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BRIDGWATER BLAKE PROBUS CLUB

IS NOW CLOSED

           Minutes of the ultimate Meeting held at the Bridgwater Pantomime Society Hall
                              On Tuesday 6th February 2018

 

President John Willis being stricken with the seasonal ‘flu it fell to Vice President John Edney to open the meeting promptly at 10 a.m. His first duty was to welcome the 24 members, 15 ladies and 4 visitors (from East Quantocks Probus Club) to the last meeting of the Bridgwater Blake Probus Club. He then allowed Lionel Porter of the Pantomime Society to express his thanks to our club for the many years we have supported the Society. This was reciprocated with a hearty round of applause.

 

SPEAKER  Our own member, Geoff Bryant entertained us for the next hour first with the background of his 18 month’s spell working in Nigeria followed by an excellent ciné presentation, thus trusting his luck to the idiosyncrasies of his rather ancient projector. Occasional sharp smacks to the top of the projector kept the machine going, much to the relief of all. Geoff went to Nigeria in the early sixties very much under the influence of James Bond, having read all the Ian Fleming novels. Armed with a firearm (to protect him from the wild animals) he set about trying to institute a water supply in extremely difficult conditions. Much of the hour showed much leisure but little work. As we have come to expect the visual presentation was made to the highest quality, the camera work, commentary and editing being to professional standards. VP John Edney, eloquent as usual, thanked the speaker and invited the audience to give a well-deserved appreciative applause.  

 
MINUTES.    The minutes of the penultimate meeting were read and accepted. 

 

TREASURER Roy Deakin presented the balance sheet and highlighted several details, principally the loss on the Christmas Dinner and the increase in running expenses. As formerly agreed the balance of £1000 was presented to Barbara Taylor on behalf of the charity SURE. Barbara expressed her thanks and added that a further over £950 has been raised by our members in the collection of five pence pieces. 
SOCIAL SECRETARY   Charles Parkes gave a resumé of experience as Social secretary, stressing the persistent lack of support for organised trips, being one of the reasons leading to the closure of the Club. Derek Fothergill reiterated his invitation to join East Quantocks Probus Club. 
MAGIC MOMENT David Daggar offered no less than two magic moments happening simultaneously; on the day of his graduation  (itself magic) he literally bumped into a then world famous goalkeeper, Gordon Banks (much more magic). 
 
MY LIFE.  This being the very last MY LIFE secretary Geoff read a history of our club, beginning at the formation of Bridgwater Probus Club in 1975. A copy is attached.

 

CARE CO-ORDINATORS. Ron Allen brought good wishes from Denis Northam and Geoff P reported that Bill Lefort was too ill to attend but sent his thanks and best wishes to all.
 
ANY OTHER BUSINESS The monthly lunch would take place but a new venue would be announced in good time.


TRIVIA……. Consisted of the usual mix of the irrelevant, irritating and irrational rubbish but Happy Birthday was sung sweetly to birthday boy Colin Green. 

 

MESSAGE The meeting was brought to a dignified close with a message from the reluctant absentee President, John Willis. 

 

Secretary   Geoff Parle
 

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MY LIFE. A SHORT HISTORY OF OUR CLUB

