Newsletter No. 70 - December 2022 & January 2023

THE NEXT GENERAL MEETING WILL BE HELD AT THE CHERRYBROOK COMMUNITY CENTRE AT 10.30AM ON WEDNESDAY 25th JANUARY.

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President's Report

President’s Report - January 2023

Happy New Year to everyone. I trust you all had an enjoyable Christmas with family and friends.

The activity groups are firing up with activities starting from the end of this month and next. The photography group is off to Taralga this weekend to take photos of their annual Rodeo. A chance to get down and dirty and enjoy the country atmosphere.

It is also the time of year we would like members to consider how they can contribute to the club in this next year. May I ask you to consider volunteering for positions or at least “shadow positions” on the management committee. We will have vacancies arising particularly for the invited speaker coordinator and activities coordinator.

If you do not wish to sit on the management committee this year, may I ask you to consider helping or becoming an activity leader. If you have an activity that you feel we should be pursuing as a club, please let a member of the committee know and we will sort out what can be done.

I look forward to a full year of enjoyable activities now that we are less restricted by Covid. A new year of fellowship, fun and friendship is upon us!

Bain Shenstone - President

Secretarial

Correspondence In

Email from Jo-Anne Berthelesen, author and speaker. Passed information onto Loretta.

Email received from PSPL advising an increase in Capitation Fees for the 23/24 Probus year by $1.75 i.e $15.00 - $16.75 per member. Online form will be sent later this month for completion.

Correspondence Out

None

Bev Dona

Details of the Probus Member Benefit Scheme are at: www.probussouthpacific.org/pages/members_offers_member_benefits_scheme
(click on link)

Treasurer's Report

TREASURER’S REPORT	For the Month ending 31 December 2022

GENERAL ACCOUNT
Opening cash balance	1 December 2022	$1,858.91
Interest		$0.02
Deposits	$0.00		Annual dues and joining fees received
		$0.00
Expenses	$0.00		PSPL Capitation fees
	$0.00		Website Fees
	$0.00		Speaker Costs
	$0.00		Hornsby Council venue hire
	$0.00		Morning teas
	$(222.18)		Transfers to / (from) Activity A/c
	$0.00		New member costs
		$(222.18)
Closing cash balance	31 December 2022	$1,636.75

ACTIVITIES ACCOUNT
Opening cash balance	1 December 2022	$7,489.68
Interest		$2.34
Deposits	$0.00		Orange
	$0.00		Taralga Rodeo
	$1,200.00		Christmas Lunch
	$0.00		Tina the Musical
	$400.00		Port Macquarie
	$0.00	$1,600.00	The Big Fish
Deposits to be identified		$0.00

Payments	$0.00		Orange
	$0.00		Taralga Rodeo
	$(5,515.82)		Christmas Lunch
	$0.00		Tina the Musical
	$0.00	$(5,515.82)	Port Macquarie

Closing cash balance	31 December 2022	$3,576.20

OPEN ACTIVITIES
Taralga Rode, Tina the Musical, Port Macquarie and the Big Fish are the open activities.


Open Activities		Balance
Orange		$0.00
Taralga Rodeo		$(1.80)
Christmas Lunch		$0.00
Tina the Musical		$20.00
Port Macquarie		$3,100.00
The Big Fish		$123.00

		$3,241.20
Add:
Interest received
Prior years		$37.75
This year to date		$31.94
Activities surplus		$265.31
To be fixed / transferred		$0.00
Bank balance		$3,576.20

TERM DEPOSIT
The Term Deposit was rolled over in July at a value of $5,158.91, and has earned $64.91 since, at 2.25% p.a.

INTEREST
For this year, $32.30 has been received as interest – General Account $0.36, Activities Account $31.94.

ACTIVITY SURPLUS
The Activity Surplus currently stands at $265.31 after adjusting for Orange & Xmas Lunch.



Michael Stinson
Treasurer	31 December 2022

Membership

Just a reminder of our Club policies for attendance at meetings and activities.

Members are expected to attend a minimum of 10 functions (meetings and/or activities) per Probus year (April to March).
Visitors may only attend a maximum of 3 functions (meetings and/or activities) per Probus year.

