BARNSLEY AND DISTRICT U3A
Internet: Barnsley U3A / Charity no. 1077654
Send info. and photos to: [email protected] 1
Well, this is not the message that I expected to be writing for this Summer Buzz. It was going to be full of my enthusing over the arrangements for our part in the National U3A Day due to take place on 3rd June, but as we all know, the Coronavirus outbreak has put paid to all that and just about everything else U3A related for the time being at least. As I write this message, we have no idea when things might get back to normal and when some or all of our activities might be able to start up safely again. These decisions will have to be judged as the present restrictions are relaxed and, for insurance purposes, we will await advice from our National colleagues on our options.
In the meantime, I hope that all our members are coping with the social-distancing and potential isolation that the Government rules require of our age group. If there is any positive coming from all this, it has to be the way that many of our members and groups are rallying round and keeping the interaction going. Many have found new ways of talking to each other, either individually or in groups, with a good number now using the range of video conferencing options which most of us didn’t know existed before the close-down. I have been heartened by the examples shown of groups meeting regularly by video on ‘Zoom’, ‘Messenger’ and ‘WhatsApp’. For example, our Golf Group, of which I am a member, meets every Thursday morning for a coffee on the Messenger video app, where we talk the usual range of nonsense for around an hour or so. Additionally, the Executive Committee have held a number of ‘Zoom’ meetings and we have had similar meetings with members of our Coordinators Group. These work well and stand us in good stead to add the video option even after things return to normal.
I also recognise that many of you are keeping in touch by creating group Facebook sites or by email and telephone. In the latter case, we know that around 170 of our members do not have internet access and we have set about telephoning these members to offer them the opportunity to join with fellow members in small groups in order to keep in touch with each other. I am pleased that enough members wanted to join in with this initiative and we have been able to create five small groups who are hopefully benefiting from these additional contacts. Can I also say a special thanks to the dozen or so members who offered their time to ring around in order to get these arrangements off the ground. Your efforts are truly appreciated; another great example of our members’ willingness to step forward and offer to help out when needed.
Now let me talk about this edition of our brilliant Buzz magazine. I know that members really enjoy our newsletter with many, like me, keeping it on the coffee table for ease of reference whilst proudly displaying it for non-members to see. However, we know that our normal distribution arrangements will not be available at this time and so we have made the decision to post the Buzz to every member’s address held on our membership system. In the case of those of you who already pay for the postage this will be credited for future reference.
As you all know, it was due to be our Annual General Meeting on 1st June but that date has clearly not been an option to us for a little while. You will see that we have included all the relevant papers (pp 4/5) which members should keep available as we still intend to hold the AGM at the first opportunity at a future Monday meeting. If the lockdown looks likely to continue for a longer period, we may take the opportunity to run a ‘virtual’ AGM where we email or write to members to seek support for any resolutions and committee appointments. Watch this space on that one.
Lastly, as we have reached the cut-off date for membership renewal, let me welcome all members receiving this newsletter to another twelve months with BU3A. Your commitment to our organisation is much appreciated and I truly hope for a speedy return to our normal activities.
Take care everyone and stay safe and well.
Alan Swann 2
Buzz Editor and Vice-chairman: Derek Bacon CONTENTS
Thank you for all your contributions. Welcome to the P2 Chairman’s Message 2020 Summer Buzz. P3 Editor / Contents I hope that you P4-5 BU3A 24th AGM Agenda/Chairman’s 2019 Annual Report enjoy it. P6 BU3A 2019 Accounts P7 Development News / Marjorie Townend P8 Birdwatching P9 The Old Blowers My overriding passion in editing ‘The Buzz’ is P10 Naturequest / Classical Music and Opera to try to let us all ‘meet’ in print some of the outstanding people in Barnsley U3A. As P11 Table and Board Games always, I have included items where much P12 Flix @ 6 P13 The Buzz / Stitches time and care has been taken to entertain and P14 You Remember This? inform us. One member has written P15-18 New Members / Meet Our Musicians in Lockdown anonymously; ‘Celia’ is desperate for others P19 Creative Writing 2 to know and learn about alcohol addiction. P20 Staying Cheerful Amidst the Crisis
I immediately offer my apologies to those P21 Sue Walshaw / Wednesday Ramblers members whose submissions to ‘The Buzz’ P22-23 Who is this man, Sinatra? are not included for reasons of space; I always P24 Doderth Ramblings P25 My experiences with BU3A / Cycling feel guilty about this but please be reassured P26 The Knights of the Kettle that all material is saved for future editions. P27 Meet our Artists in Lockdown Alan has stated already the obvious problems P28-32 BU3A Activities / BBC Radio 4 ‘News Quiz’ snippets we have at present. ‘The Buzz’ exists to report P33 Tuesday Walkers / Robina Crabtree on our group activities and, clearly, I have P34 Thursday Longer Walks / Thursday Walkers received very little of that. I have included the P35 Book Forum 2 P36 Family History (Priory): Enigma five ‘Group Activities’ pages (pp 28-32) in the P37 In Pain, Insane and in Denial Again event of groups somehow managing to meet P38 Oh, to be in England / Theatre up over the next three months; I have not P39 BIADS included the ‘Venues’ page this time. P40 Humiliation / Rivers Quiz
Lots of people have sent in jokes and visual P41 My Olympics humour. The use of these is difficult at a time P42 Meet our Artists in Lockdown like this when friends and families can be P43 Reminiscing in Lockdown feeling stressed and unhappy but I have P44 Eleanor Ingram / Creative Writing 2 P45 Staying Cheerful Amidst the Crisis included some light-hearted items that I trust P46 Poetry page. Four BU3A poems will not offend. P47 Another fab Jo Kasparek Quiz The Summer ‘Buzz’ always has some pages of P48-51 2019 AGM Minutes annual reporting ‘business; I have placed them at the front and the back of the magazine.
Page 46 makes it clear to me that we need our DEADLINE FOR THE lapsed Poetry group to be re-formed; the four poems are just a sample of the many sent in.
The BIADS advert on P39 has been paid for AUTUMN ‘BUZZ’: anonymously by a BU3A member. It will TH appear in the next three editions; “It is a vital FRIDAY 14 AUGUST charity doing important work for Barnsley people”.
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BARNSLEY AND DISTRICT U3A
TWENTY FOURTH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING: 1ST JUNE 2020 AT PRIORY CAMPUS (POSTPONED)
Agenda:
1. Chairman’s Welcome and Introduction to the meeting 2. Minutes of Twenty-Third AGM 2nd June 2019 (PP 5 & 6) 3. Approval of Minutes and Matters Arising 4. Chairman’s Annual Report (below) 5. Treasurer’s Report (2019/20 Accounts P6) 6. Business Secretary’s Report 7. Social Secretary’s Report 8. Travel Secretary’s Report 9. Development Officer’s Report 10. Appointment of Tellers 11. Nominations and Election to Executive Committee 12. Appointment of Independent Examiners of Accounts 13. Coordinators’ Updates 14. Any Other Business
BARNSLEY AND DISTRICT U3A – ANNUAL REPORT TO 31ST MARCH 2020
Barnsley U3A has continued to grow significantly over the last twelve months. This comes against a background where national colleagues have explained their concerns about the reductions in growth in U3A member numbers across the UK. It is reported that a third of U3As have witnessed falls in numbers whereas in BU3A we have experienced a net growth rate of over 10% over the last twelve months. We listed over 1300 members on our books and around 130 activities on offer at the end of our membership year in March 2020. We believe that this continues to confirm that we are offering something valued by retired people in our area. As a National Officer said to me, “Barnsley U3A is bucking the national trend on membership growth”.
Whatever growth we achieve is down to local effort. In BU3A we believe that our destiny is in our own hands and whilst we appreciate whatever national prominence the Third Age Trust can achieve for the U3A movement, it is what we do within our own area that counts. This is why we are putting more energy into getting our name out there into the public arena. Our declared main aim is not to grow our U3A but to ensure that everyone knows who we are and what we do. With all this in mind, earlier in the year, we created a new ‘Publicity Officer’ post which was co-opted onto the Executive Committee. The results of this new addition have very quickly become evident. We now have our own outward facing Facebook Page and a numerous links to the internet sites of other relevant local agencies.
As I have said in previous reports, we know that managing the expectations of our membership is a significant issue and the need for continuing development and extension of our activity portfolio is an ongoing priority. Our Development activity continues to show successful outcomes and it is reassuring to note that we have yet again launched a number of new activities in addition to duplicating some of our existing groups.
Our relationship with Age UK [Barnsley] has taken a further step forward as we have joined them in a project aimed at reducing loneliness and isolation amongst older people in the south of the borough. This is in addition to the very successful ongoing project of a similar nature in the Penistone area on which I have reported in previous annual reports.
Our quarterly newsletter ‘The Buzz’ continues to be a major asset both for our members and others interested in finding out about us. A further innovation this year has been the launch of the ‘Interim Buzz’ which sees an electronic version being emailed to around 1100 of our members midway between our quarterly Buzz publication dates.
The BU3A Executive Committee remains a strong unit with all members indicating their willingness to stand for re- election for a further period. All committee members have a specific portfolio with some having a team of members 4 supporting them in their roles. As a group, the committee continues to bring a ‘Can Do’ philosophy to the table and our growth and vibrancy is very much down to this team of individuals.
One particularly successful initiative this year has been the development of the Associate Member Scheme, which was aimed at former long term members whose situations had changed so as to prevent them attending activities. Around a dozen members have signed up to this free scheme which enables them to retain their membership and receive copies of the Buzz newsletter.
As can be seen from the financial statement (P6), our monetary balances remain strong although we are posting a small deficit between income and expenditure this year which is significantly caused by increases in premises hire charges. It is our intention to keep this situation under close review and look into options and alternatives to ensure that we maintain our healthy financial outlook. This small deficit will not interfere with our intention to support the creation of new groups and help existing groups with capital expenditure on items where necessary.
In terms of looking to the future, we need to ensure that we continue to manage our growth in a dynamic manner and that we constantly look to add to the list of activities which we offer to our members. The key messages about the self-help philosophy of the U3A movement and the constant ongoing need for volunteers in everything that we do will continue to be explained and reiterated to all our members both new and old.
As an ongoing challenge, there is a need to make arrangements to replace committee members in an effective and planned manner, particularly as a number of them are approaching the time limits of their periods of tenure within the next twenty-four months.
While I have mentioned the contribution made by our Executive Committee members, I also need to thank our Travel, Social and Choir Committees, all of whom do tireless work on our behalf.
Most importantly, I need to propose a huge vote of thanks to those members who lead our groups. Without such people there would be no Barnsley and District U3A. So thanks to all our Coordinators and Deputies and all our members who contribute so much to our success story.
Last but not least, it has become tradition at our June AGM to pay our respects to those members who have passed away during the previous twelve months. This year, that is not possible. I would therefore ask all members reading this to spend a little time remembering former BU3A colleagues they knew.
Alan Swann [Chairman Barnsley and District U3A]
NB. This report covers the period 1st April 2019 to 31st March 2020 and therefore takes us up to the point just after all U3As became massively affected by the Coronavirus lockdown. I have not made any reference to our response in BU3A in the main body of the report above but perhaps need to explain that we have continued to be open for business and are still registering new members. We have tried to ensure that none of our members become lonely or isolated and have encouraged regular contact within groups. Examples of the use of WhatsApp, email, activity based Facebook groups and video conferencing using Messenger and Zoom have been noted in the early stages of the shutdown. We have also telephoned all 170 of our members who do not possess internet access to offer them the option of joining with their peers in small telephone groupings in order to encourage continued interaction. No doubt we will expand on this further as part of next year’s annual report.
Since March, the Executive Committee (left) has met fortnightly on ‘Zoom’ to discuss the 2020 coronavirus difficulties. The Agenda of our meetings includes any matter brought to it by members as well as Management Issues, Finance, Group Development, Membership, Business Matters, Social Activities and The Buzz. The Committee is a good place to be! (Ed.)
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BARNSLEY AND DISTRICT U3A
Accounts for Year Ending 31st March 2020 Registered Charity Number 1077654
This account sheet is offered to members unaudited due to the present social restrictions. It will be audited and approved as soon as possible.
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DEVELOPMENT NEWS Development Officer, Joanie Tollerfield (0771 241 6551)
If you have any queries, please telephone the Group Coordinator or Joanie
RECENT & NEW GROUPS
1 Maths Then and Now on Monday afternoons at Tesco, Stairfoot. Coordinator, David Andrews.
2 Word/Excel course on Tuesday mornings at Worsborough Bridge Social Club. Coordinator, David Andrews.
3 Creative Writing 2 at Alder Close, Mapplewell. Coordinator, Mac Mackenzie.
4 Birdwell Buddies Social and Entertainment at Birdwell Community Centre. Coordinator, Joanie Tollerfield.
5 Bowling at Darfield; enquiries to Coordinators, Mervyn Middlemiss and Deborah Brooks.
6 Proposed new group: Ceramics and Pottery is looking for interested members to start up. Do you like to work with your hands, turning pieces of clay into a masterpiece? Starting with moulding easy clay to make some interesting sculptures and pottery. Can anyone help out with provisions i.e. Potters’ wheel, ceramics kiln, either to loan, donate or sell very cheap so we can take the group one step closer to potting?
