Hickling Broad U3A Newsletter December 2017-February 2018
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Hickling Broad U3A Newsletter December 2017-February 2018 November Meeting: Great Ormond Street We had a bit of an ‘upside down” meeting this month - our speaker got lost and didn’t get to us until just after 3.00, so we kicked off with a brief discussion of the Committee’s proposals for a Cluster Group of local U3As and and the proposal to change the term of office of some of the Committee. (Papers about this were included in last month’s newsletter.) There will be further discussion and a vote on these at the next meeting. Jane - in the absence of the Chairman - then entertained us with a quiz and we had an early tea. David Taylor finally got to tell us about The Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street. Founded in 1852, Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) opened with just 10 beds in one of the rooms in Dr Charles West’s house, and was the first hospital in the UK to offer dedicated inpatient care to children. Today GOSH is over 165 years old and is one of the world's leading children's hospitals. Every day, 618 seriously ill children arrive at GOSH from all over the UK and every day, 53 children undergo life-changing operations. The hospital offers residential accommodation for parents and siblings of very sick patients, so families are able to stay together through the trauma of major illness. The hospital has a school as well as a large play staff, so life is able to go on as normally as possible for patients and their families alike. Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity raises money to enable the hospital to provide world class care and to pioneer new treatments and cures for childhood illnesses. We learned a lot about the hospitals amazing history, medical breakthroughs and ongoing pioneering work to help more children from across the UK and the world. December 2017-February 2018 at a Glance: 1st December Backgammon 4th December Country Dancing 6th December Walking 6th December Bookworms 8th December Voices of Hickling 8th December Main Meeting in the Barn 11th December Pub Lunches and Gourmet Diggers 15th December Backgammon 18th December BLURR 22nd December Art 3rd January Walking 3rd January Bookworms 5th January Backgammon 11th January Let’s Discuss It 12th January Voices of Hickling 12th January Main Meeting in the Barn 15th January BLURR 17th January Pub Lunches 18th January British History 19th January Backgammon 22nd January Gourmet Diggers 26th January Art 2nd February Backgammon 5th February Country Dance 7th February Walking 7th February Bookworms 8th February Let’s Discuss It 9th February Voices of Hickling 9th February Main Meeting in the Barn Next Members’ Meeting in the Barn: 8th December at 2.00pm Rock and Roll Will Never Die! As a special Christmas treat, musician and entertainer Paul Adams will take us on a musical journey through the 1950s. This is a mixed audiovisual presentation with pictures, music and live singing: a perfect afternoon of fun and relaxation before the Christmas rush starts in earnest. HBU3A Committee Monthly Update We would like to thank everyone for attending our November meeting when David Taylor came to tell us about Great Ormond Street Hospital, its history and its current day work. We would like to thank everyone for their patience when our speaker was late arriving. It means a lot to us that you were so supportive and good humoured about this slight hitch in proceedings! We also heard from the committee about some exciting new ideas for change at our U3A. These include the prospect of joining a cluster group with other U3A’s local to our own, and some minor changes to the constitution to give the committee more flexibility in how it runs. We are still in discussion with other local U3a’s about the possibility of forming a cluster group, and there are still several issues to consider, so rather than rush matters we will defer a members vote on this until the new year. However, your committee will be asking for your support to make some minor constitutional changes to committee terms of office by way of a confidential ballot at our December meeting. These changes extend the potential periods of office for non executive committee members and for our business and membership secretaries to a maximum of six years. We are a small U3A with a limited number of people who may wish to serve on the committee, so extending maximum service in this way will help to give us more flexibility for the future. We hope that you will want to support us with this proposal. If you are not able to attend the meeting and would like a postal vote, please contact Andy Fletcher via the Contact form on this site. As always we would like to say a special thank you to the tea ladies for doing such a sterling job at our meeting, all help with teas is gratefully received, just let any member of the committee know at the next meeting if you are happy to pitch in. We look forward to seeing you all at the December meeting when our talk will be “Rock and Roll Will Never Die” Please feel free to bring a small plate of seasonal nibbles to share during the afternoon if you wish. On January 12th we will be hearing all about The Fen Orchid from speaker Tim Pankhurst Tim is a well known botanist whose work has achieved international recognition. He is Conservation Manager for the East of England for Plantlife, a British conservation charity working nationally and internationally to save threatened wild flowers, plants and fungi. Plantlife was instrumental in the creation of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation and are a member of Planta Europa, a pan-European network of over 60 wild plant conservation organisations. Tim is widely respected as a UK expert on the Fen Orchid which is an endangered species native to this part of Norfolk and his presentation will give us all a unique insight into this rare and beautiful plant. The committee would like to wish you all the very best for the festive season and thank you once again for your support for Hickling Broad U3A. From the Interest Group Co-ordinator: A reminder to all Group Leaders that the next meeting will be held on Friday the 12th January at 4p.m. after the main meeting in the Barn If there are any issues you wish to discuss please let me know as I will be sending out an Agenda (and invitation for GL’s Lunch on 1st March) as soon as Christmas Festivities are over! CROQUET It would be great to get this Group going next year. However in order to do so I feel we need to have at least10-12 members who are interested by the end of January so that equipment can be sourced /venue set etc. It would be even better if someone felt they could lead the group. Please contact me if you are interested asap Julie Liggitt Interest Groups: Art 4th Friday (2.00pm-4.00pm) in the Methodist Hall The group enjoyed an early glass of Christmas cheer with some mulled wine and thank you Maureen for making some delicious mince pies. As the next Art Group falls between Christmas and New Year the group will meet up next on the fourth Friday in January 2018 when we will discuss a mini exhibition of our work at the AGM in May 2018. You're welcome to join us. Backgammon 1st and 3rd Fridays at the Pleasure Boat Inn (2.00pm-4.00pm) The next backgammon meetings will be on 1st December, 15th December, 5th January, 19th January and 2nd February in the Pleasure Boat pub. Boards are provided we welcome new members - instruction can be given. Come along and join us. BLURR – The Camera Group 3rd Monday each month at The Hickling Barn (2.00-4.00pm) Several members distributed photographs from newspapers and magazines that had caught their eye. Each explained what their attraction had been and they were circulated for general interest and comment. This was a new activity and it was agreed for it to continue. All the calendars have been sold and the sales together with donations total £276.00 for our chosen charity. ‘Engines’ were the subject for “Bring and Brag” and were represented in many forms. Steam engines, Fire engines, Foreign cars, dismantled engines and many more formed a large choice for our members. Andy’s steam engine was chosen as photo of the month and will be in the newsletter and U3A website. All members present then provided photographs for the selection process (pictured above). They were divided into themes ready for the displays. The next BLURR meeting will be on 18th December - Bring and Brag topic 3 Rivers Race (or yacht racing generally) - and our Christmas Buffet Andy Fletcher’s photo of The Cathedrals Express (The Flying Scotsman) at Kings Cross Station is our photo of the month. 'Bookworms' Reading Group 1st Wednesday each month (pm) On 1 November the group discussed Small Island by Andrea Levy. Set in London and Jamaica in 1948, Small Island reflects on the influx of Jamaicans into England looking for a better life after the war. Well written and in places very funny, the author has written in the Jamaican dialect giving life to the characters. The general opinion was good and we would be happy to read other books by Andrea Levy. On 6 December Bookworms are off to the Star in Lessingham for our Xmas lunch so will meet up again in January 2018 to discuss Agent Zig Zag by Ben Macintyre.