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ur August 2023 meeting we had Katrina Amon, Indigenous liaison officer at the Saints’ football club as our guest speaker. Katrina delivered a very informative presentation on aboriginal culture not only at StKilda Football Club but in Australian society in general.

 

We also inducted a new member to or club, Stephen Caldwell. We have another induction lied up for our September 2023 meeting and we are slowly building up to reviving our club that has been decimated following COVID.


 

A collector of memorabilia, Eric Panther, was the speaker at out July 2023 meeting. He had items that brought back memories to many of our members including old money boxes, cigarette cards and old pre-federation coins.

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At our July and August meetings we had 2 exceptional speakers. July was Andrew Sward Financial Crime Operations Crown Resorts and August was a young lady, Jess Van Zeil who has overcome adversity in her ongoing fight against cancer. Our members have all commented on the excellent speakers we have had since returning from COVID

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Jess Van Ziel who lost an eye due to cancer and has had other serious brain cancer issues but in in remission and has walked the Kokoda Trail in PNG

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At our June 2022 meeting we had speaker from The Hudson Institute of Medical Research. He spoke about childhood cancer particularly childhood brain cancer and the various strands of research being undertake at The Hudson Institute and many other like research institutes around the world 


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Our April 2022 meeting was special for a number of reasons. It was our 22nd anniversary celebration; it was our last meeting at The Bentleigh Club before our change of venue to The Brighton Bowls Club; it was the first meeting for our new President, Fanny and, to top it all off, the speaker we had scheduled called to advise that he was unwell and couldn’t come today.

Our new president, Fanny carried it off with great calmness and members really enjoyed this meeting.

As this was our last meeting at The Bentleigh Club, President, Fanny made a presentation to senior staff at the Club. Nikki and Leanne received a beautiful bunch of lowers and a Probus pen each to thank them for all their support in the 18 years that we have been meeting there.

 

We had 4 inductions, Keith and Suzanne, Jay and Sonia. Fresh minds and members prepared to assist the management committee.

 

 

We had a cake to celebrate our 22nd anniversary. The cake was cut by 2 of our past presidents, June S and Ann

 

 

We also had a presentation to one of our members, Lyn celebrating her ten years of membership with our club

 

 

Various members then contributed to the role of “guest speaker”. A most enjoyable part of our meeting

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March 2022 was our AGM. We were fortunate to be able to recruit some of newer members as well as some long-standing members (not allowed to call them old members!) for the year 2022/23.

We are looking forward to a great year with our new President, Fanny at the helm assisted by our Vice President, Ann, our hard-working Secretary, Lya, our Treasurer, Keith and our newly expanded management committee, Eugene, Jan, Christine, Janet, David and Dawn; with John and Maggie joining the expanded committee at our April meeting.

This committee will be supported by a group of diligent coordinators who will run our various activities (where would we be without them?)


Our returning office, John chairing our AGM

Our new President with our Vice President Ann

Our new President, Fanny hard at work with our Secretary Lya

New committee member, Eugene

Another of our new members, Maggie

Committee member Jan

New committee member, Christine

Committee member Janet

Committee member, David

Committee member John

Current and past Presidents from Bentleigh East as well as our recently merged club, Brighton East

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Our Vice President, Fanny, detailing the pros and cons of our new venue

Our  members in attendance

Our speaker, Lorraine Smith with the ancient manuscript found in a second hand book donated to her book store in Warrnambool

The ancient manuscript written in "middle English"

Our President, Ken making a presentation to Lorraine after her presentation.

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We provide speakers at our monthly meeting that present on such topics as health issues, horticulture, schooling for troubled youth, seniour heatlth, comedy and theatre.

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At or February 2022 monthly members' meeting, we discussed a new meeting venue for our club as The Bentleigh Club is closing in August 2022. Our Vice President Fanny outlined the progress of our investigations and there was strong support for The Brighton Bowls Club as our new venue. The sub-committee chaired by Fanny will commence formal negotiations with the management of that club.

We had a guest speaker at this meeting, Lorraine Smith who spoke about The Journey of the Lost Manuscript. This was an entertaining and informative talk.

 

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After an extended period of disruption due to COVID-19, we were finally able to get together and enjoy a Christmas lunch together. Considering the circumstances, having 42 of our members and guests present was fantastic. We all enjoyed the food and entertainment. Our Treasurer was totally embarrassed having been called to accompany the entertainer on a couple of occasions. Many of our members lingered long after the formalities had finished just to sit and chat with friends. One of our members, Bob, celebrates his 90th birthday in December and we had a special birthday presentation for him


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At our July 2021 meeting we had a very interesting speaker, Stephen Peterson, talking to us about Japan. It was not your usual travelogue but an insight into the lives of the Japanese people.


