Page 118 - Friendships Through the Years

constitutions. Clubs, by a huge majority, have accepted the change and have, in
fact, acclaimed it. It has helped considerably in making the Centre financial
system more creditable and equitable – we still have some refining to do.”

Bill Thornton concluded a very long and interesting article with (there was a lot more
than I have extracted.)

“It is an ill wind that does n ot blow somebody some good. I would like to think
there are some more corrections or adjustments we can all make – “Probus
Centre, clubs and Associations alike – for the benefit of Probus generally. As far
as most Associations are concerned, we would hardly know they existed.
Presumably they are quietly operating for the benefit of their clubs and I was not
aiming at them. Those whom I have anonymously targeted will know who they
are.”

It is unfortunate that I have had to include such a lengthy extract, but as the matter
took up so much of the members time at three general meetings and two committee
Meetings in a “Social Club”, it seemed relevant to do so. If we had had Mr. Bill
Thornton’s article available at the time, a lot of time would have been saved.
The first mention of joining an Association first appears in this History in Chapter
th
3 at a Committee meeting on 25 February 1985. It caused a very lengthy discussion,
autonomy being the main factor being discussed, but, eventually, the decision was to join.
Associations have received several more mentions since then, however the ‘constitutional
breaches’ referred to by Mr. Thornton in the latter portion of his article, cover the matter
of canvassing for new clubs, which obviously happened in the case of our Club. As the
th
Minutes dated 14 December 1995 record:
“In the correspondence received was a letter from the Probus Association of
Victoria providing details of their activities and services and inviting our club to
make an application for affiliation with this most progressive Probus
Association”.

Our December 1995 newsletter detailed eleven facts to be considered which took
up ¾ of a page of the newsletter. Twelve months later, the July, 2000 (winter) edition of
Probus’ Quarterly News featured another article regarding associations written by Mr.
David Wills, chairman of the Probus Centre – South Pacific. I considered it essential at
this point to include this article in full because of its relevance to the subject under
discussion.

The previous edition [autumn] contained an article written by Keith
Waghorn, President of the Probus Association of Western Australia, who gave his
ideas on the role of associations. Ideas which completely ignore the terms of
accreditation for associations, ignores that the authorised body to deal with all
matters relating to Probus is the Probus Centre South Pacific and promotes many
SELF-SANCTIONED activities.
There are 12 accredited associations within Australia and New Zealand, most of
whom comply with the terms of their accreditation, but then there are those few