Our club is sponsoring and launching Melbourne Bearbrass Probus at the Dock Library, Docklands, at 10am on Wednesday February 12.
It’s the first Probus Club launched within District 9800 for four years, and the first new Probus Club for inner-Melbourne since RCM launched Melbourne Sunrise Probus in 2011. That club is now full with about 120 members.
We’ll shortly provide our members who live in city towers with flyers for the launch, in the hope they can arrange to get the flyers onto their tower noticeboard. Meanwhile could every member please pass the news about the new club to any active senior or retiree who may want to join? [Not restricted to Docklands dwellers]
Please help spread the news to prospective seniors. Inquiries: tthomas061@gmail.com
President Warwick and Tony Thomas will brief members on the Bearbrass project at our January 21 meeting. (In case you’re wondering, “Bearbrass” was a suggested name for the settlement that became “Melbourne”. There’s also a Bearbrass Restaurant in Southbank).
The venture is enthusiastically backed by Probus headquarters in Sydney, which coordinates more than 1500 Australasian clubs and 125,000 members.
Probus Headquarters is paying for display ads in local city newspapers, and providing other marketing. Robert Renshaw of District 9810 is giving us his substantial expertise and will manage the launch meeting. Robert has launched eight Probus clubs in the past three years and currently is helping five potential Probus Clubs get started.
Probus Clubs are for active retirees who want to extend their friendship networks and enjoy stimulating monthly speakers. Interest groups include dining, theatre, films, arts, sports, books, walks, and local and overseas expeditions.
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Probus dues are typically only $60 a year Probus Clubs can only be started by a Rotary Club and they are for members’ enjoyment, not for charity work and fund-raising.
RCM is providing $250 worth of insignia and incidentals for Bearbrass. After the launch, Bearbrass will operate autonomously without formal Rotary involvement.
The “Interest Meeting” on February 12 will ratify the standard Probus constitution, elect office-bearers and apply for Probus affiliation. Its monthly meetings will then be at the Dock Library at 10am on second Tuesdays of the month.
The number of retiree residents in the CBD, Southbank and Docklands has surged since 2011. Overall, seniors aged 50-74 in CBD, Docklands and Southbank increased 14% from 2016 to 2019, now totalling nearly 11,000. The city forecasts their numbers will surge another 25% to 13,500 in 2022.
There is a particular need for networking via Probus because the “tower dwellers” have no historic community. They include many seniors newly downsizing from the suburbs or country, and some have lost their partner.
Although Bearbrass will be based at Docklands, its members will come from all over Melbourne and further out. We are fortunate to have secured The Dock as the club’s venue, with its state-of-the-art auditorium and negligible pricing to community groups.
To repeat, please help spread the news to prospective seniors. Inquiries: tthomas061@gmail.com