7 Proposed new group: Inventors is looking for a Coordinator and interested members who are adventurous, smart and wanting to invent new projects. Do you see yourself as an inventor or do you fancy putting your ideas forward to make a prototype for a new invention? People are needed to start the ball rolling. All ideas welcome!
8 Proposed new Arts and Crafts group. Is anyone interested in joining or coordinating this group? We are looking at a variety of different crafts from simple woodcarving and Airfix, art and mixed media to sewing and knitting, etc. I am looking for Coordinators to run each section of art, building and crafting please. Anyone interested in coordinating or just joining the group please let us know. Initially we would use one room at a venue then possibly may separate into two groups depending on popularity.
9 Proposed new Spanish Interactive group whose title will reflect what we’ll be doing. It’s for people who are getting to the end of the ‘Beginner’ stage and want to go a bit further. The aim is to improve confidence through reading simple, short stories aloud and translating them. We will encourage conversation by including role play and a little Spanish culture. Please contact Coordinator Paul Smith on 0772 585 6691 or email [email protected]
MARJORIE TOWNEND
Everyone at Country Dancing 1 wishes a Very Happy Birthday to Marjorie, who recently celebrated her 90th Birthday. Thanks to her, they were all able to enjoy birthday cake, tea & scones!
Marjorie is one of the longest serving members of our Country Dancing 1 group and is still dancing. Brilliant! So everybody, “Kee-eep dancing”. ------e to collect her Spring Buzz from Marjorie wasn’t abl Age UK in March but we heard about this thanks to the phone call system set up by BU3A (see P2). So the Editor cycled his daily lockdown ride to deliver one to her door and took a beautiful photograph of her.
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BIRDWATCHING Coordinator: Gillian Richardson Our visit to Rockley, Birdwell, on March 9th, 2020 (Would you believe that this is Gillian’s 77th Report/Tweet/Twitter to her group! Beat that! Well done, Gillian! Ed.)
Nine of us were present after the change of venue from Anglers Country Park. This included our two new members, Mick and John, plus Bill, Christine, Audrey, Joyce, Elizabeth and Glenys. We climbed to the Engine house behind the lay-by and disturbed jackdaws and spotted a tree creeper (right) that obliged us with movement in the trees for a decent length of time so that we could get a good sighting.
Across the road is the first of the man- made lakes (left) that constitute the entrance to the caravan park and many herons were nesting or perched as sentinels near to the weeping willow tree. I missed the flock of long tailed tits but there were plenty of blue tits and a nuthatch was calling. On the lake and its surrounds, we listed Canada geese, barnacle geese, moorhen, coot, mallard, cross breed ducks with the lone Aylesbury and a metallic green plumaged duck and the red breasted pair of ducks that seem to have taken up permanent residence. But why wouldn’t they with duck houses a plenty and a protective electric fence against fox predation? I believe that the farmer loves his exotics and his flock of guinea fowl which are noisy and full of character, so I can see the attraction.
Further up the driveway, we saw a great tit and many chaffinches in the area, together with robins wherever we went. A sparrow-hawk (right) flew across with its characteristic swooping flight and another, probably the same bird, was seen as we retraced our steps having reached the caravan site. Along the hedge bottom were dunnock, goldfinch were above us and in other places, a male blackbird and wood pigeon. At the end of the lakes, as the road turns with an old bridge just about visible, there are many trees and at long-last we saw a nuthatch, having been teased by its call in the morning. Audrey reminded us that it was good to help others pinpoint a bird by using a clockface. Best of all, a buzzard (left) swooped over-head. I have nearly forgotten to mention that there were cock pheasants and in the far distant field towards Stainborough, we were sure there was a white plumaged pheasant and probably a peacock grazing.
Finally, Christine spotted a jay in the ditch across by the first lake, which was a final flourish to our visit.
N.B. There was also a pair of ducks, white and pinkish, and I have written this without checking their name because I believe I have seen a reference to them in a bird report elsewhere. I must look this up and let you know.
Yesterday I bought a world map and put it up on the kitchen wall. Then I gave my wife a dart and said to her: "Darling, let’s forget about Coronavirus, throw the dart and wherever it lands, I'm taking you there for our next prope r holiday." Turns out we're spending three weeks behind the fridge. 8
THE OLD BLOWERS Coordinator: Max Senior Musical Director: Roy Gamble
BLOWING OUR OWN TRUMPETS After a very successful 2019, in which we provided entertainment at many concerts, we Old Blowers decided to pat ourselves on the back and celebrate with a presentation lunch. The group had put a lot of effort and commitment into helping charities and organisations, so with instruments packed away, we headed to the Boatman's Rest at Worsbrough.
Max Senior and Roy Gamble decided to recognise some of the group's efforts by presenting some awards. Choosing the winners was a very difficult task with everybody having performed and supported us so well, but the eventual winners were decided.
The winners: 1. 'Most Improved Section' award went to the Lower Cornets and Horns: Frank Skupski, Christine Holland, Sandra Booth, Kathleen Jones and Jeffrey Jones.
2. ‘Most Improved Player' award went to Derek Kaye on Euphonium.
3. 'Player Of The Year' award was presented to Geoffrey Wilkinson on Cornet.
The picture shows the award winners with their certificates along with Max Senior and Roy Gamble. (pictured left to right are Roy Gamble, Geoff Wilkinson, Chris Holland, Derek Kaye, Frank Skupski, Max Senior, Kath Jones and Jeff Jones)
I know that all members of BU3A will want to add their thanks and gratitude to The Old Blowers for their outstanding efforts in playing concerts around the borough, bringing pleasure to many people and enhancing the reputation of our organisation. The Editor
1. Join us every Sunday for breakfast including Hot Sausages aimed at children under 10 years old. 2. Six foot boa constrictor. Free to a good home. Very friendly, good eater, likes children. (Radio 4: The News Quiz) 9
NATUREQUEST Coordinator : Tony Hunt
The programme is entirely dependent upon when the restrictions on non-essential journeys and complying with social distancing are lifted. An email will be circulated to members of the group at that time.
June 11 BROADSTONE RESERVOIR From A629 at Ingbirchworth, turn left on the road round the south side of Ingbirchworth Reservoir and in 2km turn right at junction onto Broadstone Rd. In 400m park on roadside. Grid Ref SE 199065
July 9 RSPB OLD MOOR, Old Moor Lane, Wombwell, Barnsley S73 0YF
August 13 LANGSETT RESERVOIR - park at Langsett Barn Car Park on Langsett Reservoir A616, Langsett, Sheffield S36 9FD
Sept 10 WORSBROUGH RESERVOIR- park at Kendal Green Car Park, Haverlands Lane, Worsbrough, Barnsley S70 5NQ
Meet for a 1.30pm start and bring your field guide(s) and binoculars.
CLASSICAL MUSIC AND OPERA Coordinator : Anthea Robertson
The four meetings in 2020 up to the March ‘lockdown’ included ‘Music from Russia and America’ from Chris Storey.
In early March, Peter Mason led a programme on the Mozart family, which followed on nicely from our first opera of the season, ‘The Magic Flute’; this is a ‘singspiel’, written in honour of freemasonry. Both Mozart and his librettist, Emmanuel Schikaneder, were Masons. A ‘magic opera’ spectacular, it ranges in style from elaborate coloratura (Queen of the Night aria) and German folk song (Papageno’s aria) to a Gluck-like choral refrain for the priests. The heroine’s initiation to the Brotherhood places the opera firmly in the Enlightenment, despite what is now political incorrectness in the structure of the plot, polarisation between good and evil, day and night, man and woman, white and black. However, the opera contains some of Mozart’s best-loved tunes.
I thought that we should open the re-launch with a cheerful, light-hearted air; Die Fledermaus or ‘The Merry Widow’ are possibilities. Any suggestions to me on 01709 890638 or [email protected] I shall continue the classical music programme with more Russian music, Borodin, Glazunov etc ------Long-standing member of Classical Music and Opera, Ann Howse, has now moved to Sheffield and is taking up Associate Membership of Barnsley U3A. She carries every best wish from her friends in this group and, indeed, from all of us in BU3A.
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TABLE AND BOARD GAMES Coordinator: Martin E King SPROUTS
Before we were so rudely interrupted ……. I am able to report that the arrival of several Canasta players into the group seems to be going well. Obviously, the weekly attendance has grown, but the Birdwell Community Centre seems capable of absorbing these new members. One additional bonus of their arrival is that more folk seem to be able and willing to move between games, thus increasing our ability to engage all attending in a game they enjoy. Sadly, only some of the games we play lend themselves to comparable experiences over the internet (chess is of course the best known exception to this, but internet Mah Jong is very different from the across-the-table game).
But just to show that I have not been idle during this enforced lay-off, you (and a friend) might like to try a very simple, quite old, but little known pencil and paper game called ‘SPROUTS’. Dipping into your memory banks you may just recall it. Let me refresh your memory…….
(As is often the case, there are several variants of games like this, but this one goes something like this): a) equipment: pencil and paper b) number of players: 2 age of players: around 6 to 100+ (I guess) c) aim: to use your turn to leave your opponent with no ‘legal’ move d) skill Level: basic, but strategic thinking helps
Basic play: 1. agree at the start the number of games to be played before an overall winner is declared. 2. agree who plays first, then take it in turns 3. player 1 makes between two and five marks on the paper (randomly placed distinct dots, at various distances from each other) 4. player 2 draws a line (straight, arched or bendy, but not too convoluted) between TWO (selected, if starting with 2+) dots, and makes ANOTHER dot at some point on the line just drawn 5. player 1 now draws a line that begins and ends on a dot (this can include the dot just added by player 2) 6. any player’s new line may begin and end on the same dot (i.e.to make a loop) 7. any player’s new dot must be on the line just drawn by the previous player.
Rules: no new line may cross an existing line no new line may pass through a dot to reach another (this would represent two lines – that’s naughty!) no single dot may have more than three lines leading off it. the winner is the last player able to draw a legal line
Hints: o make your dots big and bold; o start off with just two dots for the first game to get you going but aim to increase up to five dots to give a longer, more demanding game; o spaces between dots may depend on the size of the paper, but between 1 – 4 centimetres is most likely to leave you ending up with something that looks vaguely like…. yes, you’ve got it…., a SPROUT; o the more mathematically minded may like to consider whether the number of turns possible is directly related to the number of initial dots.
HAVE A GO!!
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Flix is on the first and third Fridays of the month at 6pm at the Priory Campus. We have fish and chips for those who want it, if you don't want it that's fine. There’s no charge for a cuppa and biscuit at the moment, they’re on us so the only charges are the £1 blue box fee and 20p towards the cost of films and whatever you order from the chippy. 19th June: WILD ROSE Cast: Jessie Buckley, Sophie Okonedo, Julie Walters, Tom Harper Storyline: Fresh out of prison, Rose-Lynn Harlan (Jessie Buckley) precariously juggles her menial job, two children and committed mother (Julie Walters) as she pursues her bold ambition of a one-way ticket to musical stardom. With the support of her boss (Sophie Okonedo), Rose-Lynn embarks on a life-changing journey that challenges her sense of self and helps her discover her true voice. Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music
3rd July: THE ETRUSCAN SMILE (RORY’S WAY) Cast: Thora Birch, Brian Cox, Rosanna Arquette, Tim Matheson, Peter Coyote Storyline: The Etruscan Smile stars acclaimed British actor Brian Cox as Rory MacNeil, a rugged old Scotsman who reluctantly leaves his beloved isolated Hebridean island and travels to San Francisco to seek medical treatment. Moving in with his estranged son, Rory sees his life transformed through a newly found bond with his baby grandson. Genre: Drama
17th July: ON THE BASIS OF SEX Cast: Felicity Jones, Justin Theroux, Arnie Hammer, Kathy Bates, Sam Waterston Storyline: On the Basis of Sex tells an inspiring and spirited true story that follows young lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg as she teams with her husband Marty to bring a ground-breaking case before the U.S. Court of Appeals and overturn a century of gender discrimination. Genre: Biography, Drama, True Story
7th August: OFFICIAL SECRETS Cast: Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Ralph Fiennes Director: Gavin Hood Storyline: A real-life political thriller based on the story of whistle-blower Katharine Gun. Charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act in Britain, and facing imprisonment, Katherine reaches out to Ben Emmerson, one of the top lawyers in the country, to take her case and defend her actions. With her life, freedom and marriage threatened, Katharine risks everything by leaking a classified email to the press in the hopes that this simple act could help halt an unjust war. Genre: Thriller, Adaptation, Spy 21st August: THE GOOD LIAR Cast: Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen, Bill Condon, Russell Tovey Storyline: Career con-artist Roy Courtnay (McKellen) can hardly believe his luck when he meets well-to-do widow Betty McLeish (Mirren) online. As Betty opens her home and life to him, Roy is surprised to find himself caring about her, turning what should be a cut-and-dry swindle into the most treacherous tightrope walk of his life. Genre: Drama, Thriller, Adaptation
4th September: THE FAREWELL Cast: Awkwafina, Diana Lin, Zhao Shuzhen, Lu Hong, Jiang Yongbo Storyline: A Chinese-American woman travels back to China to visit her ailing grandmother. She discovers a family plot to keep grandma in the dark about her own terminal diagnosis, and agrees to help stage a fake wedding to give the matriarch one last party. Genre: Comedy, Drama
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‘THE BUZZ’
Chairman, Alan Swann, and Publicity Officer, Vanda Outram, had a meeting at The Lightbox in February with Barnsley Communities Engagement Officer, Sophie Olley. The purpose of the meeting was to set up the digital availability of ‘The Buzz’ for Barnsley Library users across the borough.
