Incoming President for 2010 -2011Frank Rae - March 3rd 2010
Introductory Address of New President
It’s
a great privilege to be elected President of the Ewell Probus Club and would
like to thank you, the members, my proposer Ken Amess and seconder John
Mills for your confidence in me. As President I will use my utmost
endeavours to meet the Club’s best interests and work assiduously to that
end during my term of office.
My own aspirations for Ewell
Probus are threefold, two of which have already been put in motion by my
predecessors and are well advanced. The first and most important aim is to
continue and openly encourage what I refer to as the 3 F’s, namely
Fellowship, Fraternity and Fun for without these attributes the Club is as
nothing.
Secondly membership for one
reason or another has declined over recent years. Behind the scenes your
Committee and Sub-Committee has been working to address this issue and again
is well advanced with plans to project Ewell Probus into the public domain
with a view to attracting recently retired or retired gentlemen with
interests such as our own. I would like to think, therefore, that the Club
Fraternity and increased Membership would prosper during the coming months.
Finally some eighteen months or
so ago the Club had to recognise it was facing some financial issues that
needed resolving. Your then Treasurer, Malcolm Davis with due diligence and
foresight steered us clear of that immediate difficulty. Today you have
heard from Malcolm that our finances have improved. Nonetheless, I see a
window of opportunity over the next year or so where the income flow can be
further utilised for the benefit of the Club and you, its members. In this
respect our new Treasurer, Tony Field and I are at one, but again that is
only to be expected when two ex bankers get into a huddle over utilisation
of income.
In conclusion, I believe the
aforementioned 3 F’s within the Club and its members is of paramount
importance and am sure I will have your support in this respect.
President for 2009 -2010 Ken Amess - January 1 st 2010
Our
celebration of Christmas is over and as the days of the 21st century's
first decade draws to a close many of us likely reflect on the year
about to pass and what may lie ahead in 2010.
My year of office also ticks away
and it is one I am enjoying. The highlight so far were the two excellent
Ladies Lunches. The new venue for these proved a hit.
My personal thanks and gratitude to
all who supported these two events and for the wonderful response for my
chosen Charity "Help for Heroes".
To all Members and their families:-
My very best wishes for
A Happy New Year.
May 2010 be filled with
health and happiness throughout.
Incoming President for 2009 -2010 Ken Amess - March 4th 2009
I feel it is an honour to have today been elected President and would thank
the members also my Proposer, John Mills and Seconder Richard Whittington
for their trust. In the year ahead I will do my utmost to justify this
faith. By my reckoning I am the Club’s 37th President only some 3 behind
Barack Obama!!
During my year it is my wish to see a strengthening of the Club’s
membership. In this respect may I ask all members to do their very utmost to
introduce new members, be they family, friends, neighbours or former
colleagues. The Club’s future lies in the strength of membership numbers.
Thus the future of the Club is very much in all of our hands.
The Probus ethos is “Friendship through Fellowship”. Let us make that
happen in the months ahead with more inter play between members. I only
mention this because I was sadden by a couple comments made to me that there
are some who feel this does not always happen. The resolution carried at
today's AGM to adopt a new luncheon seating arrangement should go some way
to addressing this issue.
More members wearing their provided lapel badges will help identification
especially for our newer members, more so, if they have not had the
advantage of being introduced by a fellow member. Please always wear them at
our monthly meetings. If yours is lost then let me know and we will arrange
to issue a new one.
If any member has any comments, observations, suggestions, etc then please
do feel free to discuss them with me. You can speak to me at the meetings,
by ‘phone, e-mail etc. I do wish to be made aware and will always do my
utmost for the Club’s best interest. It is my wish for our Club to become
known as possibly the friendliest Probus Club around here. Let us all enjoy
and have fun together in the year ahead.
It is my intention to try to extend friendship to other Probus Clubs or like
organisations in the area.
Thank you all again. I conclude with an observation of Winston Churchill:–
WE MAKE A LIVING BY WHAT WE GET; WE MAKE A LIFE BY WHAT WE
GIVE.
A Christmas 2008 Message from
the
Presidents - John Mills
I
must say the time has flown by since April when I became President and I
have enjoyed it immensely.
We have had a good variety of outings including several theatre trips a pub
lunch and a very wet but excellent visit to Waddesdon Manor and recently a
backstage tour of the Royal Opera House.
