Harborne and Edgbaston University of the Third Age (U3A) Newsletter, October 2020 Dear Members, Good Day to You All
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Harborne and Edgbaston University of the Third Age (U3A) Newsletter, October 2020 Dear Members, good day to you all. Since I last wrote to you in Midsummer a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. At that time there was a possibility and it was only that, that we might be able to start face-to-face meetings again in the autumn. For a variety of reasons, including what has happened with COVID-19 and guidelines we have to follow this has not proved practicable. The committee has kept the situation under review and did so again at our Zoom meeting on September 25th. We think it highly unlikely that we will be able to resume face-to-face meetings before April next year or perhaps even later. But, as we know, things can change rather rapidly with this particular pandemic and the committee will meet again in early January and at appropriate intervals, to review the situation to see whether an earlier start is possible. The committee is impressed by the way in which a number of our interest groups have found ways of continuing some or all of our activities and where this is not possible members have kept in touch with one another by a variety of means. Friendships forged through U3A have been maintained and much appreciated. We recently asked interest group coordinators to help us find out what they and their group members felt about resuming normal meetings. The general response was “Not now, wait until it’s safe to do so“. Thank you to all of you, coordinators and members who responded to our request. Since March many of you have become familiar with Zoom. The U3A will shortly be opening a Zoom Business Account which will allow up to 300 members at a time to participate in meetings. From November we will be using Zoom to host monthly general meetings, including a Speaker. It’s very simple to use if you have a computer, tablet or smartphone. Simply open the email we will send you and click on the Zoom link. Alternatively, you can use a standard landline to dial in (charges will apply) and listen, participating by sound only. We therefore intend to use Zoom to: a. Hold monthly general meetings virtually, the first one on 4th November 2020. b. Enable interest groups who want to use it to hold their meetings online ‘face to face’. c. As a vehicle for our Annual General Meeting (AGM) which will take place on Wednesday 2nd December 2020 at 2pm. Annual General Meeting to be held remotely (using Zoom) on Wednesday 2nd December at 2 pm: We have followed the advice of the Third Age Trust and the Charity Commision on holding AGMs during the present pandemic. A formal notice of the meeting, requests for resolutions from members, items for the agenda & for nominations to fill vacant committee posts (with deadlines for submission) will be sent out shortly. Participation in the AGM can be via Zoom on the day; voting on resolutions, nominations etc can be by email, phone, text or post. More detailed information on this will be sent out in due course. There are four vacancies on the committee this year. They are for Chairman, Vice Chairman, Treasurer, Business Secretary and Social Secretary. You will remember that I have repeatedly sought to encourage people who would be interested in committee posts to come forward during general meetings last year. Without the officers of the committee, the U3A would cease to function. Accordingly we are fortunate to have three people who have volunteered to stand for the posts of Chairman, Treasurer and Business Secretary. No one has yet put themselves forward for the posts of Vice Chairman or Social Secretary. The job descriptions for all of the vacancies are available on the Harborne and Edgbaston U3A 1 Website. Do think about putting yourself, or a member you know, forward to fill these vacancies. Membership Fee Discount: At last year’s AGM members agreed that the Membership Fee for the coming year (2020-2021) would be £30 and constitutionally we can not alter that. The committee has thought long and hard about this and has estimated the possible expenditures we will face if we could get going again in the first part of the new year. We have considered various scenarios, for example how various levels of increase in accommodation costs, which represent 80% of our outgoings and the effect of changes in membership numbers. We have had to take into account several imponderables and form the best judgment we can based on the available information. Among these are: a. Competing and changing views on how Covid 19 will behave and what are or might be appropriate responses to whatever it does or does not do. b. The likelihood of substantial rises in room hire fees as the result of the organisations from whom we hire accommodation (mostly charities) seeking to recoup some of COVID losses and to cover the cost of extra health and safety and safeguarding procedures. c. Possible fluctuations in membership as the result of natural wastage, some shielding and others not wishing to return to active participation until they feel safe to do so. d. COVID restrictions which may mean hiring larger, more expensive accommodation than we currently use. e. The extent to which interest groups and members are willing to comply with any COVID health and safety, safeguarding regulations or insurance requirements that we or those who hire rooms to us, may require. For example at least one of the charities from which we hire rooms will insist, amongst other things, that interest groups clean the room before the meeting and do so on its conclusion. We hope to be up and running by early summer next year all things being equal. But who knows? Earlier would be even better, if in our view unlikely! Bearing all these uncertainties in mind the committee has decided to offer a discount of £5.00 on the agreed membership fee (£30) for next year, that is the fee requested will be £25.00, with the caveat that if expenditure exceeds expectations a Special General Meeting will be necessary to approve an appropriate increase in the annual fee for the following year 2021-2022. So in summary; No one knows what the immediate future will hold. The committee believes that the proposals and the assumptions it has made are prudent and will keep them under review. Do remember that this is a membership organisation, you will have the opportunity to comment and ask questions at the AGM (or at any time by email to the committee, using the website or gmail account). I do hope as many of you as possible will participate in that meeting by one or other of the means available. Meanwhile, I hope that for all of us the winter is not going to be as difficult as some pundits are suggesting. As a membership organisation we might well consider a version of President Kennedy’s request, ‘ask not what the U3A can do for you but what you can do for it’, and particularly for those members who are isolated, lonely, incapacitated or shielding if they would welcome support. With best wishes & keep safe, John Hilbourne, Chairman and John Worwood, Vice Chairman 2.