Page 9 - Friendships Through the Years

CHAPTER ONE

IN THE BEGINNING

The author and his technical advisor
th
t the Rotary Club of Lilydale weekly meeting of Tuesday, April 12 , 1983, a
motion was moved by Syd. Koehrer and seconded by Jim Thomson that: “$250
A be advanced to form a Probus Club in Lilydale”. When Syd. moved, and Jim
seconded this motion, it is doubtful if they, and the Rotary Club members who voted in
favour of it, realised how much pleasure they would be giving a large number of Lilydale
and District men and women.
At the date of writing it has not been possible to contact Syd., but Jim Thomson is
still a Rotary Club member. Jim told me that the Rotary Club members had been
continuously briefed by Vocational Service reports and therefore he personally knew a
certain amount about Probus, but his knowledge was really quite meagre. So not much
was known about Probus when our Club was formed, either in Rotary or by the
prospective Probus members. However there was one person, a Rotary Club member and
the convenor of the Lilydale Probus Club - Derek Reeve-Cox, who certainly knew a lot
about Probus, but more about him later.
What may not known by some Probus members is that a Club cannot be
established unless a Rotary Club sponsors its commencement and follows it through until
the Club is up and running. The Rotary Club of Welwyn Garden City sponsored the very
first Club in the world in 1966. This city is some 20 miles North of London, and the club
was named the Welwyn Garden City Campus Club.