The Christmas party, organized by the Master of Ceremonies John Beales and the Activities Committee, was the usual success and the Atrium put on an excellent dinner for us.

As part of the entertainment John persuaded Liz Gorski to come to the microphone and lead us in the carol singing; her beautiful voice encouraged the rest of us to do our best.

Several members brought to my attention an obituary which had appeared in the Globe And Mail that morning , which I also had noticed. It was a long obituary of John Reynolds Morris who, on a trip to Australia and new Zealand in 1981, was introduced to the Probus Club concept. He was an active member of the Rotary Club and in 1976-77 was Governor of Rotary District 79 covering South Central Ontario and part of New York State. He persuaded Rotary to sponsor Probus Clubs and the first one established in Canada was in Cambridge. We were – and still are – number 5. There are now 217 clubs in Canada with some 30,000 members.

John served as President and Executive Director of Probus Centre-Canada for eleven years to 1998 and afterwards remained on the Board with the title “Founder and President Emeritus”. An award was created in his honour to deserving members who create new Probus clubs in Canada.

Speaking of clubs, I have met with presidents of the Old Oakville and North Oakville clubs to exchange ideas, in particular of activities and speakers, and attended a meeting of the former at the Oakville Club. Both have much larger memberships than ours (but, contrary to what we had heard, with no waiting lists) and it is important that we start to catch up. We have an interesting schedule of speakers lined up and Robin Davison and his committee are working hard to organize an outstanding schedule of activities that should appeal to prospective members. If you know someone who might be interested invite him to a meeting to check us out.

I am pleased to report that Brian Taylor has agreed to take over from me as chair of the Speakers’ Committee. Paul Nelson, who handles our Web site, will be spending the winter down south but with conference calls etc will be able to continue doing so. He would, however, like to have a member to serve as an understudy that he could train to keep it up to date in case of an emergency. So if any member wants to learn how to navigate the Web here is your opportunity.

Gerry