Probus South Pacific is the umbrella organisation for our Club. I have just read their Annual Report for 2023-24. The thing that stands out to me is that National Membership of Probus in Australia has fallen from around 128,500 in 2017 to around 76,500 in 2024, a drop of over 40%. In those years our own Club has had a drop of only around 14%, thanks to the good work of our Membership Officers, particularly Margot Ryan whose efforts are exemplary. In that period membership in U3A and Men’s Shed has skyrocketed. It appears to me that Probus membership offers intangible benefits of fun, fellowship and friendship, while many of the Community Groups competing with Probus offer tangible benefits of courses and items made.
Your Committee is always looking to find ways to make Membership more relevant. We want to attract membership and most importantly to satisfy existing members.
At the last General Meeting I was approached by a delegation of members asking that the Club reinstate bus trips, and they certainly had some compelling arguments. The Committee has had many discussions about bus trips since Covid, however the extreme increases in cost of buses led the Committee to believe Members would be reluctant to pay the increases. However, we will now look at bus trips in a new light following that interaction and will look at the practicalities of offering bus options in the future.
The point of this report is to say that your Committee is striving to keep our Club strong and vibrant. However, we do not always get it right. Member input is essential if the Club is to remain strong and vibrant.
So please, if you have any thoughts on how we could improve the Club, let me or one of the Committee members know.
Michael Simmons President