Jeff Swan – Membership Officer

Welfare

January 2023 Welfare Report

Happy New Year to you all and here’s to a safe, healthy, and fun filled new year with fun, friendship and fellowship continuing during 2023.

Firstly, I apologize to anyone I may have missed phoning or contacting during Nov/Dec. I have been unwell myself and haven’t been “on the ball” with these calls. Ken being my offsider has been looking after me and so the calls fell flat. Sorry.
I do hope everyone has started the year off healthy and ready for great times during 2023.

Maybe reach out to another member who is on their own or just needing companionship. Every little bit helps and making new friends is always a wonderful feeling for us all.

We are looking forward to many different activities this year with our wonderful leaders constantly looking for ways to keep us busy and entertained. If you have any ideas, please feel free to contact the leaders and pass your ideas on. I don’t know how they keep thinking up new experiences for us all. A huge thankyou to our leaders.

We need to remember to wear our badges at the meetings (I am very guilty of forgetting to do this) as it really helps the new members and it certainly helps us all. I have been there since the beginning and still don’t know a lot of names.

Until next time enjoy your holidays and stay safe.

Toni & Ken Smith

Toni Smith & Ken Smith – Welfare Officers

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January Guest Speaker - No Guest Speaker This Month

There will be no guest speaker this month, instead a presentation will be made on the various committee positions so that members can gain an understanding of what is involved with each position.

We will also be taking member photos to be incorporated into a "member photo" list which will be in the private section of the website. If you don't want your photo taken, please let Bain know (he will be the photographer).

Photos - November Meeting (none taken)

Birthday Celebrations

Happy Birthday
To all our members
Celebrating a birthday in December & January

December
Helen Beutler
Sue Calabrese
Joan Cram
Bob Davison
Chris Heaton
Lynne Henderson
Kaija Lam
Robin Palmer
Barbara Tyas
Alan Ward

January
Helen Baptiste
Jan Byrne
Wendy Carritt
Rosemary Clarke
Helen Clothier
Tony Coote
Sue Cordukes
Helen Donnelly
Flora Kortlepel
Kathy Lewis
Margaret McGowan
Cawas Sahukar
John Sanders
Manja Sheiles
Peter Stanton
Lorraine Sutton
Barry Wailes

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Club Covid 19 Policy

We have set down a Covid 19 policy for the club. Essentially we will abide by the NSW health guidelines. We ask all members to respect the health and wellbeing of their fellow members, and therefore not attend activities unless they are fully vaccinated. We have no desire to get into a situation where we need to physically check every attendee to determine their vaccination status. We are relying on the integrity of our members and the fact that they are endangering their friends if they do not abide by this policy.

Newsletter Copy Deadline

Please provide your contributions for the February Newsletter by Friday 17th January 2023.

Please email to Enio Dona for activities or direct to Andrew Little for other articles.

Alternatively place directly into Dropbox under WPHD Probus Activities / Activity Newsletter Contributions / Contributions – 2023 02

Activities List

To go to the Activities Calendar - click HERE!

Click on activity to go straight there!

The club is looking for activity leaders for Backup Leaders
Without a leader, we the members, do not have an activity. In addition, existing leaders are looking for backup in the case of holidays or sickness. This is very important as most of the leaders have now been doing their leadership for 5 years. Please consider making a contribution to the club by taking on a roll.

Currently Dining Out is being organized on a rotational basis for one month at a time. Please come and discuss with Enio about taking on this roll for any month in 2023.

The opportunity for Overseas travel is coming back. Anyone interested in planning and organizing the next trip for the club please contact Enio.

Xmas Lunch 2022

The last meeting for 2022 was held as a Xmas lunch at the Castle Hill Country Club, on Dec 21st with 80 members attending. There were few complaints about the food, and no complaints about the venue or the service. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

Many thanks to Bain for the wonderful photographs.

Enio Dona

Book Challenge

THROW COVID BEHIND US!

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

The THROW COVID challenge. Quite an explosion of reading has happened! Up to 61 books of the 69 of this challenge. ThroCo runs from March to the end of February ‘23. Hope you can join us in March for our next Challenge.