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OUR REGULAR MONTHLY MEETINGS RESUMED IN APRIL 2021 FOLLOWING THE HIATUS CAUSED BY THE PANDEMIC. 

UNFORTUNATELY, WE HAD TO CANCEL OUR JUNE MEETING DUE TO A "CIRCUIT BREAKING" LOCKDOWN". JULY MEETING IS ON AGAIN

AS THERE ARE STILL SOME RESTRICTIONS, THE FORMAT OF OUR MEETINGS HAS CHANGED. WE START AT 10:30 AND ENJOY A MORNING TEA OR COFFEE. THE METING ITSELF STARTS AT 11:00 AND IS IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWED BY OUR GUEST SPEAKER. OUR MEMBERS ARE THEN INVITED TO STAY FOR LUNCH AT THE BENTLEIGH CLUB  

 

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The Coronavirus has caused us to cancel our April and May 2020 meetings; including our 20th anniversary lunch scheduled immediately following the April meeting. We will belatedly celebrate this important occasion later in the year

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Unfortunately, the speaker for our February 2020 meeting was a no-show. Our members enjoyed an extended morning tea and general socialising with former members of the Brighton East Probus that recently merged with our Club

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Our Christmas lunch for 2019 was again a great success. We were looked after by the friendly staff at The Brighton Savoy and some of our members really got into the Christmas spirit.

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At our November 2019 meeting, we convened a special Members meeting to precede our regular monthly meeting. This special meeting was to vote on an amalgamation with The Probus Club of Brighton East. The vote was successful as was the vote conducted by that club at their November meeting. This will see our club continue to strengthen both in numbers and viability.

Unfortunately, the speaker organised for this meeting, Lyndon Galea – Eat Up, was unable to attend due to business commitments. Our publicity Officer, Keith stepped in and provided a walkthrough of this web site. The meeting was then passed back to President Keith who presented a little quiz courtesy of Bob one of our longstanding members.

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John Deeks entertained us at our October meeting. His stories about his life in radio and television had us all rolling in the aisles. John answered many questions from our members about his experiences and the entertainment industry in general with humour. A really great time for all of the members in attendance.


 

James Nicholas, an author spoke to our members at our September meeting about one of his historical books - Fairyland. This was an old house at 57 Malmsbury St Kew Victoria, The elderly couple that lived there had it set up to entertain the local children. It had a huge reputation in the area and attracted children of all ages. What was really fascinating was James’ association with the couple that lived there. They were the adoptive parents of his late mother. James had all our members enthralled for an hour as he told stories of the house, the residents and the children that visited.


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At our August meeting, we had Lisa Buchner, the Director from Refugee Support at Stand Up interviewed Eglal Ali a refugee from the Nuba Mountains in Sudan. Eglal come to Melbourne via Kabul then Egypt.

The interview provided our members with an in-depth picture of what it was like in war torn Sudan and the difficulties and, sometimes racism, faced by refugees in Melbourne.

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David Spitteler from Asylum Seekers Centre spoke at our July meeting. He explained the difference between Asylum Seekers And refugees and how the government treats them differently. He also spoke about how his Centre assists Asylum Seekers from in and around the Dandenong area with food and other support.


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There was an induction of Noela McKenzie at our June meeting.

 

We had an exceptional speaker at our June 2019 meeting. Geoff Sussman is an Associate Professor at Monash University. He spoke about the care or your skin and how best to treat wounds, burns and other skin problems. Geoff also provided a list of products that he considers appropriate for various conditions and also for day to day skin care. The number of questions Geoff fielded after his presentation was an indication of the interest our members had in the topic.

Our Speaker, Geoff Sussman

Our coordinator of speakers, Sandra presenting a gift of appreciation to Geoff

Two of our hard working coordinators, Fanny and June B, checking the various lists and payments for Dine Out, Theatres and Trips.

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In May 2019 we had 53 of our 76 members attend along with 5 guests. This represents an attendance rate of nearly 70%, making us the envy of most other Probus Clubs in the area. A good sign that we are doing things well.

Our Guest speaker was Don Jones. His wit and his story-telling abilities had all members in stitches for nearly an hour.