U3A NATIONAL DAY
postponed until THURSDAY 1ST OCTOBER we will keep you updated
STITCHES Coordinator: Suzanne Dinsdale
Our last project was to create a street scene to decorate a waste paper bin. This was a very interesting and creative challenge led by Sue Johnson.
We found ourselves looking at roofs, windows, doorways and street furniture in a new way as we wondered how to recreate them in stitch and material! As you can see from the photos, we produced scenes from the seaside, villages, towns, countryside and the New York skyline!
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YOU REMEMBER THIS? Pam Clayton
The strangely-shaped list below came about when Pam Clayton enquired about ‘Sayings from your Childhood’ on the ‘BU3A Members Facebook page’. The response was huge! Pam collated the responses and sent FOUR full pages to The Buzz! I have included some of them here; there’ll be more in future Buzzes. Do they ‘ring a bell’ with you? Pam offered some explanations about them but I forgot to put them in! Sorry! Sort them out by yourself! And what’s the shape? There could be a BU3A pen from Alan (ha ha) if you can tell him!
There's always one thing for certain, it'll go dark and come light before morning “What's for tea?” “Kippers and custard” / “A run and a suck of the door knob” If your brains were dynamite, there wouldn't be enough to part your hair “What’s on TV?” “A vase of flowers and a framed picture” / “Dust” You look fine, a blind man on a galloping horse won't notice you Be sure you're wearing clean knickers in case you get run over Eat what you can and can what you can’t, like the Argentines I’m as old as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth Well, I’ll go to the end of our street / top of our stairs Switch those lights off, it's not Buckingham Palace! She’s as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike “How long will tea be?” “4 inches, it’s a sausage” Don't just stand there like cheese at four pence It says Oxo on buses but they don’t sell them It's looking a bit black over Bill's mother’s Don't sit there like one o'clock half struck Self, self and if there's any left, self again Don’t stand there like Joe Locke in t'park You’ve more faces than t’Town Hall clock Tha’ll have to wait til t’cows come home You'll get more with honey than vinegar I need to give the house a good feckling You make a better door than a window He's got short arms and deep pockets As daft as a boat horse / shunter's cat Don’t just sit there like piffy on a rock Just like the cow's tail, always behind He’s as much use as a wet paper bag She’s got a mouth like a torn pocket You can't put in what God left out He stuck out like a chapel hat peg She's all fur coat and no knickers He/she's just a whipper snapper As black as Newgate's knocker Don't give me a Blackpool cup Nitty Nora the bug explorer Looks like the cat's died Charlie’s dead 14
NEW MEMBERS – WELCOME! What a time to join us! Let’s hope we can get you ‘up and running’ very soon! Susan Jeff, Julie Thistlewood, Janet Feerick, John Feerick, Barbara Gittner, Elaine Gardner, Christine Franklin, Nick Franklin, Sue Williams, Lynda Ross, Sandra Hale, Marilyn Pickup, Christine Parkes, Mick Coley, Christine Knowles, June Brown, Julie Schofield, Dianne Horsfield, Robert Jeffrey, Philip Ledger, Judy Knopp, Hazel Carter, Sarah Littlewood, Alan Taylor, David Corcoran, Alison Bexon, Stephen Milner, Norman Creighton, Christine Dempsey, Maureen Reavill, Helen Hardcastle, John Shepherd, Janet Elvy.
MEET OUR MUSICIANS IN LOCKDOWN
1 JAN JONES
I was very fortunate to marry into a musical family - Welsh National Opera and London Philharmonic Orchestra players! Unfortunately, I couldn't read a note of music or even sing in tune so I felt rather left out. Not being one to be beaten, it was a case of - if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'.
So, around forty years ago I learned to play folk guitar and became a member of St. Peter and Paul's music group, in Sandal. Over the following few years, I taught various members of the congregation how to play the guitar and some of them are still playing with us today!
I began tootling my flute quite unexpectedly. The journey began when I snapped my Achilles tendon while coaching netball at a church youth club. Consequently, I was confined to the house for quite a few months and I was beginning to get bored. (You must all know that feeling by now!) At that point, my 13 year-old daughter decided that I should learn to read music. So, she appeared one morning before school and presented me with a recorder, music stand and 'Beginners Recorder Book'. She had already achieved grade 8 flute and was quite capable of teaching me. I quickly completed recorder books 1 and 2 and by Christmas I was ready for my first flute lesson with thoughtful daughter. The rest is history, as they say
I've had great enjoyment playing my flute in our church music group over many years but this year I decided that I needed more of a musical challenge. Hence, I joined Barnsley U3A’s Flutes Galore. Derek (‘Our Great Leader’) introduced me to an amazing group of people who have made me feel extremely welcome, made me laugh and patiently encouraged me to be a better musician. I am really honoured to be part of such a talented and friendly group. A special thanks to Derek who bullied me to join them last year - "They're shit hot!" (see Spring ‘Buzz’ report!)
2 MARION NEW I joined BU3A two years ago, my first group being Frank Skupski’s ukelele ‘Ukeanplayers’ and there I heard about ‘The Old Blowers’.
I started to learn the euphonium when my daughters left home for university and when I became more confident, I joined a brass band.
It had been 16 years since I’d played the euphonium but I just had to join a group with such a great name, ‘The Old Blowers’. Coordinator, Max Senior, told me to practise for five minutes a day just on my mouthpiece. He was sure he would be able to get my seized-up euphonium going again. The rest, as they say, is history.
My musical tastes run from Classical to Queen but there’s something about a brass band even if you play a plastic instrument like me. It’s so much lighter for me to carry than a brass one. Many people say they can’t tell the difference in sound between plastic and brass.
‘The Old Blowers’ have played at many venues, from care homes and churches to the Civic and the Metrodome. It’s lovely when the audience enjoy something that you love doing. I still play with the Ukeanplayers because you meet such lovely people in BU3A. 15
3 STEPHEN WILD
I play in the Stringalongs and in the Guitar group and I’m missing my groups in lockdown. I have played guitar now for quite a few years but only for my own pleasure. I began when I started teaching and took small groups of children who wanted to learn. However, most of my time was spent learning chords and songs at home. Playing in Dave Alton's guitar group is much better than playing on my own; I really enjoy playing along with a group of like-minded people. I have learned so much since I began both groups. The ‘lockdown’ has given me an excellent opportunity to put in more practice. I’m driving my wife, Linda, mad! But she (right) is now also a member of The Stringalongs after beginning to learn in Frank Skupski’s Ukeanplayers group.
4 KEVIN DRAPER
I started playing the guitar when I was about 13, living in Rotherham. I was a member of a couple of groups, singing and playing lead guitar. We went by the name ‘Fat Owl’ (as in Billy Bunter). We preferred playing our own material but at that time (1975 or so) there were very few venues where that was possible, so we flip-flopped between playing our own songs in pubs like the Eagle and Child in Conisborough and the Goldthorpe Hotel, and covering other groups’ songs in Working Men’s Clubs. I remember Bentley Toll Bar Central and Askern Miners Welfare; they were tough crowds and we weren’t really a Club band so we started off with the Rolling Stones and worked up to Thin Lizzy. We were often asked to do three spots: one pre-bingo 1, one post-bingo 1 and one after bingo 2. That was how the evening was structured.
The band broke up around 1979 although we got back together in the mid-1990s to do some recording and played a couple of charity gigs. I retired in 2015 and started playing again but I was more interested in making things. I built two electric guitars, a valve amplifier and some effects pedals. More recently I’ve built a ukulele from a kit (I named it Whiston Wailer) and I’m working on a second. In June last year, I joined Frank Skupski’s BU3A ukulele group and really enjoyed it, everyone was friendly and the songs were fun to sing and play. In February, I asked to join the Stringalongs and played with them for the first time at Westmeades home in Royston.
In coronavirus ‘lockdown’, I’m helping our wonderful leader, Sheila Metcalfe, to set up a group singalong using video- conference.
5 MAX SENIOR Here’s me in ‘lockdown’ in the bedroom keeping in practice. Every day I do just 15 minutes. I’ve been a musician since 1954. I simply never get bored and it's helping me to stave off dementia, I reckon! When this photo was taken in April, I was practising ‘You'll Never Walk Alone’, because I’d decided to play it in our cul-de-sac that night for those heroes of our NHS. I was learning it off by heart because it’s better to play to the crowd rather than staring at a music stand. I hope that it encouraged people to come out and clap, not for me but for the brilliant, brave health workers. Music is, and always will be, a true vehicle for inspiration. I am very proud to be Coordinator of ‘The Old Blowers’.
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6 CAROL PAY I can’t imagine a life without music! As a child of the 50s, I’m part of a society in which many front rooms had a piano. Many of these Front Room Pianos languished un-played, but my cousin and I were sent for piano lessons from the age of five. This was not an unalloyed pleasure! ‘William Smallwood’s Pianoforte Tutor’ was, for a small child, the dreariest book imaginable, and daily practice meant solitary confinement in the unheated front room. I don’t think anyone ever listened to my efforts and so, for a long time, I was far too shy to play in public. It’s perhaps surprising that both my cousin and I have retained a passion for performance.
Years passed and knocked the corners off my diffidence and for a long time I played as accompanist for various school and church choirs. When my husband retired, we left our tied house (a large vicarage) for a small house in Goldthorpe. Space being very limited, I had to choose between the sofa and the piano; as you can see from the photo, the piano won (it was no contest, really!) But much as I adore the piano, you can’t take it to a party, or the pub, or the beach. There is always, still, a touch of ‘the cold front room’ about piano practice.
And so I followed that well-trodden path ... ’Retire and Get a Ukulele’. For a year, I pretty much taught myself. But that is not in the nature of this happiest and most gregarious of instruments. And so, Dear Buzz Reader, I came to the Barnsley U3A Ukeanplayers Uke group. You have to play the ukulele with other people and the people you play with, in my experience, are fun, kind, accepting, good mates, a ready-made support group. Few things lift the spirit as much as making music with other people.
You can take a ukulele anywhere and always find someone to play it with. In 2018, I played with over 200 people on the boardwalk of the boat harbour at Hillarys in Western Australia. How wonderful to be accepted and share in music- making with such a large group, strumming and singing as the sun sank into the Indian Ocean.
I will always be grateful to Barnsley U3A and to Frank and the Ukeanplayers in particular. They have brought me and my ukulele out of the cold front room! The pic’s of me at home with my ukulele and piano in ‘lockdown’ in March 2020
7 DAVID WAKE Although there are musicians in the family (my younger sister is a flautist and trained at the Royal Northern College of Music), I am an amateur. I had to get a recorder at Holgate Grammar School in 1960 and managed to get a tune out of it and then I put it away and forgot about it. I picked up a guitar when I was about 16; I love guitars and until I downsized had 12 of them! My playing hasn’t improved much since about that time! At one point in my early 20s, I played 12-string guitar in a folk group, and played a few penny whistles which I still have. Later on when working in Hong Kong, I was coerced to join the Hong Kong Welsh Male Voice Choir, and when I relocated to UK, I sang with the Brighton Welsh Male Voice choir, before moving back to Barnsley and singing with Houghton Main Choir, then Millhouse Green and, for a short time, with the U3A choir. A long trip overseas led me to take a sabbatical from that choir. The picture shows me next to my keyboard, not a piano, which I can bash a tune out of, but is useful for arranging and trying out things with music software on the computer.
