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Dear Friends
Welcome back to the start of our
2008/9 academic year. I hope you all enjoyed your summer break. The weather
for our “Garden Party” on 17th July was decidedly not summery, and we ended
up having the “Party” in the church hall. Nevertheless, from comments made it
appears to have been a great success, with a real buzz around the place as
members socialized whilst finding out about the activities of our various
interest groups. My thanks also to all who contributed, particularly Delia
Bingham and John Barrett for their co-ordination of the event, and to the
catering team of Jenny Boden, Hilary Luck and Carol Willson.
Nationally, the proposed
organizational changes (see May Newsletter) had a 90% approval rate from the
U3As at an EGM of the Third Age Trust in May. Swanland is now a member of the
Yorkshire and Humber Region, which comprises
34 U3As, two of which are located south of the river. A Trustee to represent
our Region on the NEC will be elected by the 34 U3As concerned at the AGM to
be held at Swansea
in September. The AGM will also consider two proposed resolutions, one of
which is to increase the Capitation Fee from £2.50 to £3.50. Your Committee
feels this increase is too steep and will vote against the resolution as it
currently stands. Whether an amendment is proposed before the AGM remains to
be seen, but it would seem likely that the Capitation Fee will increase from
its current level. Any such increase your Committee would hope to be able to
absorb without having to increase the membership fee.
There are now nearly 300 U3As
across the country with a total membership of over 207,000. The size of
individual U3As varies considerably from a handful of members on some of the
Scottish islands, to the largest, Sheffield,
with over 2000 members. This very success brings with it challenges, such as
how to cope with growing membership numbers. This was the topic at meetings
run by the Trust at various locations across the UK. I attended one such meeting
at York at the end of July in which 29 U3As were
represented from the North East, the North
West and the Scottish Borders. I will be
circulating notes of this meeting to Committee members for discussion at our
next meeting but the main messages
coming across were 1) plan ahead so decisions are not made in crisis and 2)
avoid, if at all possible, having to close membership to new members. In
common with ourselves, many of the U3As present reported concerns about
limitations in hall capacity for general meetings and, secondly, lacking
volunteers to lead groups or take on other positions of responsibility in the
organization. Plenty of ideas were generated, including having
backups/assistants for such posts as Membership Secretary and Treasurer, and
having teams of volunteers for various tasks, such as labelling and stuffing
envelopes. Hopefully when we call on members for support it will be
forthcoming. Despite discussions with various members no one has yet been
prepared to take on the role of our Vice-Chairman. In view of the timescale
between now and March 2009 we are now effectively looking for a Chairman
Elect. I obviously still have to speak to “the person” willing to take on the
role! Could that possibly be you? It would be great to have a volunteer.
Best wishes,
Alan
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