Parker volunteered to take over the Secretary’s position and, in my opinion, made an excellent job of maintaining the continuity for the next eight years from 1997 to 2005.  And then when Norman retired from the position we didn’t have to plead for a replacement, because another volunteer offered to take over – our present secretary Matthew Willey who has made a great job of keeping the club up to its high standard – and all done despite some considerable health problems.  Three great secretaries who all deserve immense praise.

And as this is an occasion when we can pay tribute to those who have served the club well, I would add the names of Roger Spencer, Jim Spencer, Stanley Allebon and the unforgettable Vic Middleton.  The success of our club is surely shown by the by the large numbers who come to our weekly meetings and in fact we are one of the largest Probus clubs in the United Kingdom. If a club is only as good as its officials, ours must surely be one of the best.  Let us hope it will continue like this for years to come.

After 40 years, it seems decimal currency is here to stay.  After 40 years, I am sure our Probus Club, too, is here to stay.

Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to raise your glasses again –to the Probus Club of St. Annes on the Sea.