I have moved house twice in the last 18 months and it was then that I discovered my box of penny whistles and the recorder in storage. I was about to take them to the charity shop when I wondered if there was a local recorder group and thought the U3A might have one. So it was meant to be that I joined the recorder group under the capable leadership of Sylvia Webster where I was made very welcome and I re-discovered the joy of making music in a group. The performance at the Monthly Meeting was an important step forward and really encouraged a group spirit and camaraderie. Now we have a regular and suitable venue to practise in, I can only see us going from strength to strength when we can get back to normality. My tastes in music are catholic. From opera to hip-hop. Well, not so much hip-hop to be honest … I have a weakness for romance and melody - hence a love of Puccini’s operas, but my gym playlist reveals a penchant for 80s disco and House….!
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8 HELEN SIMMS
I started playing the flute when I was six. I chose the flute as my older brother, Phillip, had just begun to play the oboe and I didn’t want to feel left out; the flute felt like the obvious choice. Neither of my parents had any musical background at all, but my mum and dad were incredibly supportive. My dad strongly believed that music and playing an instrument was important socially, intellectually and culturally. We practised, a lot!
Manchester had a fantastic music service in those days and there was plenty going on. Phillip began his secondary school life at Central High for Boys; at that time, the school couldn’t have been much rougher and he found it quite tough. However, always the more gifted and committed player, he was awarded a scholarship to do his ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels at Manchester’s world-famous Chethams School of Music, which was an immense achievement. He went on to study composition at Manchester University, then becoming a wonderful and inspirational teacher; many of his pupils have gone on to specialist music colleges.
By the time I reached Wright Robinson High School in Gorton, Manchester, I had done plenty of playing in a variety of ensembles and young orchestras. My arrival appeared to be a gift for the music department as there was no one else who could play an instrument, (it just wasn’t done in Gorton) and I was duly booked to play in the school assembly a couple of times a week. I’m afraid that the pupils of this large comprehensive failed to appreciate my classical flute solos (“swot”) or my attempt at jazzing things up with my version of ‘Do the Hussle’(!). I once played a piece called Sonatine by Claude Arrieu, it had a nasty page turn part way through. Quickly turning the page, I sent my music off the stand, knocking the stand over and bringing the performance to an early close. I got the biggest ovation of my life!
At 14, I turned into the classic bolshy teenager and decided that flute playing got in the way of hanging around with friends. I stopped practising seriously, but the playing never really left. Phillip always needed people to play in his school productions and I was always happy to oblige. He retired a few years ago and my flute playing stopped.
It was eventually resurrected four years ago when my husband, Iain, who plays guitar and mandolin, asked me if I would join him in a folk band that was being started by the WEA. He’d never played in any ensemble before and needed some moral support. I loved it from the start, thinking that my dad was right about the cultural and social impact music can have on your life. We met some wonderful people, and I discovered a love of Irish folk music and the culture of my (albeit distant) Irish heritage. I bought a wooden simple-system flute and started to have lessons, the technique and fingering is completely different to a silver flute. The band (the WEA Penistone Folk Ensemble) play charity ceilidhs and concerts throughout the year.
I didn’t like the thought of my silver flute gathering dust, so I began to look for a flute choir in the area. I found Flutes Galore by accident via my sister-in-law, who is also in Barnsley U3A, and joined a group of wonderful, like-minded people who love playing music.
9 HAZEL SUTCLIFFE This Is Just To Say
I have eaten In ‘lockdown’, super- the plums talented Hazel, a founding that were in member of Flutes Galore, the icebox
is learning by heart a and which poem a week and painting you were probably a picture to illustrate it. saving One week in April it was for breakfast This Is Just To Say by Forgive me William Carlos they were delicious Williams so sweet and so cold
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WRITERS OF THE THIRD PAGE (ex-CREATIVE WRITING 2) Di Horsfield
I joined BU3A on March 3rd 2020. Little did any of us at the Monthly Meeting at Priory Campus realise that in just a few short days our lives would change dramatically.
I’d been introduced to the U3A movement by a friend who is a member of Beverly U3A. Her enthusiasm about the organisation was infectious. She encouraged me to do a bit of research and see whether it would be something I’d like to be involved in.
I found BU3A on the internet and was instantly drawn. The wide range of groups and opportunities seemed to be reaching out and pulling me in. I made some enquiries and was told about the next Monthly Meeting on 3rd March.
I was rather nervous and asked my daughter to accompany me. Being a wheelchair user with absolutely no spacial awareness, I need a co-pilot. She parked me in a space kindly arranged by two ladies who, with smiles and encouragement, gave me the confidence to tell my daughter I’d be fine and would ring when I needed collecting.
We listened to a chap from the Co-op offering sage advice about finance, scams, wills and funerals, served with very well-placed humour, before various members of BU3A gave brief accounts about activities and groups and a presentation about the planned National U3A day for June. Unfortunately, this event has been put on hold for the time being. One speaker mentioned that the existing Creative Writing group was full but at the end of the meeting, anyone interested could add their name to a list for a second group. When my daughter came to collect me, the first thing I told her was that I needed my name adding to the list for this new group. Clutching my copy of the Spring Buzz, I chattered to my daughter all the way home. I don’t think she got a word in edgeways! All she managed was “Sounds brilliant, mum”, “You’d enjoy that”, “That should be interesting”.
Mac McKechnie phoned during the week inviting me to the inaugural ‘Creative Writing 2’ group on 16th March. Again, fate intervened and on the 13th March, Barnsley Council closed all public meeting places in light of the increasing Coronavirus problem. This meant that our new group would be postponed. Then I had another phone call from Mac. He’d had the brainwave of having our group in the virtual world until we could meet in the real world. An absolutely inspired idea! He set us our first task. We each wrote a brief autobiography to introduce ourselves and learn a little bit about each other. Mac gave us excellent guidelines based on his personal experience of having a book published. I think I speak for all of us when I say we found this task more taxing than expected. The feedback to me from Mac and my fellow group members was fantastic and very encouraging. I hadn’t done any serious writing for nearly a decade but I found that my love for words and story-telling, although decidedly rusty, had not diminished.
Since Mac set the first task, we have written second chapters for books. We have written a chapter about a man killed in an accident and a chapter about aliens landing on our planet at the request of our rulers. Our task this week is to write the ending to a short story about squirrels who aim to take the world back from humans. (I have absolutely no idea where Mac finds the material but you have to admit it is definitely eclectic/eccentric!)
As the lockdown continues, Mac has opened our group up to Guest Authors from other U3As. This will undoubtedly lead each of us in the original group to gain more experience and, hopefully, encourage us to improve our skills, open our imaginations and become more confident in our writing.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone I have had contact with in my short time with BU3A. There have been phone calls, texts, emails, messages plus information, humour and banter on the three U3A Facebook pages that I have joined.
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STAYING CHEERFUL AMIDST THE CRISIS
All fit and ready for Walking Football after lockdown, lads?
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SUE WALSHAW
I've used my time in isolation to sort out my knitting stash. I made myself a cardigan a few weeks ago and had plenty of yarn left over, so got busy, worked a pattern out and now I have a matching hat (right); pattern available if anyone fancies having a go themselves. I'm amazed at how many ball ends I have accumulated over the years, so I’m going to crochet them into knee rugs and twiddle muffs and take them to a care home when it's safe to do so. Stay safe! (Twiddle muffs? Ed.)
WEDNESDAY RAMBLERS Coordinator: Dave Webber
The last few weeks have seen lots of us coming to terms with innovative ways of using technology. We can ‘Zoom’, ‘FaceTime’, ‘WhatsApp’, ‘Google-Team’ and no doubt countless others BUT none of these enable us to meet together as a group and walk.
Picture for one moment the Barnsley U3A Wednesday Ramblers in late 2020. There are 30 members on the walk. There are a few couples but most are single people coming for a walk and a gossip. Walking in groups is still extremely difficult. The lockdown is gradually being lifted but Social Distancing and restrictions on travel are still in place.
The starting point is a large car park to accommodate more cars than usual because car sharing is not possible. We stretch down the footpath at least 50 metres from start to finish, dodging into gate entrances and stepping behind bushes to ensure we are all 2 metres from groups of walkers coming the other way and shouting our apologies for our unfriendly-looking actions. The gossiping is not easy… the wind is rustling the leaves on the trees, a solitary noisy aircraft flies overhead, everyone is hoarse through shouting at one another and in any case our hearing isn’t quite as good as it was! The banana stop doesn’t have the usual appeal…we take up most of a field, sitting, having a rest. And of course at the end of the walk the café is closed or cannot possibly accommodate the group.
We have not organised a walking rota for the next three months because it is pretty clear that for the foreseeable future we will be unable to meet up for our weekly walks.
Helen and I have been out for many local walks around Silkstone as part of our 1 hour’s ‘exercise’ a day but we miss meeting up, having a chat and enjoying fun times together. We dream of the time when we will be able to walk again. In the meantime, keep exercising the limbs, stay safe and healthy and KEEP SMILING.
Joanie Tollerfield and Janet Roberts have been most industrious during ‘lockdown’.
Joanie’s Amigurumi (Japanese crochet animals) was her first attempt via a YouTube video. ‘Masaaki’ (‘Correct brightness’) was meant to be a 14 inch teddy but ended up as a 14 inch rat!
Janet Roberts sent a picture of her work, writing, “I’ve been sewing!” That was it! I’ve given it the catchy name ‘Lepidopterology’. I haven’t told her! (Ed.)
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WHO IS THIS MAN – SINATRA ? Don Smith
Donald Jack Smith (aka Don Smith – Ole bloodshot eyes) born in Kimberworth, Rotherham (a very popular place renowned throughout the United Kingdom for reasons which I will not mention)
Francis Albert Sinatra (aka Frank Sinatra – Ole blue eyes) born in some God-forsaken place called Hoboken, USA
Throughout my life I have been haunted by this phantom figure, Sinatra. Whether purposely or not, it seems that he has copied all that I have done musically, since we both discovered that if you have a voice, you are able to sing. I will give you examples.
When I was 7 years old I joined my local church choir. (Sinatra did the same.)
During my time in the choir, at Christmas time, we would visit local hostelries and I would be singled out to sing Christmas carols whilst perched on top of the pub piano and a hat would go round for my benefit. (It is recorded that Sinatra often recalled singing on top of the piano in his parents’ tavern for spare change.)
While I was entertaining parishioners in Kimberworth Parish Church Hall (admission 1/6d), I have read that Sinatra was singing in some back-street place in New York called Carnegie Hall and the only bloke in the audience was a fella called Bobby Soxers. I wonder what happened to him.
I never had singing lessons nor could I read music. – Guess what!
After my voice ‘broke’, I was advised to rest my voice for a while. As my much lower singing voice returned, I learned a new style of singing by listening to Bing Crosby on the radio. (Sinatra idolized Bing Crosby and admitted, in a later interview, to having adopted Crosby’s props, such as a sailor’s cap and pipe, in his early performances.)
At the age of 15, Rowley Watson, a drinking companion and friend of my father, asked him if I would be interested in singing with his Dance Band at the Carlton Ballroom in Rotherham. I accepted his offer and sang there for a short while. (Sinatra began by singing with a small group known as “The Hoboken Four” and later went on to sing with a little known Band led by someone called Harry James).
Rowley Watson was also the drummer in Albert Brooks’ Big Band, which played at Rotherham Town Hall Assembly Rooms one evening during the week and at Sheffield Road Baths on a Saturday evening, in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Rowley thought it would be better for me to sing with a bigger band and arranged for me to have an audition with Albert Brooks, which was successful and I became the lead singer at £1 per session. (At the same time Sinatra moved to sing with a Big Band led by some unknown chap called Tommy Dorsey who paid him $125 a week! (Why?)).
Later in my singing life I joined Elmsdale Operatic Society and appeared in many shows at the Attercliffe Palace in front of packed audiences. (Sinatra, in the meantime, was appearing at Caesar’s Palace. The Romans however preferred a lesser known Italian, Dean Martin, who was appearing at the Coliseum).
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In my teenage years there was a film star called Ava Gardner, who I adored. When I was in my middle twenties I met a girl called Mary Payling and quickly lost my admiration for Ava Gardner. After a brief courtship, I married her and she became Mary Smith. (This Sinatra chap apparently was also a fan of Ava Gardner and after years of trying to persuade her to do so, she married him. After they were married, she was still called Ava Gardner).
After I married, I gave up singing, to concentrate on my day job and my family, two lovely daughters. (After he got married, this Sinatra chap also gave up singing and forsook his family in order to chaperone Ava around the world in pursuit of her acting career).