Some photos of the members and guests at this meeting followed by a photo of Don Jones and two of our Secretary, Dawn, presenting Don with a gift

Pi

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At our April 2019 meeting we celebrated our nineteenth birthday as a club. Our members enjoyed a delicious birthday cake and forgot about counting calories for a day. We also had an author, Roy Maloy who spoke about the origins of Luna Park in Western Australia and some of the corrupt people that ran it during its existence.

Our scrumptious chocolate mud cake birthday cake. Enjoyed by all.

Author, Roy Maloy (yes that's really his name) talking about Luna Park in WA

In the background is an old photo of what Luna Park WA used to look like. Maybe a bit scary for the kids?

Secretary, Dawn presenting a gift to the speaker

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Lya, one of our members and currently Assistant Secretary spoke at our AGM in March 2019. She presented to our members an insight into her life growing up in The Netherlands during the war. Lya then went on to talk about her arrival in Australia and her many experiences as a surgical nurse and a psychiatric nurse.


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We had a great speaker at our  February 2019 meeting, Chris Dawson from Victoria Police spoke to our members about some of the risks facing senior citizens. He stressed that the likelihood of these occurring was small despite recent media reports.

Chris spoke about safety in the home; with your vehicle; on public transport and while walking in our neighbourhood. He also spoke of identity fraud. In each case, he identified what we needed to do to avoid these situations and what to do if we did encounter a problem.

 

There were many questions and all members and guests present learnt a great deal from Chris ‘presentation.

Some of the 69 members and guests attending our February meeting

Our speaker

Our Coordinator for Speakers, Dawn presenting a small gift to Chris

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Our 2018 Christmas meeting was a lunch at the Brighton Savoy. As usual, the service and food were excellent. We had an entertainer, Gavin Liddell, who played many songs from our era.  We had door prizes for three lucky winners and then we had a Special Effort with 17 prizes. Each prize contained many goodies and were gratefully accepted by the recipients. We also had a silent auction for a 35-year-old bonsai that had been created and cared for by our President, John over the years. It attracted fierce bidding and was finally awarded to one of our long-standing members, Pat, Pat assured John that she would care for this bonsai with love.

The wonderful array of prizes for the Special Effort 

The Meet & Greet ladies

President John and Committee Member Ken in earnest discussion of the day's function

A high level discussion on which chair do they want!

You can bet this discussion is about lawn bowls

Our talented entertainer, Gavin

President John laying down the law

Our lucky door prize winners (top to bottom) Eugene, Lya and Bob. Congratulations

Above are some of our lucky winners of Special Effort prizes.

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At our November 2018 we celebrated a ten-year anniversary for one of our members, Janet is a hard-working club member and is a member of our management committee and has been for many years. President John presented Janet with a certificate to commemorate the occasion.

Our meeting being two days after the hundredth anniversary of Armistice Day, our Immediate Past President, Ann delivered a talk on the meaning and derivation of the red poppy.

There was a birthday celebration for one of our members, Joy who had her 80th birthday in November.

We then had a speaker, Karen Sims, from The My Health Record talk about the facts and myths associated with the government initiative.

This was well received by our members and our coordinator of speakers, Dawn, presented Karen with a small gift in appreciation

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Our October 2018 meeting was an extremely busy one. We inducted 2 new members, Jill and Joan. We also presented newly created  Recognition of Service awards to 3 of our stalwarts - June B, Kath and June S. Well-deserved awards for each of them after more than 10 years in the club; five years on the Management Committee and three years on the Executive.

We had a very interesting speaker, Paul Fleming from Centrelink who spoke about the various options available for seniors in selecting accommodation.

One of our members, Bev then spoke about the joys of training a guide dog.

These are our 3 recipents of the newly created Recognition of Service Awards. Kath, June S and June B

Our immediate Past President Ann, proposing these members for the award

Life Member, Alf, who seconded the proposal congratulating Kath.

Our guest speaker Paul Fleming from Centrelink.

Our coordinator of speakers, Dawn presenting Paul with a small gift

One of our members, Bev with her guide dog in training

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At our September 2018 meeting we had an AFL theme (being the finals series for the AFL). We asked members to come along dressed in their various supporters’ colours. During morning tea break we had the team songs from all eighteen AFL teams playing in the background. We also had team insignia displayed along the front tables. This provided an enjoyable environment for our members.

 

Our speaker, Madryn Anderson was from one of the many Commonwealth Aged Care providers. “Absolute”. She was accompanied by Lauren Bradley. This was a very informative talk to our members about exactly what is available from the federal government and how to go about selecting an appropriate provider. There was also mention of the very long waiting list and what is being done to try and reduce this lag time. There was a great deal of interest shown by our members and there were many questions that were addressed by Madryn.

