The Probus Club of St Annes-on-the-Sea

year 2019 - 2020

 

life members

past presidents

 

Inaugural Address by President
John Regan
at the Annual General Meeting,  31 March 2019



Dear PROBUS friends, before I proceed, please join me in thanking Elfyn for his leadership over the last year, thank you Elfyn.  

Back in 1965, after my first grilling and inspection by the family of my then fiancée, Joyce, I was puzzled to learn later, that her Grandmother had said to the assembled family after my departure “Well, according to Cocker, we will be seeing a lot more of that lad”.    Who was Cocker?    He was, as I later discovered, Sir William Cocker, OBE, none other than our own third President in the 1970s, and a much respected and admired figure in East Lancashire such that the phrase “according to Cocker” has become engrained in East Lancashire dialect.

Following a long line of Presidents since then, I am therefore deeply honoured and humbled to have been elected as your President for the coming year and I will do my utmost to maintain and attempt to improve our standing as a large and thriving fraternity of friends in our PROBUS world.  To achieve this, I, and your Committee, require your full support and assistance as and when necessary and I would say to you all, we will only succeed if our output is matched by your own individual input. 

Our Club has been blessed with a sterling, long-serving committee and I am delighted and, frankly, much relieved to note that there has been minimal change to it this year.   PROBUS is our club but if there is anything that you consider would improve it, with particular regard to recruitment, please speak to me or any member of the committee, thank you.

John Regan