Our speakers have all been very good and both Lee Ault and Alan & Vera Baker
at our May and Christmas Ladies lunches were particularly entertaining. It
was very encouraging to see such a good number at the Christmas lunch.
Our average attendance at our monthly meetings has fallen to around 45 and
with our funds falling the committee have decided it would be sensible to
reduce the area in which we hold our regular monthly meetings to reduce our
hire costs. We have arranged with the staff of Bourne Hall that as from
January 09 we will use only the Begonia room which will reduce our hire
costs by half. This of course will not apply to the Ladies lunches.
As a thought, bearing in mind our falling numbers perhaps we could all try
inviting a friend along to one of our meetings with a view to increasing our
membership.
The social committee are now organising visits for 2009 which will
include:
February 19th: Pub Lunch – Rubbing House
March 17th: Polesden Lacey – Private tour of
house
April: Tour of BBC studios at White City
June: Thames River trip from Walton
More information to follow on this website.
Finally may I wish all our members and families a very
HAPPY
CHRISTMAS and A PEACEFUL
NEW YEAR.
John Mills President
Incoming Presidents for 2008 -2009 John Mills
Gentlemen – it is a great privilege to be elected as your new president
and I hope I can continue to meet the high standards set by the past
presidents that I have known since joining Probus which seems only a
short time ago. Particularly I would like to thank Cliff Douthwaite for
the time and effort he has put in, not only as President but as our
webmaster, we must be the envy of many other probus clubs. Also we have
a fine committee who put in a great deal of time discussing not only the
administrative running of our club but also searching for new ideas to
further our very high standards of fellowship within our club. Ken
Amess as Secretary is brilliant at organising our meetings and providing
our minutes and agendas, which is a very time consuming job. As is the
Treasurer's task carried out with great precision by Malcolm Davis.
As you have heard we have an Events sub- committee of Ken Robinson, Pat Hunt
and myself and our intention is to provide a continual programme of outings
to theatres, places of interest and also various pub visits.
Which I hope will receive your continued support.
We are always looking for fresh ideas and your suggestions will be welcome
I finish by reminding us the entire probus ethos:
To the fostering of fellowship, goodwill and the common interest of all
Probus club members
Outgoing Presidents Report AGM March 2008
First of all may I say it has
been a privilege and indeed an honour to serve you the Probus Club of Ewell
for my year in office, the time seems to have flashed by and this is my
opportunity to thank you all for your kindness and support in spite of my
odd sense of humour!
I am appreciative of the
committee who make arrangements of the Club work like clockwork and ensure I
was in the correct place at the right time. The lunch meetings have been a
pleasure to preside over and thanks to all who make the luncheons a delight,
the range of speakers is impressive, thanks to Ken Robinson, and it was a
delight when over 80 members and friend supported the special RAF
presentation team, thank you Ken Robinson as you are aware he will be
passing the baton over to Frank Rae, so a great big thank you to Ken for the
hundred odd speakers you have arranged for us all.
We have invited and entertained
three other Clubs Presidents that is of Kingston upon Thames, Surbiton and
Ascot Probus Clubs. I have on your behalf attended luncheons at the first
two. It is interesting that we all follow a similar pattern with slight
variations, at the Kingston Club all member join in the Grace which is the
same for all meetings, whilst Surbiton do not have the Loyal Toast or absent
Friends but use the Probus toast.
It was a sad occasion on the
death of Brian Cousins CBE and the Club was well represented at the funeral
service to see our old friend pass onwards, Margaret Cousins and family were
very appreciative of the condolence card sent on behalf of the Club and
wished all to be thanked for our one minutes silence in memory of Brian at
our September meeting.
The change from using tables in
E formation to round tables each holding ten members has been helpful but
has not resulted in a break up of “friendship groups” and perhaps this is an
ongoing process we need to solve?.
It has been a good step to see
the Activities starting to function again, so thanks to Ken Robinson, John
Mills and Pat Hunt. Whilst the Royal Observatory and Nautical Museum at
Greenwich was great occasion, we only had a total of 25 members and friends,
this means only about a dozen or so members, a bit disappointing when our
membership is around seventy. Needless our thanks are due to Ken for all the
background work which we take for granted and indeed sheparding us around a
very large complex. So please support the activities in the future as you
know Pat Hunt has a trip planned to Portsmouth and our theatre guru John
Mills has a tickets and a coach lined up for The Rat Pack at the New
Victoria Theatre Woking, more about these later.
