Page 20 - Friendships Through the Years

were sent as delegates. The Bowling delegates decided to go ahead with an annual
tournament. This has now become a huge bowling event, conducted at four large
Bowling Clubs in the North, South, East and West of Melbourne. Lilydale has
participated in most of them, and nearly all matches were played at the Heathmont
Bowling Club.
Quite frequently when clubs enter more than one team, a ballot is necessary, so all
clubs may participate. Some very fine trophies were presented to the members of the
winning rinks, and the games were keenly contested. The winning rinks from each of the
four greens played off in semi-finals and then a final a week later.
An interesting sidelight to the meeting at the Richmond Football Club Social Club
was that, even though the Melbourne Probus Club was formed some months after
Lilydale, by less than twelve months later, they had well over 100 members at their
monthly luncheon meeting. Our delegates, talking to their members over lunch,
discovered that the Melbourne members knew very few of their fellows and there was
very little social interaction. The ladies of course weren’t considered, and when their
outings were being organized, a ballot system was used because there were always too
many wanting to go for the seats available. The eventual outcome was that the delegates
reported back to our Club regarding the problems with too high a membership. And
eventually, as you will read in later chapters, a ceiling was placed on our membership,
which has been challenged several times, but unsuccessfully.
There were 10 guest speakers in Stan’s year. Keith Glover Australian
Broadcasting Commission presenter and supervisor, and Chief Announcer for Radio
Australia was very interesting. Leigh Blackburn, Foundation President of the Lilydale
Historical Society gave a comprehensive talk on the town and surrounding area’s past.
Three Club members were guest speakers - Keith McLennan spoke on
“Composting” with a trestle laden with various types of compost and soil – every body
crowded round to see! Albert Aird and Harry Box both spoke on their careers.
Earlier in this chapter, mention was made of a motion to incorporate the Club.
Keith McLennan was to be the applicant to the Office of Corporate Affairs to incorporate
under The Associations Incorporation Act (1981) and then to be the eventual Public
Officer. The President, Harry Box, Secretary Lex Lillie and Keith McLennan did the
majority of the work, but there were several committee meetings addressed nearly
entirely to the business of incorporating and two Special General Meetings of the
members.
In this task the Club was extremely fortunate that foundation member Harry Box
was a retired partner in the Solicitor’s firm of Aitken, Walker & Strachan, of William
Street, Melbourne. Harry and his son Allan, also a partner in the firm, did an enormous
amount of work and supplied us with a lot of documentation to assist with the
incorporation.
The Corporate Affairs “Model Rules” had to be thoroughly examined, amended
for the purposes of our particular Club, and eventually adopted, along with a Statement of
Purposes to cover our requirements. Quoting from the Minutes:
1st meeting of the Committee of the Probus Club of Lilydale INCORPORATED
(formerly the Probus Club of Lilydale) held at the Lilydale Bowling Club on 20th
June 1984. Stan Moser took the chair. Keith McLennan, Public Officer
announced that the Probus Club of Lilydale Incorporated (formerly the Probus