You can join at any time – just set your challenge from your starting point – how many do you read in a month times the number of months you are in the challenge PLUS 1 more. Read your own choice of book, post about it, and enjoy the rundowns of the other readers. If you wish to join but don’t do Facebook, send me an email and I’ll put it into the page on your behalf.
Since mid-November:

You Need to Know by Nicola Moriarty: a good read. Driving in convoy to their Christmas Eve holiday destination, a terrifying accident devastates the whole family - Jill, the mother, her 3 adult sons and their wives and children. Full of dark secrets and lies, dysfunction in the families, mistakes and betrayals.

Violetta by Isabel Allende: the Book Club read. Violetta was born in 1920 during the Spanish Flu pandemic and dies in 2020 which as we all know was the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Violetta is writing her story in a letter to her grandson. All her passionate and often heartbreaking affairs, her poverty to wealth journey, and life in South America with all the upheavals of the rise and fall of tyrants, the underworld, and her fight for women's rights. Felt like slapping her at times but overall a good read.

Sun Sister by Lucinda Riley: another massive read - over 26 hours. This sister tis he least likeable for most of the book - a spoilt selfish young woman with big problems with men, being used, drugs and alcohol addiction, life on the catwalk, discovering her African roots. Still not totally convinced she can be a good person though.

One Italian Summer by Pip Williams: an autobiography of Pip and Shannon's journey to Italy to live their dream of slowing down, growing their own food and spending more time together - they quit their jobs, take the kids out of school and travel to Italy to live on various farms, learning the old arts that require time and experience. Not bad.

Dublin Volume 4 by Maeve Binchy: A series of short stories that were mostly very intriguing and often left you not quite knowing the future of those in the different stories.

The Weekend by Charlotte Wood: Book Club read. Enjoyable read. A confronting as it deals with three women in their 70's, dealing with their own stage of life, reuniting at the recently passed friend's beach house, to clean up it up ready for sale. The late friend, Sylvie, was the cement that kept them together as friends. Things are quite frayed without her. All about growing old and some of it was very close to the bone, and of course there are secrets and intrigue.

Dr Finlay's Casebook by A.J. Cronin: Well, talk about a book of it's time - arrogant, sexist, racist and more. From the early 60's with all that would go in that time where men ruled and women obeyed, put up with DV, where abused kids could be just given to a couple with no children without any question from authorties - where a doctor can get back at a woman who didn't pay his fee by giving her a 'tonic' that sends her seriously to the loo!!! Not a book of this day and age for sure!

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex: based on a true event where 3 lighthouse keepers went missing mysteriously. Not a true account but a really good story. A journalist sets out to find the truth 20 odd years later and the resultant story from different angles of those left behind interspersed with the narrative of the 3 lighthouse keepers before they went missing was really terrific.

The Godmothers by Monica McInerney: Eliza grew up in Australia. Her probably manic depressive mother dies accidentally?? when she was young. The mothers two best friends are Eliza's godmothers and they support her through the rest of her schooling and into her young adulthood. When Eliza loses her job she joins her godmothers in England vowing to discover her mother's secrets, her actual father, and the truth of her mother's death. Quite a good read, but I'm really glad I didn't have a mother like that.

Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler: Weird and fascinating. Micah is a man on the spectrum who has made some success by forming his IT career: Tech Hermit. He of course has interesting and meticulous habits that keep his life in a sort of equilibrium. The story delves into how he sometimes finds he is 'outside' those around him, but it's also about what makes us all unique.

The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves: Number 10 in the Vera Stanhope series, also popular as a TV series. Vera goes about her unusual way of digging into the mysteries behind a murder. A 50 year reunion celebrating school friends and remembering one of them how was lost to the riding tide in the very early days. Then one of the friends is found hanged and Vera has to piece all the puzzle together to solve what could be murder both now and way back then.

How to Mend a Broken Heart by Rachael Johns: three women struggle with the problems of their lives. A chance meeting with a reclusive artist prompts them to reassess, learn from the past and embrace their future.