Since my inauguration at the AGM
in March I have received much help especially from Eric Hussey who have
guided me through two Ladies lunches and ensured that most things were said
at the appropriate moments, if not all then that has been my fault! I was
not aware, but now know the work that Eric puts in behind the scenes for the
Ladies lunch and I am sure you will join me in thanking Eric for his
organisational skills, thanks a lot Eric.
My President’s charity for the Zimbabwe Victim Support Fund set up to
provide some relief for those who were falling victims to the systematic
programme of destruction of the agricultural industry. The collection for
this amounted in total to £375 which Malcolm has forwarded to the UK
secretary and received thanks, a letter to this effect is on the notice
board (below). Whilst not an official Club event thanks to the Club members who
supported my garden party in aid of the 2007 World's Greatest Coffee
Morning, when the sum of £757 was raised for the Macmillan Cancer Relief
Project.
It was good to be invited with our Secretary Ken Amess to represent the Club
at the recent Mayors Civic Celebration, even more impressive when I noted at
least five other Probus members who had been also invited for their work in
other community services, so thanks to all you folk who volunteer and work
behind the scenes in other organisations.
On a sadder note Richard Whittington and myself attended the funeral service
for Betty, Harry Smith‘s wife, Harry who has moved home since his
bereavement was the Club’s President many years ago. I also with Bob
Sullivan, John Garlick and Jonathan Reed attended St Martins Church for the
thanksgiving service for Harry Podd, this was a well attended occasion with
perhaps a 100 folk, and Harry was given a full guard of honour by his
comrades from the Burma Star Association. Harry served as a leading air
mechanic in the Colossus light fleet aircraft carrier during the Burma
Campaign.
I then finish my report in the same vein as the start and say thank you all
for my year in your service.
Cliff Douthwaite President 2007 -2008
Dear Mr. Davis
Thank you so much for the donation of £375 recently received
on behalf of the Zimbabwe Victims' Support Fund. Every penny of this money
will go to Zimbabwe. Your Club's support of this work is greatly appreciated
and the donation will make a real difference. In fact, in some cases, the
difference between life and death.
I expect you know Zimbabwe is in deep crisis with
malnutrition and AIDS claiming 3,500 lives each week. Life expectancy is now
in the mid thirties and an estimated 3,000,000 have fled the country and 80%
of those remaining are unemployed.
This Fund, working with Trustees at Hillside Methodist
Church, Bulawayo, seek to feed some of the most vulnerable and,
unbelievably, what they are doing is considered a crime. This is because the
ruling party seeks to ensure that food only goes to its supporters.
We have some anxious moments when we wonder if the Zimbabwe
Trustees are going to be able to obtain food for distribution, but just this
weekend several tons of maize meal have been received.
Despite the fact that inflation is astronomical, the highest
in the world, the value of the British pounds maintains it's buying power.
The people who suffer are the locals who are paid in Zimbabwe dollars. A
recent email tells of a person earning $15,000,000 per month and a loaf of
bread costs $1,500,000.
I am enclosing a copy of our Report for the year ending
December 2007 for your interest.
Yours sincerely, John Larkin
Trustees: David Winwood, Graham Shaw, John Lark
(Secretary/Treasurer)
President Message for Christmas 2007 by Cliff
Douthwaite
This is a message by Rev. David
Winwood, the Epsom Methodist Minister who when stationed in Zimbabwe
instigated the Zimbabwe Victim Support Fund
which is my Presidential Charity
for this year. (more below...here)
At the near conclusion of 2007 ,
he continues.............. It was a wonderful Christmas present. It rained
on Christmas day! We had not had any rain for over 2 years. Severe drought
and famine had spread throughout southern Zimbabwe and people were at the
end of their tether. It was only a little rain, but it was the beginning. We
greeted it as a wonderful gift!
That was in 1992, but last week
(November 2007) we received an email from a couple in our past church in
Bulawayo, in which they mention that there is no water in any tap in their
house. They live in a town and are usually served by a pretty reliable water
system, but now there is only one tap in the garden from which they can
sometimes draw water, which comes from a borehole. They collect it and save
it in a tank. They boil it for drinking and store it in bottles. They keep
their used water to flush the toilet, to prevent cholera and other diseases
spreading if the sewers should become blocked. In the poorer, crowded
African suburbs around Bulawayo, they have had no water for two months.
