BARNSLEY AND DISTRICT u3a Internet: Barnsley U3A / Charity no. 1077654 Send info. and photos to: [email protected] 1 Let me jump straight to two pieces of headline news for all members. First: the front cover photograph of me (Derek’s decision to put it there, not mine) receiving on behalf of all 1,171 Bu3a members, Barnsley Council’s Age-Friendly Award trophy which recognizes the unflagging effort made by our Committee, Coordinators and Members to make our Barnsley group so vibrant and successful. Second: The subscription renewal cost for all existing Bu3a members will be reduced for 2021 from £12 to £3. This is our way of thanking you for your loyalty and in recognition of the fact that those who stayed with us as the pandemic took hold have largely missed the opportunity to join in with our normal activities. It also recognises that 2021 is the 25th Anniversary of Barnsley u3a and we want all members to celebrate this milestone with us; reducing the renewal fee for this year is a way of doing this. We are financially strong and this one-off reduction will be met from our reserves. Our financial accounts are printed in every Summer Buzz, as you know. For the sake of certainty, let me explain that the £3 is for one year only and does not affect the normal subscription level which will be charged to any new members who join us during the coming twelve months. We did consider offering free renewal to existing members but the Committee view was that, bearing in mind the ongoing costs of the national subscription and our Buzz printing and posting, we need to ensure that members are positively prepared to give a commitment to stick with us. This small £3 fee gives us certainty in this regard. The subscription renewal process, which commences as normal in early April, is set out by our Membership Secretary, John MacKinnon, on the inside back cover of this Buzz. I mentioned in the Winter Buzz that, in the very difficult and seemingly endless times of the pandemic and ensuing closedown of our group activities, the challenge for us would be to keep our members onboard with us. As you know, in addition to ensuring that everyone gets their Buzz, we have put a lot of effort into using video technology. Our aim has been to create as many opportunities as possible for everyone to get involved with their friends and colleagues within our Activity groups. Our biggest single venture has been to create the ‘Presentation Hour’ Group which now has over 260 members and, together with the Monthly Meeting, meets on three Monday afternoons per month. We recognise that whatever we set up using video technology is only a substitute for face-to-face meetings. Meeting and socialising with fellow members in the flesh is what we are about. This is what we are missing. However, I don’t, for one minute, underestimate the value that we witness with Zoom and the other video options we are using and I am sure that we will continue to make use of this technology as we come out of lockdown. At this stage I need to propose a massive vote of thanks to Vanda Outram who has taken on the Zoom mantle lead so brilliantly. Thanks to her endless energy and commitment, we can now see the ever-growing number of members getting involved with the video technology. As a small tribute to Vanda, we have her photo on our front cover of this edition of the Buzz. As we approach the month of June, we have to prepare for our Annual General Meeting (AGM). At this stage it looks increasingly unlikely that we will be able to run the meeting at our normal venue of Priory Campus and so we are preparing to meet on Zoom again as we did successfully in the Autumn of 2020. Whilst all the necessary papers will be set out in the June (Summer) edition of the Buzz, we are required by our Constitution to set out the official notice some weeks prior to the actual date of the meeting. With this in mind, the formal notice is shown on page 21. Lastly, and very importantly, you will see an advert, also on the inside back cover of this Buzz, seeking a member or a small team of members, to step forward to take over the management and editorship of our fantastic Buzz newsletter. If everything goes according to plan, Derek will take over the Chairmanship of Bu3a in June 2022 and will have to relinquish his role on The Buzz. This gives 16 months for us to ease a new member or members into the role. Anyone interested will get the chance of watching, supporting and helping Derek prepare a number of Buzzes. Please let us hear from you if you want to know more and would like to discuss this brilliant opportunity. Let’s all hope that the vaccine has the effect that we desire and we can then meet up again very soon. Keep safe and well. Alan Swann 2 Vice-Chairman and Buzz Editor: Derek Bacon Welcome to the Spring 2021 ‘Buzz’. I hope that you enjoy it. For this edition of The Buzz I have decided to dispense with the usual Page 3 Contents Column as I am not convinced that it is needed; with a compact magazine, it does not take long to flick through the pages to re-find an article or advertisement that we want to re-visit. If I am deluged with complaints … in its place I am able to say a little bit more about some of the material that has come in to make the magazine. My real gratitude goes to those who make such an effort to support The Buzz and get their writing, photos, pictures and jokes to me. The first dozen or so pages of this Buzz are dedicated to what I believe to be good evidence of an impressive response by us to the second and third Coronavirus lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. Alan’s ‘Message’ comments rightly on the unflagging effort, enthusiasm and commitment of Vanda Outram over the past months to master the management of Zoom and of our web pages. It has become a ‘labour of love’ for her, I suspect, and with great support from Trudy Atkinson, a vast amount of personal contact among Bu3a members has been maintained. Alan has also mentioned in his ‘Message’ the ‘Presentation Hour’ and our ‘Monthly Meetings’. I am pleased to offer a brief report, just one page each, on a whole range of online Zoom meetings that have added an impressive yet unimagined-a-year-ago dimension to our brilliant organisation. If YOU haven’t signed up to Zoom, I think that perhaps you should because it has been a revelation to me and possibly to most of us - AND it is NOT complicated. The front cover shows Vanda Outram with the Zoom logo that she must almost own by now, Alan Swann receiving the Barnsley Age-Friendly Award, a clip of a Choir Zoom meeting and a shot of our Zoom Christmas Pantomime. The back cover speaks for itself; beautiful art from Anne Smith of ‘Brushstrokes’. The arrival of Gloria King’s ‘French Conversation’ article (p 22) about a Bu3a trip she took to France in 2011 amused and delighted me; I was even contemplating putting a photo of Burnley Miners’ Club on the front cover! But then, in a serendipitous way, we found the 2011 Buzz article about that same trip and the follow-up opera synopsis written about it! I think it makes for a great double-page read. Alan Swann’s Advice Page (p 34)is leading to hundreds of requests from you for more individual, personal advice. I have since discovered that Alan actually gets one of his servants to write his Advice Column! That news came as a shock! Additionally, another u3a has spotted this Advice Page and is now including it in THEIR newsletter under another name! This is TRUE! A court case is pending. This is NOT TRUE! Are you baffled? Good! I commend to you all the articles sent in; Roy Judge’s ‘Searching for the Stars’ story (p28) was the first piece to arrive for this Buzz almost three months ago and it is a good one, Also read about special concrete, horse racing, forgotten trousers, our new (and only?) member with an MBE, and much, much more. To improve our intellect, I have included Japanese Haiku poetry from David Lambert (p32); his introduction needs a few more hours study by me but you lot’ll get it straightaway, no doubt. Geoff Pike’s challenging poetry (p40) needs a bit of work, too, but the streaker should help keep you on the page! Lots of artwork arrived, too, and to those whose submissions of all kinds are not included, my sincere apologies. Everything is saved for later editions. Beneath Membership Secretary John MacKinnon’s Membership Renewal Notice on the inside back cover, there is a request for someone or for a team of people to replace me as Buzz Editor in June 2022. I am not resigning from the job, far from it, and do not really want to relinquish The Buzz because I enjoy doing it, but Alan has to stand down after 11 outstanding years of service as our Chairman (it’s a 2 year job!). As things stand, I, as Vice Chairman, will be replacing him next year.