Newport Probus Club was formed in 2018 following a public meeting called by PSPL (the organisation that administers the Probus organisation) to ascertain whether there was enough interest in this area to support a club. Was there ever! Almost 100 people turned up to that meeting.

The club's first meeting as a club was held in October 2018 at the Newport Mirage with four foundation office-bearers in place, Catherine Willsdon (President), Lynne Czinner (Vice-President), Rob Charlton (Secretary) and Kathryn Ross (Treasurer). The first couple of months were hectic with well over 100 applications for membership being processed, additional committee members being recruited and work done to get activity groups up and running.

 

Monthly meetings were moved to our existing venue of choice, Newport Bowling Club, in March 2019. A strong relationship has been forged between Newport Bowling Club and Newport Probus Club, partly through many people being members of both clubs. 
 

Today Newport Probus Club is a vibrant and very active club with 160 members (capped by our Standing Resolutions), a wide range of regular activities and many interesting excursions and trips. More information can be found in our monthly newsletter, Newport Link. You'll find the latest 3 editions in the LIBRARY section of this Web site. The club adheres to the Probus motto of "Friendship, Fellowship and Fun."

​

How to Join Newport Probus Club

If you would like to join Newport Probus Club, there are some things you need to know. So let’s go through them.

​

Membership is by invitation

That’s right. You must be invited to join. This applies to all Probus clubs. There is a process for obtaining an invitation, which we’ll explain below.

​

Membership of all Probus clubs is capped. This is to ensure clubs can service all members properly and fully.

To retain membership you must attend at least 50% of each year’s general meetings. This is one of the main rules for all Probus clubs. For Newport Probus Club, that means you must attend at least 6 of the 12 meetings held from April of one year to March of the next, both of those months included. Our Christmas lunch, held in December, counts as one of those 12 meetings.

​

There is an obligation on the club to accommodate all members who wish to attend general meetings. That, in turn, means that the venues we use for general meetings (and Christmas lunch) must have adequate capacity. Eleven of our monthly general meetings are held at Newport Bowling Club. Its capacity is about 120 to 130 people. We recognise that some proportion of members will miss meetings for personal reasons – travel, illness and family obligations amongst them. We have found from experience that the capacity of Newport Bowling Club allows us to service a cap of 160 members.

​

We always choose a venue for our Christmas lunch that can accommodate everyone who wishes to attend, so the principal reason for our cap is the capacity of Newport Bowling Club. This is the largest suitable venue for us in and close to Newport. (We have looked!)

We expect members to be active members

There’s nothing very passive about a good Probus club. Our club’s motto is “Friendship, Fellowship and Fun”. It’s almost impossible to achieve these 3 Fs if you are not an ACTIVE member of the club.

You are much more likely to be invited to join our club if you indicate your willingness to take a very active role in the club. That means a lot more than just attending monthly general meetings.

Newport Probus Club provides lots of regular activities and a variety of trips and excursions. Just check elsewhere on our Web site. Active members join in by

• Participating in regularly scheduled activities

• Coming on trips and excursions

• Helping to organise activities, trips and excursions

• Volunteering to help with room setup for our meetings and with morning tea and/or post-meeting sausage sizzles

• Agreeing to serve on committee.

​

OK. So you’d like an invitation to join

Great! The first step is to contact us and ask. That’s easy. Just send an email to info@newportprobus.com or membership@newportprobus.com   Make sure you include your contact details.

 

We will send you an Expression of Interest form. Please fill it in and return it.

 

You’ll see immediately that we ask you about your willingness to be an ACTIVE member and the ways in which you are most comfortable doing this. That information is important to us.

 

What happens next

When any membership vacancies occur, our committee considers all lodged Expression of Interest forms. These are considered in the order of date of receipt, but are also graded by committee according to the documented willingness of applicants to become active members. From that vetting process, committee will decide which applicants are to be given invitations to join our club.

 

Those applicants will then receive a notification of that decision and an application form, one per person.

 

When you receive an invitation to join

 

Please complete and return your application form ASAP.

 

You will NOT have to pay any fees until your application is accepted.

 

Once these steps are completed, you will be welcome at a monthly meeting and formally welcomed into the Newport Probus Club. Then the three Fs can proceed along their merry way.

​