Imagine the disease …. and there’s no medicine available when people get
sick.
You may think that I’m always
going on about Zimbabwe because we lived there for a while, but I am shocked
when I hear that around 3,500 people are dying each week. That is more that
those who are dying in Darfur, Afghanistan and Iraq added together! People
are struggling to survive in the face of poverty and brutality. A 26 year
old student, now expelled from the University, wrote to say –
“In Zimbabwe a person cannot stand up for anything that he thinks or
believes. I can’t remember how many times I’ve been arrested simply for
speaking the truth, but I will always remember the gruesome experiences of
physical and mental torture that I have been subjected to. I have been
punched, kicked, shackled, blindfolded, hit by baton sticks and placed in
solitary confinement. At the Police Station I was thrown against an iron
door and my head banged against it several times. I have been handcuffed so
tightly that I could not bear the pain and my private parts have been kicked
several times. As a result of repeated beatings I have incurred permanent
injuries, and Mugabe’s regime has left me for dead, as my medical documents
and the scars on my body show.”
The young man finishes by saying
how he has grown strong through this experience. That’s the amazing thing.
Moral and spiritual strength and resilience is being sustained. Christian’s
are still strong and they persist in hoping and praying.
Since 2000 life in Zimbabwe has
deteriorated beyond belief. White farmers were driven from their farms,
thousands of African workers had their homes burned, and between two and
three thousand commercial farms have been utterly destroyed. There is
therefore no food for the people and the economy has collapsed. Inflation is
running at six and a half thousand percent. Many have left the country if
they have the means of doing so, many thousands have crossed the borders as
refugees, and many are now are in severe poverty and sickness. Zimbabwe has
the lowest life expectancy in the world – 34 years for women and 37 years
for men.
The fund to which I started is
supporting a nursing home for 75 elderly people who have been made stateless
and destitute by the government. Matron Jane Mgani says, “If it were not for
you these people would starve.” It is supporting the Bulawayo Shelter for
the destitute, and Island Hospice, which cares for people who are dying and
their family’s at home. A number of projects for orphans are receiving some
regular help from the fund. The United Nations says that Zimbabwe now has
the highest ratio of orphans to population in the world.
Empty shelves, unaffordable
prices, queues, power cuts, water cuts, my friends are thinner and more
gaunt, and there is growing despair on the faces of people in the street.
The food distribution at Hillside Church purchased from your gifts where
they had to close the list after 400 people had received some help, but
still there were queues of desperate people
In 2005 the government
instituted “Clear out the trash”. The authorities bulldozed the houses in
the poor communities and, at gunpoint, drove the families into the rural
areas. More than 800,000 people were left homeless and jobless. Killarney
was one of the places where the homes were destroyed. It’s now barren
scrubland, but the people have come back to live there, because they have
nowhere to go, those who distribute the food purchased by this appeal take
quite a risk. The government insists that it is responsible for food
distribution, although frequently food is not available and is distributed
only to government supporters! Sometimes the volunteers are stopped by the
police and some have been imprisoned. They say, however, “What can we do? We
are Christians and God’s children are in need?”
We trust that our Probus Club
will be generous and support this charity as we enjoy this time of
Christmas, God Bless you all.
Cliff Douthwaite -President the
Probus Club of Ewell
Incoming President Message for 2007 -2008 by Cliff Douthwaite.
It is an honour to be
elected as the President of the Probus Club of Ewell, I follow in a long
line of excellent past presidents and have a standard already set that I
trust I will uphold. But of course it is not just the President that
sets the standards for friendship and comradeship in the club, but you
the members and the committee you have elected to keep me on the
straight and narrow!
You will have noted the
committee have decided to opt for round tables; this is to ensure that
with the previous arrangements there were always members at the ends of
the straight tables who were restricted to only conversation with one
other member. Whilst round tables eliminate this it then raises the
problem of conversation across the wider table, afraid we cannot win,
but need your help to generate the best compromise.
Tracking back thorough past president’s messages,
another value of the website, I came across this from Derek Youell in
2002 he said “When I was elected as President in April of this year, my
mind went back to when I joined Probus some 10 years ago. At that time I
was lucky to join a number of friends who were already members and we
tended to talk amongst our selves and had little contact with others.
