Newsletter

From the Chairman

I recently attended a Group Leaders’ meeting organised by our Groups Co-ordinator, Jan Kidman. I found the meeting really inspiring, listening to the anecdotes of some 15 Group Leaders describing the highlights of their Group during the past months. The groups, represented on the day, ranged from brand new ones and/or ones that had started with complete novices, right through to ones that had progressed over the years to be very proficient at their speciality. What is really inspiring is that all of these Group Leaders give their (quite considerable) time to start, organise, and then develop their groups all for free, and for many of them, over a considerable number of years! These GLs are really the heart of our U3A and we should all be extremely grateful for the opportunities they create for all of us.

Remembering that we are a self-help organisation, it is essential that new volunteers come forward continually not only to start new groups to meet the expanding needs of our growing membership, but also to step up when current leaders need to step down for whatever reason. A case in point at the moment is the Theatre Group. The last Theatre visit has now taken place forever unless someone offers to take on the sterling work of Penny Wreford, who is stepping down after 13 years of booking coaches and plays for parties of 40+ members. Any volunteers? We’ve had 114 new members since the start of this subscription year; surely one of you enjoys the theatre enough……

One area of discussion at the GL meeting was the possibility of running a group on a joint basis. The example of the Walking Group could be used elsewhere, and that is to have one co-ordinator plus a different member then organising each different monthly walk. Maybe this could translate to other groups where no one person wants to take on or continue the whole role. It also spreads the interest and ethos of self-help across a wider number of members.

There has also been a Committee meeting this month. Because of the ongoing social legislation about such topics as Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, National Office are very keen for all individual U3As to have adequate policies in place to cover these topics and this has resulted in them being an ongoing discussion point at this year’s committee meetings. We have Data Protection and Safeguarding in place, and after approval at the last meeting, a new Data Retention Policy will appear shortly on our web-site. We have now started on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policies and hope all these will be in place over the next 6 months. Christmas approaches quickly as does our Christmas Showcase at the General meeting on December 18th. See you there to enjoy an afternoon of live entertainment from our members.

WELCOME! 
We are delighted to welcome a further 15 new members this month

Forthcoming meetings-

December 18th - Entertainment by members plus Art Group show

See the Events Diaryfor a more detailed list of meetings

Meetings held in the Ashcroft Centre, at 2.30 pm on the third Tuesday of the month unless otherwise stated.