Minutes of the meeting of Coleraine Probus Club
Held in Portstewart Golf Club on Tuesday 12th February 2013

Attendance: 42 members were present.
Apologies: Leslie Brennan, Arnold Carson, Alec Elliott, Jack Henderson, John Ludlow, Jim Nesbitt, Robin Semple, Tony Smyth (8)

Club President Graham Kane welcomed members and special guest Peter FitzGerald to the meeting. The President then introduced our speaker for the morning, Chris Wilson, who entertained the members for the next 45 minutes with a wide ranging talk and PowerPoint presentation, loosely based around the U.S. War Dead Cemetery in N.I. An attempt at a summary of the talk is available on the ‘Probus Speakers' page for readers interest. A vote of thanks was proposed by Bob McIvor and was passed on by the President. The members showed their appreciation.

Minutes: The minutes of the meeting on 5th February 2013 were read, agreed and signed.
Matters arising: None not covered by the agenda.
Correspondence: None

Social: Jim Gordon reported that the menu choices for next club lunch on Feb 26 had been distributed, for return next week. Jim went on to say that members may be wondering about progress on the proposed Probus Rally hosting. Unfortunately, there was nothing to report, as the committee were sort of 'becalmed' while still awaiting a response from the Council, despite several reminders. Without the Council support, it would not make sense to attempt to stage the event. Jim said that as soon as the committee had heard from the Council, he would report back to members.
Welfare: Cecil Spotten reported that Ernest Preece had been in the Coronary Unit at Coleraine, but thankfully was doing well.
Treasurer: Nigel Semple thanked Jim Hillis, as he had kindly donated the costs of printing the members contact cards back to club funds. Members showed their appreciation. Nigel also said that he was available at the end of the meeting for anyone else wishing to pay their subs.

A O B: 1: Ian Murray Asked members if they had found a Green 'Pringle' Jumper which had left at a previous meeting. Sorry, no one had.
2: Cecil Leitch, reflecting on the club's 25 years, thought that it was worth remembering that several of the founding members, like Leslie, Ronnie, Earnest, were still attending meetings.
3: Peter FitzGerald had thoughtfully provided the club with a magazine article on the importance of wearing the club 'pin' - copies of this are available from the Secretary.
4: The President, in taking up a remark from the Secretary about the improved quality of the sound system, said that the club was indebted to Ken Parkes for all the behind the scenes work, time and effort he put in to help the club. The members showed their appreciation in the normal manner.

NEXT SPEAKERS MEETING: Would be on 19th February, when the speaker would be Robin Mansfield, talking about Grey Point Fort.

The President thanked members for attending today and looked forward to seeing everyone next week.

Meeting closed at 12.07

SIGNED: Graham Kane
DATE: 19th February 2013