  Top: Ann with the proverbial wooden spoon won by her team Carlton.  Below: Ann, Alf  and Marg lamenting the season that might have been.

Kath and Ann. Both their teams missed out on the finals but they can still smile

 

That's the same look Fanny had on her face on Saturday afternoon when Sydney were thrashed by GWS

 

Our Meet and Greet ladies - happy that Hawthorn are still in the battle for the premiership despite their loss on the weekend

The teams' emblems decorating the top tables

Our speaker, Madryn with Speakers' Coordinator, Dawn and President, John

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We were pleased to welcome another 9 Inductees at our August 2018 meeting - bringing our total membership to 79.

We also had author Anna Ciddor speak to us about some of her books. She challenged us to remember the 1960s and reminded us of the small bottles of milk we all got at school; the old blackboard dusters that had to be cleaned regularly and the original black and white TVs.

Some of our members catching up with the latest from our Newsletter prior to the meeting

Our 9 inductees receiving their welcome packs and name badges

Author, Anna Ciddor with Dawn, our coordinator of speakers

 

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At the July meeting we had another 4 inductees and we were then entertained by Don Jones, a comedian who had us all in stitches with his presentation titled the Magic of Laughter. He reminded us that you can't worry about your illness or your situation in life while you are laughing. 

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We had 2 inductees at our June 2018 meeting and also a presentation of the results of the survey carried out at our May meeting. For details of this survey select the "Survey“ tab from the menu at the left.

Anna Donaldson, CEO of a group called "Lively" addressed our June meeting. she gave details of her innovative idea to assist both younger unemployed people and senior citizens. Lively organises for technology savvy unemployed to go out and assist seniors with any problems they may be experiencing with mobiles, email, internet or other computer issues. Providing this service with someone outside the family makes the senior feel much more comfortable and provides some useful income for the unemployed. 

There was a great deal of interest shown by our members and guests in this service and Anna fielded many questions.

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We welcomed two new members to our Club at our May meeting.

We also welcomed many visitors from the recently closed Ormond Ladies Probus Club. We hope they enjoyed themselves and that we will see them again at our future meetings

This was followed by Leticia Searle speaking about Food Bank in Victoria and the many charities that it provides food and other assistance to. Leticia also had a special gift for one of the lucky attendees at our meeting. It was gratefully accepted by one of our many visitors

 

Our guest speaker Leticia from Food Bank Victoria

Awarding of the special gift prize

Our coordinator of speakers, Dawn presenting a gift to Leticia

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At our April 2018 meeting we celebrated our 18th birthday with scones, jam and cream for morning tea. The Management Committee accepts no responsibility for any increase in weight for any of our members.

After morning tea, we had 2 speakers from Kingston Council who presented to our members the various categories of help that was available to senior citizens either through the councils or through the federal government. This was extremely well received by our members and the speakers had a hard time getting away after the meeting as many members wanted specific advice to help them.

Below are some photos of the lovely morning tea enjoyed by our members and many visitors


These are a couple of photos of the 2 speakers from Kingston Council

 

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Robert Anderson, an announcer from Golden Days Radio entertained us at our February 2018 meeting. He briefly described how this Community Radio Station works and how it is set up in studios in Glen Huntly upstairs above the shops. Robert then held a competition for our members asking them to name the tune or name the artist. Several of our members won prizes of books and other gifts as a result of their knowledge of music from the 40s, 50s and 60s.

Robert then spoke od his early days in radio at 3DB and talked about many former famous presenters on this station.

 

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We provide speakers at our monthly meeting that present on such topics as health issues, horticulture, schooling for troubled youth, comedy and theatre.

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Our October 208 meeting was an extremely busy one. We inducted 2 new members, Jill Thomas and Joan Thomas. We also presented Recognition of Service awards to 3 of our stalwarts - June B, Kath D and June S. Well-deserved awards for each of them after more than 10 years in the club; five years on the Management Committee and three years on the Executive.

We had a very interesting speaker, Fleming from Centrelink who spoke about the various options available for seniors in selecting accommodation. One of our members, Bev then spoke about the joys of training a guide dog.

These are our 3 recipients of the newly created Recognition of Service Awards. Kath, June S and June B

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Our immediate Past President Ann, proposing these members for the award

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Life Member, Alf, who seconded the proposal congratulating Kath.

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Our guest speaker Paul Fleming from Centrelink.

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Our coordinator of speakers, Dawn presenting Paul with a small gift

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One of our members, Bev with her guide dog in training

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