In recent years, I have realised that this is
wrong; it makes it difficult for new members without the benefit of
knowing existing members to integrate.
I am hoping that during my year, members will
have more contact with each other and I suggest that all members try to
speak to at least one member to whom they have not spoken previously.”
I regret to say that Derek’s
wish has not made much difference to how we arrange our seating, since
his year in office from time to time the committee have discussed
eliminating members selecting seats for groups of friends, but without a
consensus of committee agreement, whilst this present format has value
and makes us all feel comfortable it as Derek said 5 years ago restricts
our getting to know others, and remains a barrier for new members who
come without a friend, such as via the Internet, so can I ask you to
bear with any future changes that may offer a better arrangement, of
course we your committee are open to your views, so please take the
opportunity of expressing your opinions, but please look at the wider
issue of the Probus ethos.
To
the fostering of fellowship, goodwill and the common interest of all
Probus Club Members
From my part I intend to
invite as my guest month by month the Presidents/Chairman from the many
local Probus Clubs in the area, thus hopefully extending the fellowship
ethos, please feel free to converse with these or any other visitors who
may join us.
For the upcoming President’s charity I would like to propose the
Zimbabwe Victim Support Fund this has been set up to provide some relief
for those who were falling victims to the systematic programme of
destruction of the agricultural industry resulting that many of the poor
are foodless unless they support the regime. This Fund is administered
via the UK Churches sending monies direct to the Zimbabwe churches for
food distribution. I trust the membership will support this charity.
I look forward to serving
you in the coming year.
Cliff Douthwaite
President's
Message December 2006
By Richard Whittington
The Probus Club of Ewell had the
privilege of a presentation by Virginia McKenna OBE of her
acting career and later her work for the “Born Free Trust” at
their recent Probus Ladies Christmas lunch at Bourne Hall in
Ewell. This event on December 6 th 2006 was also attended in his
official capacity as the Mayor of Epsom and Ewell Councillor
David Wood and his Consort sister Barbara, David is of course a
long time member of the Probus Club of Ewell.
David Wood our Mayor took the opportunity to say a few words, he
said that although as Mayor he represented Epsom and Ewell, in
his heart he was a Ewell man born and bred in Ewell and proud of
this, he also stated as a long time member of the Club he
savoured the strong fellowship and in his time has served the
Club in many capacities including the Presidency for which he
had been most grateful. His present post the highest in the
Borough of Epsom and Ewell as Mayor is indeed an honour.
David the Club are honoured to have you as a fellow member and
more so as our Mayor, this after serving our community for many
years as a Councillor.
I wish to thanked those who had help organise the Christmas
Lunch, especially Eric Hussey who in his quiet efficient way had
masterminded the occasion resulting in an excellent and
enjoyable function.
Jill Whittington on behalf of all the ladies present thanked the
membership for their kind invitation to the Christmas Lunch;
they had all enjoyed another festive day with a perfect
presentation from Virginia.
Jill and myself extend a
Happy Christmas and a
Prosperous New Year
to all
of YOU.
Presidential
Address 2006
By Richard Whittington
Richard Whittington commenced by informing the Members
they would be relieved he did not have a great to say BUT! He said David
Smart would be a hard act to follow and complimented him on the quiet
skill and humour and diplomacy when conducting the
Lunches and Committee Meetings.
Richard
considered the Members to be a jolly good lot and looked
forward to getting to know many of the new members and those he did know
well enough.
Richard Whittington sought the Members' approval to his
nominated Charity, The Royal Marsden, Sutton.
He concluded by saying it was a genuine Honour to be
President
and would do his best not to let Members down.
ProBus
Club of Ewell 
My
year seems to
be passing
very quickly
and I must
say I am
thoroughly
enjoying it.
At
the 2003
AGM the
Retiring
President
Derek
Youell
giving the
charge with
the
appropriate
words
invested
Ken
Robinson
with the
President's
Collarette
and Collar
Badge. The
Retiring
President
then
exchanged
seats with
the New
President.
The New
President
presented
the Retired
President
with his
Past
President's
Tie and
Lapel
Badge. 
The
quality of the
food at Bourne
Hall has
improved and we
have had a
number of very
good and
interesting
speakers,
thanks to the
hard work of
Ken Robinson
our speaker
secretary.