New Group News
Group coordinator’s report – September 2011
It’s almost time for Open Day, when all the groups set up their stalls and it’s possible to see, in one room on one day, what U3A is doing throughout the year. It’s also a big push time for new members, new leaders, and new groups. There’s been some frustration because several groups are full and people on waiting lists wait a long time.
Long waiting lists are not a problem, as we can form a new group, but we have to know it exists, so please let us know if the waiting list is long enough for that. Short waiting lists are more difficult. We need to attract new people, existing members and new ones, to get the numbers high enough to get new groups to absorb all those people patiently waiting.
The suggested brand new topics for groups are Aqua-Aerobics, Creative Writing, and Film-Making. If you have more ideas, now is the time to say so, especially if you can lead, or help to lead a group.
Possible new groups
There are three possible new groups coming. They are all at the name gathering stage so it will take time to find out who’s interested, arrange a meeting, venue, and so on, and get them started. The first step is to let us know that you’re interested, so please get in touch if you’d like to take part in any of these.
Aqua Aerobics
This is excellent exercise for anyone, and particularly for people who are less supple than they used to be. There has been an enthusiastic response from a few people, but the trouble is that it needs to be a large group before it can get started. We have to hire a pool and a fully qualified instructor, both of which will be expensive. But out of nearly 700 members there may be enough to make it a reasonable cost.
Film-making
There are several members who already make films and would like to get together and experiment. This could be travel films, or short plays, or something else, according to what members want. It’s worth exploring to see if different interests can be in one group, or maybe more than one group can be formed. We don’t know until people come forward, so please get in touch if you enjoy making films.
Creative writing
A lot of people start writing in retirement. It’s a fulfilling way of bringing out your ideas, memories, stories, dramas, poems, or anything at all. But it can be a lonely occupation, and it’s good to share your efforts. It doesn’t take many people, it can be in a sitting room, and it doesn’t absolutely have to have a tutor. It could start quite soon with a small number of people, if we know who they are.
Appeal for email addresses
If you haven’t got an email and you don’t want one, that’s absolutely fine. But lots of people have, but don’t realise U3A wants to know. A quick ask-around showed that 80% had email, but only half of these had told us. If that’s typical, it means there are between 200 and 300 unknown emails out there. If we knew them, it would save a huge amount of work, and stamps, and paper, and do that tiny little bit to save the planet.
So please, if you have email, send me one, so I can add your address to the list.
Caroline Bagshaw (41384)
01386 41384 or 422071
Caroline Bagshaw