First up I would like to thank Colleen for doing the notes for me over the last couple of months.

President Jennifer Purdie opened the meeting and welcomed everyone.

Birthday wishes from all the members were extended to Jennifer Purdie, Judy Ellis, Lyn Simmonds, Gwen Pierce and Anne Walker.

After all business was dealt with President Jennifer warmly welcomed our guest speaker, Monica Wren, to the meeting.

Monica and her husband Ken grew up in Forbes before leaving to live in Canberra. Monica is the daughter of Margaret Girot while Ken's mother Janice has also returned to live in Forbes.

In 2012 they purchased Carrawobitty Homestead, on the banks of Carrawobitty Creek, 13km's from Forbes on the Bedgerabong Road, and set about lovingly continuing the restoration work of the two prior owners.

The current Carrawobitty Homestead was built in 1926 and has quite a history. A portion of the land was resumed to be used as Soldier Settlement blocks after World War 11. The Homestead block was used by the Child Welfare Department. In 1951 the Catholic Church bought the property and developed it into a home for the aged before selling it in 1969.

The property is now a beautiful Rural Retreat, which has hosted cheese making classes, writing retreats, theme nights, business conferences, work and family get togethers, morning and afternoon teas. For all the above and much more, Monica and Ken are the people to see.

The next meeting will be our Christmas meeting at the RSL at 10.00am on Friday, November 22. Everyone is asked to please bring a small wrapped gift to the value of around $5.

Hostesses for the morning will be Elvie Quirk and Ilma Davis.

Men's: President Ian Thomas welcomed 45 members to the meeting of the Forbes Men's Probus Club on Friday 25th October. After our normal business meeting and morning tea, the guest speaker Kurt Drewes was introduced by Don Rath who explained that Kurt is the Project Manager for Vast Solar at Jemalong Station, west of Forbes.

The members listened intently as Kurt described the operation of the Vast Solar Plant, which is a huge area of mirrors arranged so that they reflect the sun's rays to the top of a tower heating molten sodium, which in turn heats water into steam, then drives a turbine to produce energy. He also informed us that this was a very efficient and inexpensive form of energy production, and indicated that Vast Solar are looking to construct other solar plants in Queensland in the near future. Kurt is passionate about his work and this showed throughout his presentation. He very ably answered the many questions that followed his talk.

The next meeting will be held on Friday 22nd November when the speaker will be Michael Cleary when he will talk about his work with Youth Organisations.