Successful Friendship Day held at Forbes District 9700
18 Aug 2015
On Tuesday 12th May over 230 Probus Club members from more than half the Probus Clubs in Rotary District 9700’s central western and south western NSW descended on the picturesque gold mining heritage town of Forbes for a truly outstanding Probus Friendship Day. Members came from more than half the District’s Probus Clubs: Bathurst, Bathurst Ladies, Bathurst Macquarie, Bathurst Plains, Blayney, Condobolin, Cootamundra Ladies, Cootamundra, Cowra Ladies, Forbes Ladies, Forbes (M), Grenfell Combined, Hillston Combined {pictured – Gwen, Mary, Don & Betty}, Manildra Combined, Narrandera Combined, Orange, Orange Ladies, Orange North, Parkes, Peak Hill, Temora Combined, Wagga Wagga Ladies, and West Wyalong Combined.
And much to everyone’s’ delight we also welcomed a smart coach from over our northern border, Rotary District 9670, members of the Probus Clubs of Dubbo, Dubbo City Ladies and Dubbo Macquarie. The Probians from Hillston Combined, Wagga Wagga Ladies and Narrandera Combined Clubs each travelled just a tad less than 300 kilometres each way. Two of these Clubs did the round trip of well over 500 kilometres and the Friendship Activities in the one day (OK, it’s pretty flat in the western and south western parts of our District and the towns and villages are few and far between so that kind of travelling is common and some of the roads do have 110km speed limits. And one gets good at weaving in and out around B-Doubles and Road Trains after a while. Or keeping out of their way.)
The two Forbes Clubs formed a working committee last year under Chair John Scott and Secretary Bruce Howard {pictured} and Treasurer Trevor Drury. On the day the new 2015-16 Forbes Ladies Club President Margaret Sheather and the new Forbes (M) Club President Leo Curran handled the logistics of moving the crowd from activity to activity while Trevor Drury’s and Bruce Howard’s excellent stewardship handled the administrivia of seating, feeding, name tagging and generally making sure no detail was missed. Well done Bruce and Trevor!
The Master of Ceremonies for the day was Past Mayor of Forbes, Probian Alister Lockhart {see above with President Leo}. My goodness, can he scoot his wheel chair around a large room full of networking Probus members! No electric motor either: just lots and lots of drive, energy and enthusiasm which contributed not a little to the tremendous success of the day. Everything was so well organised, well thought out and the timing of each segment was exactly right. And more importantly, every Probian who attended enjoyed him or herself and was so pleased that they came. It was a pleasure to observe folk who didn’t always seem to know the people they mixed with before they came to the Day, quickly find themselves in close and obviously enjoyable conversation with their colleagues from the other towns and Clubs. Mind you, the way the Day was structured, regular networking times were built in.
After the morning tea and the preliminary session the large group broke up into one of five pre-arranged activities: a town tour of historic sites and buildings dating back to the gold rush days (in its day the South Lachlan Lead was sensational, if short lived but some superb heritage buildings remain in use); The Forbes Stock Exchange – no not stocks and shares but a state of the art electronically controlled stock saleyards.(Did you know that the very first Rotary International community project was at the Chicago stock yards?); McFeeters Motor Museum {pictured, 1905 Rover at Motor Museum – car owned by Probians Val & Arthur Garthon, Wagga Wagga Murrumbidgee Probus Club}; Inspection of the Town Square CBD; and an in-house presentation of the gold era including the Ben Hall (and Frank Gardiner) story.
The best commendation is the shortest. “They didn’t want to go home at the end of the day!”
Well done Forbes Probus Clubs!
PDG Henry Gardiner Rotary District Probus Chair (RDPC) D9700
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