The Art of Keeping Secrets by Rachael Johns: a follow up to a previous book where best friends share everything – or so they thought. When the tight hold they have each kept on their secrets for years begins to slip, they must face the truth. Even if that truth has the power to hurt the ones they love, and each other.
Perhaps some secrets weren't made to be kept.

No Baggage by Clara Bensen: A couple meet through an online dating site. Though barely knowing each other they jump headfirst into a risky travel experiment – 8 countries in 3 weeks – no plans, no reservations, no baggage. How do you find the courage to explore beyond your comfort zone?

The Patterson Girls by Rachael Johns: a bit predictable but enjoyable. After their mother’s death, the three Patterson daughters return to Meadow Brook to be with their father. Deals with loss, fear, flight and insecurities. Going through their mother’s possessions shocking secrets and an old family curse make them question everything they thought they knew.
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley: the first book in the Seven Sisters series . It’s a great story but it is a commitment – very, looooong reads over 8 books. Reviewed previously.

The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison by Meredith Jaffé: a funny dark and moving novel about finding humanity, friendship and redemption. Reviewed previously.

The Good Teacher by Petronella McGovern: a bit creepy but becomes very gripping. Alison’s husband leaves her to go to a mysterious woman. He wants to sell their house, Alison is totally blown away by the whole thing and begins to stalk them. Then a man and his sick daughter join her kindergarten class. Little girl has cancer. They’ve moved from Victoria after the fires burnt their property and took his wife’s life. Alison, thegood teacher, and the whole community rally behind him to raise funds for the expensive treatment in America. However, all is not as it seems. Builds to a hectic pace via a lot of annoying ’adults should really know better’ moments.

Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel: Published pre-COVID in 2014, this is a very interesting book about Georgian Flu, that wipes out 95% of the world population - no electricity, running water, fuel or gas. The survivors have to become hunters and gatherers again. Very good read. Glad we didn't have to go that far.

The Island of Sea Women: by Lisa See: a very interesting and quite a detailed story about the women in Korea in the 1930's, who dive for seafood and sell it for a living. The book is rich in their myths and traditions and their lives were very challenging. Enjoyable. By Lisa See: a very interesting and quite a detailed story about the women in Korea in the 1930's, who dive for seafood and sell it for a living. The book is rich in their myths and traditions and their lives were very challenging. Enjoyable.

The Thursday Murder Club and The Man who Died Twice by Richard Osman - Interesting and well worth the read. Part of a very popular series, stemming from a group of people in a retirement village who solve murders. The characters come from a wide variety of careers including an MI5 agent. Reviewed in the past.

Back to the Country by Mandy Magro: A light read about a successful country singer in America who returns to Kuranda in QLD, her home town, after her father dies. She solves the mystery of her brother’s disappearance and falls in love with her bodyguard.

Leader: Sue Calabrese

Activity Group	Leaders
Book Challenge	Sue Calabrese
Book Club	Bev Davison
Cards	David Turner, Cathy Turner
Cycling	Tony Coote, Gerard Siddle
Day Trips (Bus/Train/Ferry)	Helen Games
Dining Out	Looking For Monthly Leaders
Domestic Travel	Max Henderson
Gardening	Sue Small, Lorenza Powyer
Golf	Terry Ridge
Investment Group	David Antonjuk
Mens Club	Rene Beutler
Mixed Social Group	Kim Nicholls, Janelle Maloney
Movies	Sue Small, Lorenza Powyer
Overseas Travel	Looking For Leader
Photography	Rob Clarke, Bain Shenstone
Ten Pin Bowling	Douglas Matthews
Tennis	Bob Davison
Theatre and Musicals	Bruce Bartle, Robyn Bartle
Walking Group	Enio Dona, Lynne Henderson
Wine & Cheese	Julie Shenstone, Susan Antonjuk

For an activity group to start, a member needs to step forward to lead the group

Newsletter

Newsletter No. 70 - December 2022 & January 2023THE NEXT GENERAL MEETING WILL BE HELD AT THE CHERRYBROOK COMMUNITY CENTRE AT 10.30AM ON WEDNESDAY 25th JANUARY.