Many years later, my daughters travelled the world in pursuit of their careers and Mary and I visited them. When she finally settled in Holland, my elder daughter, Tracy, ran Karaoke nights, in her spare time, at The King Arthur Tavern in Utrecht and she persuaded me into participating. After I retired, Mary and I travelled the world and if we were staying in a hotel which had Karaoke nights, Mary volunteered me to perform. I have therefore performed in Karaoke Bars in places as far apart as Thailand and Canada, Australia and the USA and Hong Kong and Holland. (After he divorced Ava, Sinatra resumed his somewhat chequered career by appearing in some low budget, B- rated movies, such as “From Here to Eternity”, “Guys and Dolls” and “Ocean’s Eleven”. He also toured the world giving concerts to whoever would have him. He kept saying he would retire but never did).
After Mary died, I joined Barnsley U3A and subsequently Thurnscoe Harmonic Male Voice Choir. Both successful in the music world and in raising thousands of pounds for charity. (After Harpo Marx died, Sinatra married his widow and occasionally made appearances to raise a few quid for charity).
Since Sinatra died and his life story has become known, some of my few friends have remarked that there is some similarity between Sinatra and me, when they have been unfortunate enough to attend one of my Karaoke performances.
There is one major difference between us. They have apparently not noticed that neither Sinatra nor I have been successful in growing hair as we have aged. He decided to wear a variety of hairpieces. I NEVER HAVE!! NEVER!!!
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DODERTH RAMBLINGS Robert Green (In ‘Lockdown’, Robert Green is issuing a weekly newsletter to his Dodworth Library Family History Group. Coronavirus cabin-fever thoughts Another day, 29th March 2020, begins and my small tick list of what I plan to do today will be crossed through by the end of the day, definitely. Yes, I will be out local walking with Ted (below) three times for our exercise but the tick list gives me that small sense of achievement, silly as it may sound, each day. The freezer was sorted last week, likewise the tins and dry goods under the stairs, then shopping was done for me and I should be ok for the next two weeks. Maybe this is my coping with things on my own, how are you all doing?
If I may repeat, if you want any help with building your family trees or sorting mistakes you have inadvertently made within Ancestry, please contact me.
With the lighter days now that British summer time is here, (it doesn’t feel like it this morning though!), I will be spending more time out in my garage and allotment and thankfully be able to talk to the other allotment tenants at the ‘social distance’ we have been advised to keep.
Missing you all, please take care and stay safe.
MEMBER NO 1,300: JUNE BROWN
BU3A membership was growing rapidly when the Coronavirus struck and there are many
people ready to sample our group activities who have got to none! June will be one of
them, no doubt. I met her briefly at the March Monthly Meeting when guest speaker,
Chris Dingley, the ‘Man from the Coop’ scarily told us all to buy our funeral plans NOW!
None of us realised quite what was just round the corner! Anyhow, a big welcome to June who is originally from Sunbury-on-Thames but came north to be near her nurse daughter and granddaughter. June has always worked in ‘challenging’ residential special education with children with many different handicaps. She will have done wonderful, demanding work and we hope that she finds much fun and relaxation in BU3A groups once we are functioning properly again. Welcome, June!
THE STRINGALONGS clearly having lockdown ‘Zoom’ fun; the smiles say it all!
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MY EXPERIENCES WITH BU3A Dave Norcliffe
I first joined BU3A in late 2017 after retiring from the NHS and, living in Rotherham, I naturally looked at their web site first. I was a little disappointed to find that they did not have a Golf group, which I wanted to play, but coincidentally a friend told me about Barnsley U3A which did. Although I enjoy it, my golf abilities bring the word “bad” to a new level!
Not being confident in my playing skills I initially bottled out of joining the Golf group, falsely believing that I needed more experience and greater ability to feel comfortable enough to join. However, there was a bread-making group, run by Chris North, which really appealed to me as I occasionally made bread, having originally learned whilst ‘helping’ my mother when I was much younger. Joining that group turned out to be one of the best things I have ever done. Chris is a genius and I consider myself privileged to know him. I couldn’t wait for Mondays to come round and I learned so much. I regularly make all kinds of bread now and it gives me such a buzz to do so. It has earned me a ‘first’ in our village show for the last two years. Thanks, Chris, you have become my wife’s hero! I am working my way through his book but there is still some way to go as I keep sticking to our real favourites. If you are thinking of joining the bread making group, do it, you will certainly not be disappointed and it is so enjoyable.
In Spring 2018, I bit the bullet and contacted Brian Dobson from the Social Golf group and explained that I wanted to play but was incredibly bad, in fact you could say I was quite rough though I enjoyed playing. He immediately put me at ease and encouraged me to join the group on their usual Thursday game and I’ve never looked back since. I got in the car and did a swing right into the car park, feeling bunkered that I had committed myself. I drove past the iron gates and parked between a couple of trees though there weren’t enough to call it a wood. I knew I was a bit green when it came to playing but Brian and Roger Crowston were great and introduced me to the rest of the group, who all made me welcome and have been just brilliant. So, thanks and best wishes to each and every one of the group for the enjoyable camaraderie, humour (especially Ian for that!) and the fantastic social side. The group is called “Social Golf” for a reason and after the game the banter continues in the clubhouse while we have a tee, coffee and bacon butty and putt the world to rights. We had the Brexit problem sorted long before Boris and it only took fore of us! I can honestly say that I have never come away from playing feeling intimidated or thinking I didn’t belong. Learn, laugh and live is what it is all about and I’m looking forward to us meeting up again. Who knows, I might even be able to hit a ball straight by then! So although my experience of BU3A is currently limited, joining it was definitely one of my better moves!
CYCLING Coordinator: Les Roberts (01226 297260) At the time of writing, all our rides had been suspended due to the corona virus although individual members have been doing their own social distancing rides. The Group has been keeping in touch through our own BU3A Cycling Facebook page. In the meantime, we would welcome enquiries from any members who wish to join us once we are able to resume our rides. This is a little of what we have been up to since the Group was formed.
The first ride in 2014 RAC? AA? NO! BU3A Just what you DIDN’T want! Fishing in York!?
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THE KNIGHTS OF THE KETTLE Eric Cooper
When the U3A choir first met at Emmanuel Church in 2009, Peter Mason and I took our wives, Brenda and Margaret along to join. Tony Jermy was outlining his intention of forming a mixed choir within BU3A. Peter and I (‘the tuneless ones’) sat outside along with another lady, Ellen.
We chatted for a while before Ellen got up and went to the kitchen to start preparing refreshments for the choir; the tea, coffee and biscuits had been provided by volunteers. We offered to give a hand and this became a regular task. A few months later, Ellen took ill and sadly passed away, so the tea duties fell upon our shoulders.
A committee was formed and a set of rules and regulations were drawn up and whoever typed them up (was it Pat Dawson?) put at the end of the official notice: Our Knights of the Kettle are Peter Mason and Eric Cooper. This became quite a joke and we were referred to as Sire, Your Majesty, Your Honour and quite a number of the ladies curtsied as they collected their drinks. From the gentlemen we got a touch of the forelock or a curt bow of the head.
Then, at the first Christmas Fuddle we were ceremoniously presented with our blue U3A aprons. In 2015, the regulations were updated and we noticed that Peter and I were referred to as Tea Boys. So for a laugh, we wrote the following letter to the choir and Tony insisted that I read it to them:
Dear Members of the Choir Since the early days of the choir, Peter and I have been the loyal purveyors of fine beverages at each and every interval of rehearsals and concerts. We serve Coffee or Tea, in a variety of strengths, temperatures and colour, Fruit teas of various flavours, Water, again in a wide range of temperatures, Hot, Cold or Tepid, Cold Milk, Wafers covered with milk or dark chocolate, Biscuits, plain, cream and chocolate.
For our conscientious services over the years we were granted and revelled in the title, ‘Knights of the Kettle’ and have been honoured to wear the coveted, blue BU3A apron.
According to the new edition of the Barnsley U3A Choir Regulations, which contains a list of Choir committee and officials, it appears that we have, without prior notice, discussion or explanation, been relegated to the position of Tea Boys. This has caused us great concern and distress, and in protest, Peter has withdrawn his labour for today. Eric will stamp his feet and throw his dummy out of his pram. We request that our former status be restored as soon as possible, otherwise, we will surrender our aprons and sing along with the choir. Take heed, this is not an idle threat!
Yours Sincerely Peter and Eric
The letter caused great amusement. Tony took immediate action to resolve the crisis by asking Brenda to pass him her walking stick. We were called to the front, asked to kneel before him and he re-invested us to our rightful positions, as ‘Knights of the Kettle’ amidst great applause from the choir members.
Unfortunately, Peter’s wife is now too ill and can no longer take part in the choir. Most fortunately, Roy Marsden has taken over Peter’s position and blue apron.
COOKERY CORNER Christine Palmer GORGEOUS MICROWAVE LEMON CURD (very quick and very tasty) (makes 2 - 3 jars)
100g unsalted butter / 3 eggs / 225g sugar / 3 lemons - finely grate the rind / 110 ml lemon juice
Melt butter for approx 1 min in large bowl. Whisk eggs, add to melted butter with other ingredients. Mix well. Microwave uncovered for 2½ mins, stir well, then a further 2½ mins in the microwave until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Stir well until thoroughly mixed. Allow to cool slightly then pour into warm, sterilised jars.
Not suitable for making tarts but delicious on bread or in my quick sponge cake recipe.
26
MEET OUR ARTISTS IN LOCKDOWN
The seascape submitted for this Buzz by Vanda Outram is stunning!
The three animal portraits by Don Kirkaldy
in our Painting for Pleasure group are equally superb.
No boredom in lockdown if you have this talent!
Don Kirkaldy “could draw at school but never paint”, he says. His initial inspiration came from Bob Ross’s TV painting programmes (repeated on BBC2 during ‘lockdown’). From there to an oil-painting teacher in Barnsley, then to BU3A. Don now paints
in pastels. 27
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28
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TUESDAY WALKERS Coordinators: Helen and Syd Swift
All walks will meet at 09:45 am for a 10 am start and will be approximately 5 to 6 miles long. We estimate that they will be completed by 1:00 pm. The walks vary in severity so please do check with the leader if you have any concerns about suitability. There is usually a nearby refreshment venue if members wish to socialise after the walk. Unfortunately, we have reached full capacity and are unable to take new members at this present time.
Date Meeting Place Walking Area Leader(s)
2 Skelmanthorpe Junior FC Car Park Skelmanthorpe Sheila June Smithy Lane, Skelmanthorpe HD8 9DE (This is the second half of the Refreshments: Dobbies Garden Centre Skelmanthorpe Circular Trail) 16 Dunkirk Inn Cawthorne, Deffer Wood Pauline and June 231 Barnsley Road, Denby Dale, Robert Huddersfield HD8 8TX Refreshments: Dunkirk Inn 30 Rabbit Ings Country Park Rabbit Ings/Felkirk Church Lynda and June Lund Hill Lane, Royston, Barnsley S71 4BB David Refreshments: Felkirk Church will serve refreshments. 14 Fishermen’s Car Park Wombwell Woods Robina July Directions to be given Refreshments: Dearne Valley Farm Pub or KFC 28 Old Moor Nature Reserve Elsecar Centre and back passing Alan and July Old Moor Lane, Wombwell S73 0VF several industrial heritage sites. All Pat Refreshments: Old Moor weather walk on good paths, no hills. 11 Partridge Dale, Silkstone Common S75 4RZ Silkstone Common Pauline and August Refreshments: Local Robert
25 Denby Dale War Memorial Denby Dale Helen and August Car Park, Wakefield Road, Syd Denby Dale HD8 8RP Refreshments: Mill Shop 8 Finkle Street TPT Car Park Hunshelf, The Upper Don Trail Helen and September Wortley S35 7DH Syd Refreshments: Wortley 22 Details to be provided Peace Hall, Halifax and Shibdon Hall Pam/Alan September and Pat
ROBINA CRABTREE
I started walking with the Tuesday Walking Group about three years ago. The first walk I turned up for was from Penistone. Immediately, I was made to feel welcome and soon got chatting to people. The walks are always varied and some I had not experienced before. I was asked to lead some, which I was nervous about, hoping that they were ok and that I wouldn't leave anyone behind. In fact, I should have been leading one on Tuesday 7th April from Wombwell. My fellow walkers never criticise the walks as we realise that a lot of work has gone into preparing for them. We have such a laugh and I'm often teased about my 'love life'! There are several offers to be 'bridesmaids' and that's just from the men! Let's hope that we'll all be back to walking together in the near future. I look longingly at the moors near Langsett that I can see in the distance. I'd like to thank Helen and Sid Swift for doing an excellent job as Coordinators. Stay Safe.