MY LIFE 
The Bridgwater Probus Club's first minuted General Meeting was held in October 1975 at The Bristol Hotel (now the site of Barclays Bank) with 18 members present. Joining fee was £1 with an annual subscription of £2.50. Membership was limited to 40. By the end of1987 the waiting list became unmanageable and it was decided to form a new club in North Petherton and their first meeting took place on the 10th of February 1988. Such was the demand a third club the Blake Probus Club was formed with its first meeting on the 28th of March 1990. 
Over the following two decades there was a gradual decline in numbers endangering the very existence of the Bridgwater and Blake Clubs and the point was reached when the two clubs had to be combined in order to survive.
Our first meeting took place here at the Pantomime Society Hall in Feb 2009.  The respective presidents, Graeme Turner and Graham Lock, relinquished their posts to Bill Raymond with Mike Needs as Vice President. Unfortunately the new president failed to turn up at the meeting and also the pre- arranged committee meeting and also the next ordinary meeting. A call from your present secretary to the angry Mrs Raymond resulted in the resignation of the aforementioned President. Mike Needs assumed the Presidency, Tony Chapman (secretary), Tom Boyd (Treasurer), Geoff Parle (Social Secretary) and Stan Homer (Speaker secretary) were the Committee members.
Membership totaled over 50 and attendances of 35 and more was commonplace. It is interesting to note that funds from the two clubs were pooled, £562 coming from Blake and £2745 from the Bridgwater Club. The following year saw Stan Homer elected President followed by Bill LeFort (2 years), Tony Chapman (2 years) and finally, John Willis.
The present formula for each meeting, Speaker, comfort break, minutes, reports from Social Secretary, Treasurer(if required), Magic Moment, Care co-ordinators and Trivia was soon adopted. 
SPEAKERS.  We have had many memorable speakers, some good, some bad. We had a great magician but for me the best was Tony Jay who fascinated us with his first-hand account of the atrocities committed by Reg and Rose West. There was a tie for worst.... a geologist with a resounding cough who took over the meeting at the outset, and a pointless talk about Galapagos. The prize for the longest presentation of one hour and 25 minutes goes to yours truly but the meeting still finished on time! We also had (in my humble opinion) two shockers, one on UFO's and the other on The Shroud of Turin which mercifully were not contenders for the longest lasting. 
SOCIAL SECRETARY The post, inherited eventually by Charles Parkes, proved to be the poisoned chalice. Less and less support due to increasing age, dwindling numbers and costs resulted in the rapid decline of organised short or day trips. East Quantocks’ club suffered in the same way and was forced to repeatedly look to us for support. However I personally thoroughly enjoyed trips to Bletchley Park and the Arboretum, a trip to a Victorian Village in the Black Country and most of all a visit to Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament.
The Top Hat Club was introduced in August 2009 and has provided important income for the club. The first winners were Terry Green and Gordon Taylor. Since its inception the most successful winners have been 
DEAKIN Roy 4    WRIGHT David 4
EDNEY John 5   ROBERTS David 5    TILL Leslie 5
NEEDS Mike 6
BARKER Dennis 7
LEFORT Bill 9   PARKES Charles 9
TAYLOR Gordon 10 HOMER Stan 10
PARLE Geoff 12
SMITH Jon 13
And the clear winner and obviously the luckiest man in the club, not only married to Sheila but with 18 wins ………………….ALLEN Ron 18.
The introduction of name tags in 2010 proved to be unsuccessful but the grapevine in May 2012 has proved to be an invaluable tool. 
MAGIC MOMENTS Introduced in 2009 this item has produced many memorable moments and provided an opportunity for all members to be seen and heard by the club. I particularly remember David Daggar's Greek experience, Ron Bater's run in with the Mafia, Jon Claydon's reluctant dip in a harbour in the Bosphorus and Jon Edney's improbable Chinese undertaker story. I would probably have remembered Mike Need's many stories but sadly I couldn't hear them. The prize for the longest Magic Moment goes to Ron Allen whose misguided submarine could have downed a low flying plane. 
MY LIFE   My Life was introduced in an effort to get to know our individual members from their own mouths rather than waiting to hear it at their funerals! Colin Green was the first contributor in July 2017. However perhaps the most interesting "My Life" was Mike Grabner's where we learned at last that his accent is in fact Austrian so that talking about the war was no longer banned!
At each meeting all members were invited to the monthly lunch at Enmore Golf Club.
TRIVIA    This item came about in an effort to fill in the ever increasing early finish to the meetings. The formula was simple; on this day  1) Member's birthdays 2) Famous birthdays 3) Famous deaths 4) Historical events. If a member celebrated a birthday on a Probus meeting day then a cake with a candle was presented to the chorus of "Happy Birthday To You" sung by the whole ensemble. These were followed by "an interesting bit" and finally a joke but not too rude. It is good to note that we have a broad minded President. 
Following a committee meeting decision at a meeting in September 2017 a proposition was made to the Club that due to decreasing attendances and the increasing average age, the Club should be wound up at the end of the current year. After much discussion the proposition was regretfully accepted. The average age today, 6th February 2018, is 80 yrs 87 days.
Several members have expressed an interest in continuing their Probus experience by joining an alternative club. Certain enduring friendships will continue with the preservation of the monthly Lunch Club. Bridgwater 
Blake Probus Club RIP

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