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Probus clubs were first formed in the 1920s in
Saskatchewan, Canada and New Haven,Connecticut,USA. The Canadian
club was designed for business people with the PRO standing for
"For" and BUS for business.
The American Club was
devoted to helping people with learning and mental difficulties.
Because they were not restricted to retired individuals, they
are not associated with the mainstream worldwide Probus
Organisation.
Canada now has over 250 clubs with a central website for clubs.
UK
The name was first used for a Club in 1966. The first non-sectarian Probus club was formed by the Rotary Club
of Caterham to allow individuals to continue to meet after
retirement .The previous year the Rotary Club of Welwyn Garden
City formed the "Campus Club" that had the same purpose. The
Rotary Organisation supported the Probus clubs which expanded
rapidly in the following twenty odd years.But the
membership of Rotary clubs started to fall and the Organisation
decided that Rotarians no longer had to leave on reaching
retirement age. This had an adverse effect on Probus membership
although some clubs have members who are in both Rotary and
Probus.While Rotary has a central organisation, the broken link
to Probus meant that the latter had no central system with clubs
operating individually setting their own programme and
constitution. This tended in some cases result in clubs
"competing" with each other for membership.
The nearest to a central organisation was through the Probus
Magazine- which illustrated the activities of Probus Clubs. The
magazine was free to clubs who just paid for postage & packing.
Advertising helped to pay the running costs. However Advertisers
were less interested in the magazine post Covid with a number of
Clubs amalgamating or closing. It appears that the magazine will
probably not be resurrected despite a number of clubs saying
that they would be prepared to contribute through a
subscription. |