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THURSDAYS LONGER WALKS Coordinator: Brian Smyth
The walks vary in difficulty, the ‘A’ walks being more challenging. For more details on any of the walks contact the walk leader. Interested in joining the group? Please contact Brian Smyth. All walks start at 10:00 unless otherwise stated. *What3words Date Leader Meeting Place Walking Area Miles
11th June Mike Hay Wood Nat. Trust car park Frogatt Edge 9 ‘B’ Walk Hawley Grid Ref : 255 777 *w3w : bother.care.villa 25th June David Meet at Harthill Village car park Rotherham Ramble 10 ‘B’ Walk Leadbeater Grid Ref: 4920806 *w3w : hobby.swarm.weekday
9th July Mick Langsett Barn car park Outer Edge & 10 ’ B’ Walk Mosforth Grid Ref : 212 004 Little Don *w3w : managed.outbid.songbird 23rd July Brian Shireoaks Village Hall Shireoaks, 8.5 ‘B’ Walk Smyth Grid Ref : 554 809 Chesterfield Canal *w3w : gravitate.audibly.zebra Anston Stones Wood 13th Aug 27rd Aug To be advised 10th Sept 24th Sept
THURSDAY WALKERS Coordinator: Jean Potter July dates only. Dates for August and September will be arranged as we get back together.
Date Leader(s) Meeting place Walk area Distance
July 2nd Pat /Jean Ewden res. Ewden and Glen Howe circular. 5 July 9th Andy Haworth Joint walk with long walking group July 16 th Jackie Bradfield CP Bradfield 5/6 July 30 th Mike H Kendal Green CP Stainborough 6
JOHN & MARTIN U.P.V.C. DOOR AND WINDOW
SERVICE ENGINEERS ADJUSTMENT AND REPAIR SERVICE
THE DOOR DOCTOR QUOTES FOR REPLACEMENT WINDOWS AND DOORS. STEAMY GLASS UNITS, LOCKS AND
HANDLES, PLACEMENT DOOR PANELS, LETTERBOXES & HINGES, ETC (No call out charges) TEL: 07742080207/07722086250
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BOOK FORUM 2 (first Tuesday of the month at Birdwell) Coordinator: Gloria King
Appropriate for now, I think: We will discuss the following books, chosen by the group, on the dates shown: by L. R. Knost August 4 The Man from St Petersburg by Ken Follett. Life is amazing. This is a dark story of family secrets and political consequences. The world is on the brink of war, just ful. And then it’s aw before WW1 and Britain needs to enlist the aid of And then it’s amazing again. Russia. Published in 1982.
And in between the amazing and awful, September 1 The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley. The first in a unique series of seven books, said to be It’s ordinary and mundane and routine. spellbinding. It is based on the legend of the seven Breathe in the amazing, hold on through sisters of the star constellation.
the awful, and relax and exhale during October 6 The Shepherd’s Hut by Tim Winton. This is the story of a young man who is on a thrilling journey of the ordinary. That’s just living. self-discovery in one of the harshest, near- Heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, uninhabitable, climates on Earth. The themes are of survival, solitude and unlikely friendship. Tim Winton is awful, ordinary life. And it’s Australia’s most decorated and beloved novelist.
breathtakingly beautiful. If we are still in lockdown on these dates, please e-mail or text me with your thoughts and impressions of the books.
Will other BU3A members take the lack of group activity as a moment to try one of these novels? (Ed.)
Honeydew House COLWYN BAY Holiday Let Sleeps 4 – double room & twin room Cot available 2 minutes walk from beach and water sports facility
10 minutes drive from Colwyn Bay, Zoo, Llandudno and Conway Virtual tour available on www.northwalesholidaycottages.co.uk
Bookings can be made from this site or tel: 01492 582492
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FAMILY HISTORY (Priory) ENIGMA Sue Lindsay
I started to look at my family history soon after my dad (right) died. I am a third- generation single child and when he died, suddenly the family seemed so tiny and I felt that I was in danger of losing any opportunity to see where we all came from. I joined the BU3A Family History Monday group and that gave me access to Find My Past; I love seeing people getting excited when they unearth little hidden gems.
Many of my ancestors were miners, steel workers and canal boatmen, and boy did they have a lot of children! How did the women do it in those days? Did they really want such large families or was it just natural urges and no means of protecting against pregnancy? It must have been tremendously difficult to feed so many small mouths. I didn't find many criminal activities although one young canal bargee was fined for rustling a sheep!
But here is the golden nugget that so thrills me! On Dad's side, I discovered that I am related by marriage to COLIN GRAZIER. He’s the nephew of my great uncle’s wife!
An attack by a British destroyer on a German U-boat in the Eastern Mediterranean in October 1942 altered the course of the entire Second World War, and Tamworth-born Colin Grazier (left), Lieutenant Tony Fasson and Naafi canteen assistant Tommy Brown wrote themselves into history. Because of their efforts, the capture of the secret German Enigma coding material from U-559, enabled Bletchley Park’s codebreakers to crack a new Enigma system introduced to cover a maximum U-boat offensive. Indeed, Winston Churchill hailed the work of Bletchley Park as “the secret weapon that won the war.”
On the night of 30th October 1942, a Sunderland Flying Boat reported that it was in visual contact with a submarine heading in a westerly direction and a long battle ensued between HMS Petard and the U-559. It was imperative that they forced the submarine to surface. Eventually the stricken sub appeared in HMS Petard’s search-lights. After the crew of the German U-boat had been evacuated and placed under arrest, the captain of HMS Petard asked for volunteers to go and search the damaged submarine and this is when Lt. Fasson said that he would go aboard. He stripped off his clothes and jumped into the freezing cold sea. Colin Grazier also volunteered and followed him across. The two men were then joined by 16-year-old Tommy Brown, and they began the task of searching the rapidly-sinking sub for any vital information. The two senior men, Fasson and Grazier went into the submarine and passed all the information they could get their hands on to the young Brown who was waiting on the conning tower. Suddenly the submarine lurched and slipped beneath the waves, taking Grazier, aged 22, and Fasson to their final resting place. But not before they had passed the vital information that enabled Bletchley Park to crack the Nazi’s secret code. Two memorials to Grazier in Tamworth are pictured here.
I can honestly say that researching family history is a true delight and at its most basic is surprisingly easy, although it does develop into a major logic problem as you go further back. So when all this is all over, why not join one of the Family History groups and maybe you will discover your own Colin Grazier!
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IN PAIN, INSANE AND IN DENIAL AGAIN Celia (a BU3A member but not her real name)
I’ve spent my life on the roller-coaster of living with problem drinkers. First my husband and then my only son. After 30 years, I left my husband but my son was a different matter. I was his mother, it was my job to save him, support him in any way I could; after all, it must be my fault. I felt so guilty that somehow I’d let him down.
When he was at senior school, I discovered that he and his pals were drinking in the park but thought it would be a passing phase. Next, there were accusations of him dabbling in drugs, as well. We ran a village pub for a living – people couldn’t wait to come in and let us know about him! I was losing my sanity; I argued and denied this rumour-mongering but inside I was drowning. I put on an act of being unworried or alarmed but, inside, my heart was breaking.
By the time he left school there had been several incidents and visits from the police. I was really struggling. I had a few good friends who tried to support me but surrounded by all the excessive drinking it was difficult to keep everything together, although I think that I managed to do so (one has to be a good actor in the pub trade). My son continued drinking (and the rest) and decided to travel. He drank his way around the world while we funded this ‘expedition’. Eventually, he settled in New Zealand. He remained a financial drain on me. The years passed and eventually his partner left him and so, yet again, I went to ‘save’ him! As far as you can go, geographically!
By this time, I had remarried. I was determined we were going to fix everything once and for all. I was going to stay out there until we had! We found him support, a rehab facility, threw everything at the problem; it had to work, we had put in so much time, money and effort. After three days in rehab he signed himself out.
My husband and I sat outside the rehab centre. My heart was breaking and I sobbed so hard I couldn’t breathe. “We might as well go home, there’s nothing more we can do”; how right my husband was! But no… We took him back to his home and he was already drinking again, another dreadful few days and my husband had to return to England to work. When he left, he was extremely worried about leaving me there but I was determined. The next day my son told me to leave, to go away (not his words) and my goodness, I called his bluff and left on the first available flight. There are no words to describe how I felt. Travelling alone half way round the globe with my heart crushed, beyond all hope.
Yet this was the beginning of my recovery. Life was littered with my son’s drunk-driving, seizures and suicide attempts. He was back causing havoc once more, until at last I admitted to a friend that I was powerless over alcohol and realised my life had become unmanageable. Her words were clear and simple, “It’s time you went to an ‘Al- Anon’ meeting” and that evening I did! I remember the first few weeks. I sobbed, broken-hearted, but what I quickly felt was the love and support of the group. I wasn’t judged, members shared their own similar experiences. The anonymity allowed me to speak and to listen to others telling of their experience, strength and hope. No longer alone, today I am a grateful member of Al-Anon.
I’ve learned to live one day at a time. Not dwelling in the past or projecting into the future. I have learned to mind my own business and not take away another’s responsibilities. I have learned to say NO! Knowing more about the disease of alcoholism and beginning to change my own attitudes, I learned to love myself and live life on life’s terms. I realised the hard way that we can’t change other people, only ourselves. There is no magic cure, we can’t control alcoholism and we certainly didn’t cause it.
I no longer feel powerless, I’ve learned to trust again and am in a position where I feel I can support others and give something back as I continue my journey in recovery. Just for today, my son is sober and happily married with a family, and he also mentors others through their journey.
In love, Celia
Al-Anon Family Groups UK & Eire, 57B Great Suffolk Street, London SE1 0BB, 020 7403 088 Website: www.al-anonuk.org.uk Free and Confidential Helpline: 0800 0086 811 37
OH, TO BE IN ENGLAND. Gill Wolff “Oh, to be in England now that April’s there”, wrote Robert Browning in ‘Home thoughts from abroad’, from Italy in 1845.
This year, amidst the distress and misery of the Coronavirus, the beauty of the natural world in April has been a sharp and welcome contrast. For those of us who can go out into the countryside to walk, the rewards have been immeasurable. Birds have been at full throttle from dawn until dusk, the weather has been glorious and the days longer. Shoots have emerged in the verges, couch grass, nettles, brambles, deceptively delicate before they get into their full choking, stinging, pricking, summer vigour. The sky is barely visible through the canopy of green with each tree coming into full leaf in order. Blossom is appearing on the hawthorn.
The new lambs are chasing cheerfully and leaping for the sheer fun of it. Fields which were bumpy and clodded with clay are neatly levelled and sown. Water courses which a month ago were raging torrents are subdued and trickle along deep cut banks. Ridges and troughs of mud have gone from paths and tracks which are now dry and dusty. Tree roots and stones have appeared as more feet than usual have eroded the soil. The woods are carpeted in bluebells. Those who know where to look are out in force this year, tramping the easy access routes and marvelling at the sight. Hidden in shady patches, the wood anemones are delicately shaded in white and pink. As the day warms up, the scent of wild garlic pervades; swathes of spear-shaped leaves and tiny star- shaped flowers; would it be a sin to steal some for cooking?
Yesterday, the cows were in the field for the first time. Black and white flanks against the lush green. Today, setting off, uphill, head down, the scent of lilac in the air made me look up and breathe its familiar, favourite fragrance. Cow parsley, more romantically called Queen Anne’s Lace, is coming into bloom at the side of the lanes. Less prolific than it used to be, a victim to pesticides? Walking alone makes you more observant; I had forgotten that dandelions spend the night close furled and only come out when warmed by the sun.
Can we counterbalance the evils of coronavirus with the benison of the out-of-doors, enjoying its health-giving properties as fully as possible? We are the lucky ones.
THEATRE Coordinators: Anne Stewart & Pat Butcher
The Theatre group are meeting up on ‘Zoom’. We are very much together as a group in spite of the lockdown; we spend time discussing National Theatre plays we have listened to on Radio 4 and watched on YouTube. Some of us also watch ballet from the Royal Ballet. Friday 8th May was V.E. Day and at our Zoom meeting (left) we wore red, white and blue and had a virtual tea party. Some of the members recounted their experiences of V.E. Day 75 years ago and the things they remember from that time. Then we all sang 'We'll meet again ' accompanied by one of our members playing the piano. We are all looking forward in anticipation to the end of lockdown and the times when 'We'll meet again’ in the flesh.
Mrs Irene Graham delighted the audience with her reminiscence of the German prisoner of war sent each week to do her garden. He was repatriated at the end of 1945, she recalled. “He’d always seemed a nice, friendly chap, but when the crocuses came up in the middle of the lawn in February 1946, they spelt out Heil Hitler”. (Bournemouth Evening Echo) Radio 4: The News Quiz
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BIADS (Barnsley Independent Alzheimer’s and Dementia Support) is an organisation formed by Barnsley people to provide support to those who have any form of dementia and their families and friends.
