June 2021 Alt Newsletter
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GUISBOROUGH U3A NEWSLETTER – JUNE 2021 University of the Third Age Registered Charity No. 1125829 Hello everyone, this is your thirteenth Alternative Newsletter from the Committee, to keep in touch with you while the government eases restrictions. Chairman’s Blog June 21 Hello again – after a long hard winter that seemed never ending, do we finally see summer on the horizon? Let’s hope so. Currently the covid road map indicates 21st June as the day when restrictions will be lifted, but this is by no means certain at the moment. We are therefore keeping a close eye on things, and trying to plan for this uncertainty. Some Sunnyfield House activities have started under procedures established last year, and bookings at other venues have been made. However, starting at these venues relies on all restrictions being lifted on 21st June. It will then be up to each individual, and each group leader, to decide when they are comfortable to restart activities. An additional difficulty is that some room hire rates have been increased significantly and, whilst we hope that these prove to be temporary, we will need to increase those session fees thus affected to between £1.50 - £2.00. This is to protect our finances, given that all our members will have received a free year, either last year or this. Moving on, next month’s newsletter will be the last in this “Alternative” format. The plan is to revert back to the pre-covid arrangement of bi-monthly newsletters, the next one being September which is when many of our groups have expressed a wish to restart. However, we are still urgently looking for a volunteer to take over the newsletter from Pam who, along with other committee members, will help initially with advice and help in its compilation and distribution. If you are interested, please get in touch with anyone on the committee, and we would be happy to discuss it further. The newsletter has been a great way of keeping people in touch, particularly through these difficult times, and to lose it now would be very sad. John If you’d like to raise any points for consideration by the Committee, please send them to the Secretary. If you’ve not tried these activities yet, it’s not too late to start. The Group Coordinators would be pleased to hear from you. You don’t have to be a Group member to try your hand at Flower Arranging, Creative Writing/Poetry, or Tai Chi. No previous experience is necessary, and there’s no commitment to continue if you find you’ve too many other things to do when we get back to ‘normal’. Flower Arranging Group . The Group’s theme for May is “Roses”. Please consider joining us (without commitment to joining the group longer term). Not least, we really enjoy seeing each other on the screen and having a chat. The next Zoom meeting is at 2pm on 8th June. Please contact Pat for advice or to let her know what you’re doing. And Pam can easily arrange a practice Zoom session in advance, if you wish. The Photography Group is very active (not face to face) with members taking photos at home and increasingly further afield or drawing on their archives. In June the theme was ‘Water’, with an amazing array of interpretations including raindrops, reflections, a spider’s web, waterfalls, boats, wildlife and much more. Some of the photos are at the end of this Newsletter for you to enjoy. Please contact Margaret if you’d like to get involved. If you don’t wish to join the Group at the moment and would like to share a special photo(s), please send them to your Dep. Sub. Ed. for the next Newsletter. In addition: Some of the walking groups are active, within government, Ramblers Association and Third Age Trust guidance. Other active groups are: Ancient Greek, Latin for Fun, Res Classicae, Science and Middle Eastern Dancing. Most of the other Group Coordinators are planning to restart in either June or September. So it’s very optimistic! And please see Tai Chi and Creative Writing/Poetry below. Summer Update on GU3A Tai Chi Group We practice both Tai Chi and QiGong. Tai Chi is a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation used for the purposes of health. It is rooted in the martial arts. Each Tai Chi Form constitutes a set sequence of movement. Qigong is a much more ancient practice rooted in traditional Chinese Medicine. It is traditionally viewed by the Chinese and throughout Asia as a practice to cultivate and balance Qi (pronounced approximately as "chi"), translated as "life energy". In our group we, normally, only practice 2 Tai Chi Forms: Yang style 24 and Yang style 10. For our Zoom sessions we only practice the 10 Form because of space issues. Fortunately, for those members who have only attended our Zoom sessions all of the moves in the 10 Form are in the 24 Form. Qigong is much easier to follow as it does not involve sequenced sets. We practice Health Qigong and Shibashi Qigong. Guisborough U3a Tai Chi Group has had Zoom sessions throughout lockdown and is now transitioning back to practicing in Bow Street Parish Hall, Tuesdays 3-4pm starting in late September (all being well). Until then from the beginning of June onwards we will be reducing our Zoom Tai Chi Session to once a week on Mondays at our usual time of 11:30am. We are pleased to announce that GU3A has obtained kind permission from the Friends of Gisborough Priory Project to practice our Tai Chi sessions in the Gisborough Priory Grounds throughout the summer of 2021. Our activity is Covid and weather permitting. As the Covid restrictions stand we will require participants to self-assess that they do not have any Covid symptoms and pre-register with us, providing a means of track and trace. Current Covid rules allow up to 30 people to attend outdoor exercise. Those who have joined us in previous years at Gisborough Priory will know how their practice experience has been enhanced by the beautiful, spiritual and calm environment there. We look forward to practicing Tai Chi in the beautiful grounds of the Priory and after more than a year of virtual group sessions we look forward to live sessions and seeing everyone face to face again. Here is hoping for the sun to shine. Dorothy and John. Creative Writing/Poetry Groups . John Simmonds invites contributions on the following. Entries may be in handwriting or typed in the style you prefer or your Dep. Sub. Ed. could collect and deliver as part of her daily exercise route. Gandhi once said : “Every thing around me is changing yet there is underlying change a living power that is changeless. In the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists and in the midst of darkness light.” Have you an experience or story that highlights his comments.? Gandi's quote resonates with me universal-integrated- as I eat toast and drink tea support-system today, 24th of May, which we listening to so often Start The Week threaten when they speak thoughtlessly of climate change, selfishly of glaciers economically gradually politically disappearing for we from our world are ignorant exposing of how micro-ecosystems and why existing beneath most things, each river of ice not man-made, and having a role of which we belong as yet know and work nothing, together in our planet's productively, supportively, intuitively. J.S. 25/5/21 BOULES We are delighted that Boules can re-start at Saltburn Bowls Club on Thursdays 10-11.30. Karin Slade and Howard Leake of SDU3A have agreed to be joint Group Leaders. All players on Thursdays will be members of either GU3A or SDU3A – we shall have Membership Renewal Forms available for those who need them at the first session. The fee per session is £2. The first session will be early in June (date to be confirmed). Let’s hope the sun continues to shine and we have a great start to the new season. Peter SITUATIONS VACANT: Please get in touch to find out more. Boules Coordinator: Boules is huge fun, with plenty of leg pull and played in a lovely warm sunny spot at Salturn, next to the Bowling Green. After many years as Coordinator, Peter is standing aside, though still intending to play and happy to advise the new Coordinator. Excursions Team: Two or three Members (or more?) are invited to join Edna as members of the Excursions Team. Everyone knows what super excursions have taken place in the past, taking us all over the region and how much pleasure and enjoyment they’ve brought to so many. Everyone is looking forward to them beginning again, so please join Edna in planning and arranging future events. Needlecraft Projects Coordinator: The current Needlework Group is a ‘self-help’ group and has been very successful for many years, but its success meant it had been full for a long time. When it restarts there will be some vacancies, so please get in touch with the Coordinator if you’d like to join. In discussion with the Coordinator it was agreed there was scope for a second ‘Projects’ based group, because Needlework is such a popular and creative activity. Perhaps you feel you could start a “projects” based Needlecraft Group? If so, we’d love to hear from you. Newsletter Editor: Historically, the Newsletter has been produced every 2 months, comprising mainly reports and photos contributed by the activity groups, along with committee news and information about future events.