Probus is a worldwide movement – currently in many countries throughout the world. The name is derived from the first 3 letters of PROfessional and BUSiness. The clubs are under the umbrella of Rotary Clubs ...

The first Rotary Club was formed when attorney Paul Harris called together a meeting of three business acquaintances in downtown Chicago, United States, at one of his friend's office on February 23rd, 1905. Each of these 4 people had different careers and they based the meetings on developing friendships and learn how businesses could help each other. 

The members chose the name Rotary because initially they rotated weekly club meetings to each other's offices. Word of the club soon spread and others were invited to join. Within a year, the Chicago club became so large it became necessary to adopt the now-common practice of a regular meeting place. They soon based the club to be of service to the community.

Over the following years, more clubs formed across USA and in 1910 The National Association of Rotary Clubs in America was formed. Clubs started forming in Canada, and in 1911, the first meeting outside of North America was in Dublin, Ireland, soon followed by London. The following year the name was changed to the International Association of Rotary Clubs.

During World War I, Rotary in Britain increased from 9 to 22 clubs, and clubs were formed in other nations included those in Cuba in 1916, Philippines in 1919, India in 1920 and Australia and New Zealand in 1921.

Then in 1922, the name was changed to Rotary International.

Rotary Clubs' constitution allowed only male members. Over the years some clubs allowed women to join their club but the RI Board withdrew the charter of that club for violation of the RI constitution. It wasn't until 1989 when the change was made allowing women to join Rotary Clubs worldwide.

PROBUS CLUB HISTORY ...

Probus originated in the UK in 1965. The Probus movement had its beginnings in two clubs, both created by members of Rotary.

The original idea was initiated by a man called Fred Carnhill who was an enthusiastic Rotarian in Welwyn Garden City. On his retirement he found a lack of facilities for men in his situation. 

His ‘simple idea’ was the formation of a lunch club to serve as a focal point for the development of social activity and intellectual needs of retired businessmen, especially those who were retiring from Rotary.

With the support of his Rotary Club he organised the first meeting on 6^th May 1965 at which 33 men attended and wanted to join. The name was chosen as “The Campus Club” as they met in a restaurant that overlooked the town square of Welwyn Garden City, which was called The Campus. 

The new club had no difficulty attracting members. Telephones rang and enquiries were made even before men had retired! The news had spread via the press reports.

By the end of May membership had doubled and on June 3^rd the first meeting as a body separate from Rotary was held although the Rotary chairman still took the chair.

The name was finalised and eight simple rules emerged, the most significant being the one that read: “The object of the club shall be the promotion of good fellowship”.

Meanwhile that same year in Caterham, 3 businessmen who travelled on a train to London daily for work, were reaching the point of retirement and realised they had a need for fellowship. Thus in September 1965, Harold Blanchard, the chairman of Caterham Rotary Club Vocational Service Committee, soon to retire from business, presented the idea to his Rotary Club of forming a retired Businessmen Club.

The members of the Rotary Club decided to organise a monthly lunch. In February 1966 a meeting was advertised in the local papers for all retired professional and businessmen aged 60 and over. 42 men turned up. Many names for the club were thrown around at that meeting and finally it was agreed on the name “Probus” which takes the first three letters from ‘PROfessional and BUSiness’. It also had the advantage that it was a Latin word meaning honest or virtuous, from which the English word ‘Probity’ was derived.

Thus the inaugural luncheon of the first Probus Club in the United Kingdom to use the name PROBUS was on March 2, 1966 . The Campus Club always claim they were the first with the idea.

Other Rotary Clubs read about the success of these 2 Clubs and wanted to form their social retired men’s club. As the clubs were under the umbrella of Rotary, the name PROBUS was decided to be for all clubs so The Campus Club soon changed their name to The Campus Probus Club.

Mr Carnhill from the Campus Probus Club, dedicated the next 6 years to help set up clubs all over UK and then the world.

It wasn’t until 1974 that Probus expanded into New Zealand and by 1976 it spread to Australia.

Probus has been described by a member in Australia as the best thing England ever exported!!

Clubs soon started up throughout Europe, Asia and Americas.

Today there are both men's and ladies clubs as well as combined clubs (both men and women)

The Probus philosophy is FUN, FRIENDSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP (and in the case of our club…. FOOD seems to always play a part!!) It is purely a social club, unlike other service clubs who raise money or do service to the community, Probus is about having friendship and fun.

 

OUR CLUB ...

In 2014 our local Rotary Club was approached to charter a Probus Club.  Barbara Johnson is a Rotarian and Rotary nominated her to call an interest meeting with a view to Chartering a club. The interest meeting resulted in 35 members taking up membership. We met at Nelsons to start with, then the club grew in size, we moved the meetings to the Bridgetown Bowling Club and now we mainly meet at Bridgetown Gardens Function Centre. 

The Club took the name THE PROBUS CLUB OF BRIDGETOWN BLACKWOOD VALLEY with a view to encouraging members from the surrounding towns, Balingup, Boyup Brook, Greenbushes, Nannup. The Club is an inclusive, dual gender club.

Our youngest members are in their 60’s and we have two members in their 90’s.

Each month we have a guest speaker and also a club speaker (a member) , sometimes a quiz or other activity. We have a raffle at each meeting which raises money for hall hire or bus hire for an outing. 

Also each month there is an optional outing or activity in which members can participate. Recently we had a Christmas in July lunch at the Bridgetown Golf Club at which 42 attended and in June we went to the movies and lunch in Bunbury. August we have a trip to Nannup Garden Festival, September is a bus trip to Busselton to visit open art studios, End of Sept is the King's birthday picnic lunch and October is the SW Get-together in Bunbury. 

In the past we have had bus trips to concerts in Bunbury and Perth, day trips to Margaret River area,  Donnybrook wineries, Walpole river cruise, Bannister downs Dairy, Ferguson Valley, Collie, all over. We have many lunches, St Patricks Day, Melb Cup lunchen, Xmas lunches, Sundowners by the river and extended 3 night trips to Narrogin, Albany, Kalgoorlie, Kalbarri, New Norcia, Norfolk Island and a cruise from Adelaide to Fremantle.

These are a great way to make new friends. 

We try to keep the costs low for outings and occasionally have a subsidy for members as our funds grow. We are not a profit making group or a charity group. Our constitution states we are not to raise money for projects, but we do donate money to various community projects if there is money in the bank.

In Perth there is a State body called Probus Association of WA (PAWA) who look after registering of new clubs and help with running of clubs. Probus South Pacific Limited (PSPL) is based in NSW; PSPL keep the Membership register, organize insurance, create relationships with allied service providers and publish newsletters.

Our membership currently stands at 30 but pre-Covid the membership numbers were up as high as 70.

All Probus Clubs in Australia have their AGM in March. Our fees are $35 for a single, $60 for a couple and there is a one off joining fee of $20 to cover name badge production and registration of membership. The fees cover insurance to and from meetings and outings, promotional materials as well as newsletters from the head office.

A lot of clubs have a number of sub-groups within the club, like a walking group, sewing groups, card playing groups, etc but we don’t have that here as there are already so many groups within the Blackwood Valley area. 

We ackowledge the Pibulman-Wadandi people - traditional custodians of the Bridgetown land … their leaders - past, current and emerging.

(Thanks to Dianne Huband for the history summary compilation)