Since we are an independent group serving the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley we can guarantee that all funds raised and donations received will be used here in Barnsley
What Does BIADS Do? From our dedicated centre in Barnsley we provide support to those affected by dementia, their carers, families and friends by providing information, emotional support, social opportunities, meaningful activities and events. Through our range of services we hope to enable our members to live well with dementia in the community
BIADS' Logo We have chosen the ‘tree of hearts’ to symbolise the ethos of our organisation The trunk of the tree represents BIADS with our roots firmly in the Barnsley community The hearts represent those people who have dementia and those who love and care for them The branches are the services that BIADS offers – reaching out to support those affected by dementia in Barnsley
How can you help? Make a one-off donation Make a regular donation Offer your time and expertise Become a member, please get in touch for a form Join our ‘everyone’s a winner’ draw Spread the word about BIADS’ work
BIADS' Dementia Support Centre, Joseph Exley House, Dean Street, Barnsley, S70 6EX
Email: [email protected] Phone: 01226 280057 Registered charity number: 1140201
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HUMILIATION Alan Swann I recall at Barnsley Grammar School, the Headmaster used to have a Monday morning assembly for the whole school at which he would announce his ‘letter’ of the week. It went something like this.
“This week’s letter is a ‘c’”. Then pointing his finger to a boy in the assembly he would say “You, boy, tell me something beginning with a ‘c’ that you enjoy (or dislike or wish for etc.) Much shuddering in the boots and shaking as the poor wretch had to hastily think of something to satisfy the Headmaster. “Cake, sir” would be an acceptable answer and we could relax again for another week. Anyone unable to give an acceptable answer would be belittled in the typical 1950/60s style.
Anyway this went on week after week with most of us trying to avoid eye contact when we got to the ‘letter of the week’ bit.
However eventually I was singled out for attention. He knew my name. “This week the letter of the week is ‘n’ (now let’s see who can I humiliate this week?) Ah, Mr Swann, please tell us what ‘n’ you are not very good at?” “Spelling, sir”, I replied in an instant without studying the consequences. This was initially met by a deafening silence. But then one of the teachers sitting beside the Headmaster laughed..... and then another. And then all my mates laughed and eventually the whole assembly was laughing. But, of course, not the Headmaster who, grim-faced, simply pointed at me and said, “9.30 in my office, boy”. By 9.30 he had calmed down a bit and simply told me to go to my form room. Interestingly, he never asked me again to join in with his ‘letter of the week’.
Anyone else recall anything like this from their schooldays? Would make a good Buzz series, I bet!
RIVERS QUIZ David Hydes Alan Swann mumbled something to me about a BU3A pen as a prize for this quiz but he’s now told me they’re all in lockdown in his pen room at home till next year!
1 bonnie river? 2 part of an epic ongoing saga 3 former partner, say?
4 this river comes to a dead end . . . 5 . . . while this one is out of line 6 how the big ape might introduce himself 7 up this river a star is born 8 confuse the king in France
9 drives off from this river 10 runs through Wimbledon common, maybe? 11 underwent amputation 12 always between the poles 13 compos mentis, I hear
14 ham an’ eggs, scrambled . . No, forget the ham 15 wife of one of the flower people, I hear 16 just missed out on the bronze medal 17 mixed up as them 18 sappers surrounded by explosive mixture
19 and he has no change
20 seep out, say 21 ?
22 found in many uk onshore locations dee tweed, murray-darling yukon wye ouse shenandoah
t t 23 loving greeting to the ex-Wimbledon champ tren thames forth mississippi ganges seine severn derwent
oco oco 24 twin rivers, seen through the looking glass orin tees loire avon mekong nile jordan exe congo clyde
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MY OLYMPICS Audrey Eyre
On 6th July 2005, I was working as a paralegal for a firm of Attorneys on the Strand in London. Like hundreds of other people, I walked down to Trafalgar Square in my lunch break to hear the result of the UK’s 2012 Olympic bid.
When the Organising Committee later asked for 70,000 volunteers, I immediately decided that I wanted to be one of them. I started monitoring the London 2012 website and in July 2010 I retired specifically to be free to do whatever I could to make the Games a success.
The first group of volunteers were called Trailblazers and the Selection Event Volunteers (SEVs) began working in February 2011, interviewing other ‘Games Makers’. I worked as a SEV at the London ExCel Centre (currently the Nightingale coronavirus hospital) for over a year and interviewed some amazing people from all over the world. When the interviews were completed, the next job was to issue all the uniforms and accreditation to the selected ‘Games Makers’ and Technical Officials. This centre was called UDAC and because it was the first Olympic venue to go ‘live’, we were visited by Seb Coe, David Cameron and the world’s media.
While working as a SEV and at UDAC, I also volunteered to take part in the Opening Ceremony. I had two auditions and amazingly, I passed! I was allocated to the ‘Green and Pleasant Land’ segment of the Opening Ceremony as a Maypole Lady.
We had a total of 15 rehearsals, the last nine being in the Olympic Stadium. For each of these nine rehearsals, we had to walk in total eight miles(!) through the Olympic Park to the changing areas, down to the stadium and then the return journeys. I was responsible for taking six children onto the field of play, learning their dance routine, clapping the dance rhythm for 11 minutes (much easier said than done!) and getting them safely off at the end of our act through the transition to the Industrial Revolution scene. My children were 9 and 10 year-olds from Greenwich and one little girl was really excited to see a real sheep!
Following the Opening Ceremony, I continued to work at UDAC, issuing the uniforms to people volunteering for the Paralympic Games until the closure of that event. My fourth and final ‘Games Maker’ role was as a Guide on the Olympic Park for the entire Paralympic Games. I was lucky to be working for both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Therefore, I was involved in three of the four ceremonies.
During the Paralympic Games, I was chosen by the BBC to appear in their 6.30pm London News for “A Day in the Life of a Games Maker”. I was also chosen to represent the ‘Green and Pleasant Land’ on the One Show with Danny Boyle. The photo shows me wearing my Opening Ceremony costume.
Altogether I volunteered for 127 days from February 2011 until September 2012. I still have all my uniforms and costume, lots of other souvenirs and a brain full of amazing memories. Sadly, neither my husband nor my mum lived to see my five minutes of fame.
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MEET OUR ARTISTS IN LOCKDOWN
Words cannot express what we feel when listening to great music or looking at a work of art. Here is another page of impressive art from Geoff Pike (1 & 2), Christine Palmer (3 & 4) and James Naylor (5–7)
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REMINISCING IN LOCKDOWN Brenda Jones Music has been a very big part of my life since I was a young child.
My mother was sub-postmistress at Bolsterstone (where I remember that an onion hung over the counter to catch the germs that customers brought in!) and apart from her very busy life at the hub of the village, she accompanied Bolsterstone Male Voice Choir, played in the school for dancing classes and also attended social evenings when a pianist was required.
The piano we had at home was a rather cumbersome upright. The table had to be jammed right up to it as there was no room otherwise, so it was a regular thing that the furniture had to be moved to facilitate entertainment for my dad and me, or for anyone else who happened to be visiting.
It was inevitable that I went for piano lessons and when I was old enough, I went down to Deepcar, to a lady called Miss Hoyle who lived with her sister. She was also the music teacher at Stocksbridge High School.
One day, mum said that we were having a new piano from Wilson Peck, an esteemed music shop in Sheffield. This was very exciting and when it arrived we were both longing to give it a try. Even though this piano didn’t take up as much room as the other, the stool would not fit underneath so the table still had to be moved like before. However, the difference in the appearance and sound was remarkable. I enjoyed piano lessons, but as a teenager, there was always something else of interest for me and I must admit I didn’t practise as much as I should have done. I can hear my Mother’s words now, “You’ll regret it”.
At Stocksbridge High School, I joined the school Choir and we went to many competitions, gaining some success, but the sheer joy of singing with my friends and others in the school was tremendous. Later, I was asked by a work friend if I would join her choir at Oughtibridge at Christmas and other occasions and I enjoyed many a happy hour there, too.
The same Wilson Peck piano remained at my mother’s house, and when I left home, got married and had a house of my own, I only got to play the piano when I visited her. Her words started to resonate in my head and I did wish I had kept up with my practice; my skills would have been better.
Some years later when my dear mother left us, I decided that, despite lack of space, I would keep the piano and start lessons once again. I went to Michael Peaker in Stocksbridge, who was musical director of Worrall Male Voice Choir. This lasted for a couple of years until, unfortunately, Michael fell ill on a visit abroad with the choir and passed away. Family and work life then took over. I still played the piano now and again, but I really wanted to get back to the standard I had achieved in my early years.
During the 60s and 70s, I spent part of my leisure time as a member of Elmsdale Operatic Society (below) in shows at Sheffield’s Lyceum (right) and City Hall. We had some lovely times then. One comical note is that the firm of solicitors I worked for used to ask me to get the insurance stamps for the company from our Post Office. So, sometimes I had quite a lot of money to transfer to my mother for this purpose. Memories come flooding back of large envelopes containing lots of money pinned to my undergarments while dancing on the City Hall and Lyceum stages. What strange memories!
When I was approaching retirement, I joined Barnsley U3A after a talk at a ladies’ club telling us what a wonderful organisation it was for semi-retired and retired people. I decided to join BU3A before retirement so that I would have something set up for when I actually finished work. I dabbled a bit in a few groups until I heard that a choir was starting up. This was more my thing, so I joined as soon as possible. The choir has just celebrated its 10th anniversary and apart from the current coronavirus situation which is affecting everyone, we have a large and loyal membership and perform many concerts.
For some time now I have been having piano lessons again. I wanted a younger teacher who had various ‘strings to his bow’ and was involved in other music projects. I found the right person and have been enjoying learning. We get on very well and he is an interesting influence. I practise nearly every day and feel I have progressed well. I am sure that my mother would be delighted that I have restarted lessons and am singing with the choir. I think of her every time I lift the piano lid to play. 43
During ‘lockdown’, Penistone Crafty Chat’s Eleanor Ingram has been crocheting mask adapters (left) and sewing scrubs bags (right) for the NHS, “just trying to do my bit”. Well done, Eleanor!
WRITERS OF THE THIRD PAGE (ex-CREATIVE WRITING 2) Coordinator: Mac McKechnie
As ‘Creative Writing’ was full, ‘Creative Writing 2’ (since re-named ‘Writers of the Third Page’) was formed in March 2020. The date set for our first fortnightly meeting fell in the week that lockdown started so no meeting happened! It would have been easy to leave things un-started but we decided to continue as an email group. I then thought about a Walking Cricket friend I have in a different U3A and I invited her to join our group as a guest just for the period of lockdown and then, suddenly, other guests started asking to join!
We are now a very busy group! We posted about ourselves on the U3A National Facebook page and guests asked to join from Stafford, Doncaster, Cam and Dursley, Whitley Bay and Scunthorpe U3As and also an international guest from Knox U3A, just outside Melbourne, Australia!
We are having great fun and on Saturdays we vote for the ‘Author of the Week’. We all work hard to try to achieve this accolade from our peers. And we’ve even had a Guest judge; the poet and author Kate Brumby. I am so pleased how it’s developed in such a short space of time, and some of our guests have already said they are going to join Barnsley U3A after lockdown so that they can stay with our group. There are still a few vacancies at the time of writing, I think we can manage up to twenty, so if you are interested, why not contact me? Then someone else will have to start up ‘Creative Writing 3’ !
The pages devoted to the art of Don Kirkaldy, James Naylor, Vanda Outram, Christine Palmer and Geoff Pike are possibly overshadowed by this painting (right)?
On the epic scale of Picasso’s masterpiece ‘Guernica’, we are proud to offer this creosote study entitled ‘Table, Chairs and Fence in My Back Garden’ by Max Senior
And more artistry from Betty Higginbottom who works tirelessly for the benefit of BU3A. This is the logo section of a large tablecloth she has made for use at our promotion and display events. Thank you, Betty!
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STAYING CHEERFUL AMIDST THE CRISIS
“Armed police! Come out now with your hands washed!”
JULIA HYDE WHERE AM I?
1 Leap! 2 I left for what cost? 3 Feathery friend doing ok 4 A uterus filled with water 5 Sound of the male member 6 Mr Orbison owns 907.185 kg 7 Deep hole filled with bee juice 8 Discoloured marks intersection
Hemmingfield Hemmingfield
Cuworth
9 Value of the cows’ chewing gum Staincross Honeywell 10 Turn over and sew the edge of the open land Royston Penistone Wombwell Birdwell Wentworth Jump
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DOREEN MURDIN POETRY PAGE. (We clearly need a Poetry group!)
As you travel through life I hope there will be many pathways for you to follow MARGARET WHITTAKER MY PET HATE and wonderful things for you to discover.
