Member Profile: Graham Woolley
11 Oct 2019
Member Profile: Graham Woolley
Meet the members
Croydon Probus Club newsletter editor, Graham Woolley, used his amateur filmmaking skills to keep a complete record of the 35-year-old Club.
Graham Woolley is the newsletter editor, and keen member, of Croydon Probus Club in Victoria, and he brings his passion for editing and filmmaking to keeping a record of the history of this Club.
In June, Croydon Probus Club celebrated 35 years as a Club with a spit roast luncheon and entertainment provided by Don Jones, comedian and magician. The Club invited the local State Member of Parliament for Croydon, The Hon. Mr. David Hodgett, to attend as well. Everyone enjoyed a delicious lunch and entertainment while sharing a great deal of friendship and fun, in true Probus spirit.
Graham has recently created a DVD for the 35th birthday of the Club that contains video from the past four decades of the Club, as well as photos and interviews with members. “I think it is very important to document the story of the Club,” Graham says. “Because a lot of people don’t even know the story of the Club. I think there was about six or seven members that had 25 years’ service, and a lot of people have gone through the Club in the past few decades.”
Graham uses his role as newsletter editor to keep an ongoing record of what Croydon Probus gets up to, and some of the more unusual activities the Club has to offer.
“As far as I know we are one of the few clubs to have a ‘THOI’ group, which stands for Travel, Hobbies and Other Interests,” he says. “And that covers a wide range of interests that actually started off as a computer group; then it evolved into much more. We have a guy who is into video animation and he often makes short videos for the meetings.”
The THOI group also has an unusual music group that champions bands you’ve probably never heard of. Each week someone might pick an unusual band and play songs to the group and give a short history of the musical group. This group is run to honour a member who was a big music fan but who passed away from cancer recently.
The group might also have a show-and-tell session, and they have regular sessions on layman’s engineering, and a 97-year-old member who is fond of reciting Banjo Patterson poetry for the group.
Graham worked in the public service for 30 years – his last role was with WorkCover for the last 17 years of his working life – before retiring eight years ago. He is married to Betty and has two children and three grandchildren.
Despite helping with the publicity for the Probus Club, Graham confesses to being a bit camera shy – but he did have this caricature done recently and was happy to supply that in the place of a photograph.
“What I love about Probus is the fun, fellowship and meeting people,” Graham says. “I enjoy it. We meet on virtually every Wednesday and we always have something on.”
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