CHAIR, Mike Taylor welcomed everyone to our meeting at the Abbey Hotel on Monday, June 15.

Business matters were speedily concluded and our visiting speaker Ron Gallivan then began his talk entitled Southern Experience. Once again members were quickly enthralled by a fascinating history of the southern United States that gave us new insights into the events following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the origins and histories of the Creole and Cajun peoples, the colour codes and a brief mention of Voodoo!

This talk was an excellent example of the variety of subjects that are of interest to Malvern Probus members. Topics this year this year have ranged from Mountain Rescue to Social Housing, WW1 in East Africa to the Middle East in 2015. With 12 further meetings this year we plan to satisfy everyone’s taste so why not come along and join us? New members are always very welcome.

At our next meeting on the July 6 we are very pleased to welcome Dr Emma Philpott, co-founder of the Wyche Innovation Centre whose talk is entitled, Innovation in Malvern. Emma is Founder and Manager of the Malvern Cyber Security Cluster, a group of more than 50 small companies working in cyber security. Emma is also the CEO of the IASME Consortium, a company that promotes cyber security within small companies and assesses them against a standard. She was Assistant Director at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency's Structural Materials Centre in Farnborough UK, and then Business Group Manager of Aerospace Facilities at QinetiQ. This was followed by more than six years of working in both Singapore and Italy to assist small companies commercialise emerging technologies.

Our meetings are held in the Abbey Hotel. Tea and coffee is available from 10am and the meeting begins at 10.30am. For further information please e-mail the Programme Secretary, t.batesworc@btinternet.com

TONY BATES