When you have chosen a pathway, I heard it on the telephone I hope you will be strong enough You know the mobile kind to climb any mountains on the horizon, I heard it on the express train About two seats behind clever enough to get round the obstacles on the road, brave enough to slay any dragons who threaten you, I heard it while I read my book A stilted conversation and determined enough to keep going until you find what you are looking for. Boring droning on and on On the current situation
I hope you will make friends along the way Other subjects too were voiced
but also that you will be independent enough My face turned red with rage to travel on your own if you want to. I lost track of my last chapter Not every pathway will be just right for you On next to the last page
but there will always be something to learn on the way. Quiet reigned for half an hour If one path does not take you where you want to go, Devoid of interruptions choose another path. Then off it went again “Oh dear”
At each cross road look around My temper had eruptions
and choose the route that is best for you. I grabbed the phone and said my piece I hope the sun shines on you most of the time Then promptly turned off power and that your rainy days are followed by rainbows. The school boy grabbed it back from me
I hope your cup is always half full and not half empty With a wicked looking glower
Whatever path you choose Where’s that noise I try to place Enjoy the journey, admire the view, I reach my bag to find it
and make the very best use of all I look at schoolboy smug and say, that life has in store for you. Are you sure that you don’t mind it?
But most of all have fun. I told my daughter where I’m going To phone at half past two Excuse me while I answer this I’m really just like you SPANISH SKETCH Pete Felton I felt so very lonely Walking with the beats, we look like insects from above When all your friends were ringing Intent on an insect travelogue But a phone all of my own again And the heat on the street, melts the treacled tarmac Has set my heart a singing. It's as slick and as black, as an undertaker's hat
Jazz drifts down from a window high above I’ll put up with my old pet hate I have my own phone now It's smiles in Spain, from Miles with love. All singing dancing Samsung
Vibrate and take a bow.
IT’S OVER CHRIS STOREY He fell into her arms She fell into despair Feelings never did no harm But loving wasn’t there It wasn’t him but her He knew that she was lying In his heart he feared She really wasn’t trying His stomach knotted firm He didn’t eat or drink She couldn’t go the term Too soon she broke the link He climbed inside her head Then knew the reason why She skirted round the bed And left him high and dry He held the loss so strong And felt his heart aquiver She never felt his song And sold him down the river
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BILL AND BEN QUIZ ANOTHER FAB JO KASPAREK QUIZ Another fab BU3A pen from Alan Swann?
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BARNSLEY & DISTRICT U3A 2019 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Minutes of the 23rd AGM held at Priory Campus on Monday 3rd June 2019
Present: Alan Swann (Chairman), Jacqui MacKinnon (Business Secretary), Derek Bacon (Buzz & Publicity), John MacKinnon (Membership Secretary), Helen Dew (New Members), Margaret Saxton (Social Secretary), Max Senior (Equalities), Mike Nevins (Room Bookings)
Apologies: Hilary Newton (Treasurer), Sue Rowley (Choir)
Chairman’s Welcome
The Chair welcomed new and current members to the 23rd AGM and invited all present to stand in a minute’s silence to honour the memory of our 12 members who had passed away in the previous 12 months. Members were referred to the Summer Edition of ‘The Buzz’, published today, which contains the Agenda for today’s meeting, the minutes of the 22nd AGM, the Chairman’s Annual Report and the 2018/19 Financial Statement.
Minutes of the 22nd AGM
Members were invited to consider the minutes of the 22nd AGM.
Approval of Minutes and Matters Arising
The Minutes were approved and accepted as a true record. Proposed by Sarah Taylor and seconded by Peter Higginbottom. There were no matters arising.
Chairman’s Annual Report 2019
The Chairman’s Annual Report is printed in full in ‘The Buzz’ and will be submitted to the Charities Commission together with our Annual Accounts for publication on their website.
The Chair reflected on the previous twelve months and the growth of our U3A throughout this period. Not only do we continue to attract new members, but our membership retention is at its highest on record. This indicates that we are meeting the challenge of offering a wide and ever-increasing range of activities appealing across the broad base of our membership (1100+ at the end of March).
The Chair highlighted the success of Walking Cricket which has received both local and national publicity through the Third Age Trust. Founded with the advice and support of the Yorkshire County Cricket Board, its Founder has been asked to advise on the activity at National U3A level. We have two active Groups currently operating and their activities can be viewed on You Tube – U3A Walking Cricket.
We continue to collaborate closely with Age UK Barnsley. Their Eldon Street Shop acts as a collection point for ‘The Buzz’ and their franking machine saves us money on our bulk mailings. We also cooperate with them in Penistone where we have been working with them to reduce loneliness and isolation amongst the retired community. Age UK have received funding for a third year to continue to support this initiative.
We continue to publicise our activities to ensure that as many people as possible know what we offer to retired and semi-retired people in Barnsley. In addition to the Website and ‘The Buzz’, our publicity leaflets are handed out at the various events which we attend throughout the wards. Barnsley MBC is aware of who we are and the benefits that we offer and is keen to include us in their programme of events aimed at a senior audience.
We have a strong Executive Committee and our healthy financial position enables us to support the growth of our U3A going forward.
The Chairman concluded his report by thanking the various committees that work to bring us events open to all members – Social, Travel and the Choir - and finally offered a big vote of thanks to all Coordinators and Deputy Coordinators who work so hard on our behalf.
A show of hands from the floor accepted the above report.
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st Treasurer’s Report – Accounts Year Ending 31 March 2019 Hilary Newton is unfortunately unwell and not able to attend in person to submit her report which was set out in ‘The Buzz’. The Chairman reported that our finances are very healthy. Our cash reserves on 31st March were £35,181.63. The final accounts have been examined and signed off by Les Roberts and Don Smith. The accounts were accepted as a true record – proposed by Mac McKechnie and seconded by Dave Hallas.
Social Secretary’s Report (Margaret Saxton)
Margaret Saxton reported that the Social Committee had been very busy over the past 12 months staging the following events:
Race Night – Our second race night was successfully staged at Dodworth MW. Christmas Lunch at Burntwood. We will continue to stage this event at Burntwood as it offers unrivalled facilities and a choice of menu on the day. This year’s lunch will take place on Thursday 5th December. The 2019 Burns Night took place at The Bluebell Conference Suite on 25th January. Pipers piped in the Haggis which was formally addressed. Dinner was followed by toasts and short speeches before Brackenrigg launched the music and dancing. On Friday 31st May we held a Sixties Night, also at The Bluebell Conference Suite. A hot buffet was served and a local DJ provided music and entertainment that kept 93 of us on the go all evening long. Our next event will be a Ceilidh which will take place at Worsborough Social Club on the 4th October.
Travel Secretary’s Report (Chrissie White)
Chrissie White reminded us of the Trips organised by the Travel Committee over the past 12 months:
North Yorks Moors Railway. In April we took a trip on this famously scenic railway from Pickering to Whitby. We spent the night in Scarborough. River Trent Cruise. In September we took to the water and enjoyed a cruise on the River Trent along with an excellent carvery lunch. Everybody enjoyed this so much we are running another trip in June. Classical Spectacular at the Royal Albert Hall. This hugely popular evening in November was a great success and involved an overnight stay in London. Castle Howard at Christmas. Our final event for the year was a visit to Castle Howard to enjoy a day at this famous stately home all decked out and ready for the Christmas.
It was noted that we had been approached by a travel operator Just Go. This is being investigated.
Development Officer’s Report (Beth Rudkin)
Beth Rudkin stood down from this role at the end of April. However, she returned to give us the following summary of Group News over the past 12 months. Replacing her as Development Officer will be Joan Tollerfield. We currently have 126 Groups which is in line with the expectations of The Third Age Trust for a U3A with our level of membership.
New Groups for 2018/9 included:
Yoga, Calligraphy, Italian for Beginners, Walking Cricket (2), How Our Ancestors Lived (Dodworth), Singalong for Fun, Walking Netball and Current Affairs which is about to launch.
Several Groups closed for a variety of reasons. These included: Mixed Walking Football, Am Dram and the Discussion Group.
Penistone (Helen Dew)
Helen Dew gave the following update on Groups based in Penistone but which are open to all members of BU3A. The following Groups are currently active:
Board Games, Crown Green Bowling (two greens available and wheelchair user participation possible on the artificial surface), Patchwork Projects, Crafty Chats, Walking Group, Vintage Social Penistone, Paramount Group, Art Group Penistone and Crown Green Bowling, Millhouse Green
There is a Drop-In Meeting at St. John’s Community Centre on the first Thursday of every month.
Appointment of Tellers. As there were insufficient members present to constitute a quorum, we did not need to appoint Tellers. 49
Resolutions. Proposed revised wording to BU3A Constitution. There being no quorum present, the two proposed resolutions set out below will be carried forward to a future meeting.
Update clause 3 of our “Charitable Purposes” to say: - “The advancement of education and in particular the education of older people and those retired from full time work by all means including associated activities conducive to learning and personal development.”
In clause 16.4 reduce the quorum percentage from 15% down to 10%.
Nominations and Election to Executive Committee
The Chair read out nominations for the Executive Committee as follows:
Derek Bacon - Vice Chairman Jacqui MacKinnon - Business Secretary
The nominees for election as committee members were:
Helen Dew, John MacKinnon, Mike Nevins, Robin Northcut, Sue Rowley, Margaret Saxton, Max Senior, Joan Tollerfield. A show of hands from the members present accepted the above.
The Chairman noted that we are able to co-opt a further two members to the committee. It was also noted that we are currently looking to appoint someone to cover Speaking Bookings for the Monthly Meetings and someone to handle External Publicity, including the production of leaflets to hand out at events.
The Chair offered a vote of thanks to those committee members who had stood down from their respective committee roles: Ernest Bradley, Vice Chairman Pam Clayton, Business Secretary Beth Rudkin, Development Officer Mike Booth, Webmaster
Appointment of Independent Examiners of Accounts
Les Roberts and Don Smith are to continue in the role of joint examiners of the accounts.
Coordinators Updates
Derek Bacon announced the following dates:
Amnesty International Concert on Saturday 29th June at St. Edward’s Church, Racecommon Road. Performances from BU3A’s Old Blowers, Flutes Galore and guests including charming young singer, Olivia Clarke. Tickets: £5.00 on the door. Choir’s Tenth Anniversary Concert at 1400 on Tuesday 30th July at Emmanuel. Tickets £5.00. Available in advance from Derek Bacon. In celebration of 10 years, Tony Jermy is looking to produce a CD. On the 7th October the Choir will perform at the Monthly Meeting. On the 19th October there will be a Special Concert held at Emmanuel at which the Choir and Thurnscoe Male Voice Choir will perform. The pianist will be Irene Hill who has been accompanying Thurnscoe for a remarkable 67 years.
Derek also drew our attention to a notice on Page 10 of the Buzz asking for volunteers to spend an hour or two handing out leaflets at the Barnsley Lightbox Open Day on the 20th July.
Max Senior announced that The Old Blowers would be playing at the next Monthly Meeting on 1st July.
Any Other Business
In order to deal with the resolutions deferred from this meeting, we shall be holding an EGM at the October Monthly Meeting on Monday 7th October. The EGM will be formally announced in the September edition of The Buzz and posted on the Website.
The Choir are performing at this meeting and that should secure enough members present to constitute a quorum. However, if this is not the case the constitution provides for the meeting to wait for 30 minutes, thereafter, to proceed and to take votes as necessary with those members present.
Date of next AGM
The Date of the next AGM was set as Monday 1st June 2020.
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Conclusion
The Chairman thanked the Committee and the Coordinators for all the efforts in the past year and the meeting concluded at 14.40.
MINUTES OF SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING OF BARNSLEY AND DISTRICT U3A HELD AT PRIORY CAMPUS ON MONDAY 7th OCTOBER 2019
PRESENT: Alan Swann (Chairman), Derek Bacon (Vice Chairman), Hilary Newton (Treasurer) Jacqui MacKinnon (Business Secretary) Max Senior (Equalities) John MacKinnon (Membership Secretary), Helen Dew (New Members), Margaret Saxton (Social Secretary), Joanie Tollerfield (Development Officer), Sue Rowley (Choir) APOLOGIES: Mike Nevins (Room Hire), Robin Northcut (Website Manager)
1 WELCOME The Chair welcomed members to the Special General Meeting and reminded members why this Extraordinary Meeting had been called:-
In accordance with the Constitution, notice had been given of the Special General Meeting of Barnsley and District U3A which was to be held on Monday 7th October 2019, at 1.30pm at Priory Campus. All members were entitled and encouraged to attend and vote.
The business of the Special General Meeting was to consider the following Resolutions previously submitted to the Annual General Meeting on 3rd June 2019 [see details in Spring and Summer Buzzes] but which could not be considered as that Meeting was not quorate.
The following two resolutions to change the BU3A Constitution were therefore resubmitted by the Executive Committee for consideration at the Special EGM:
A. Update clause 3 of our “Charitable Purposes” to say:- “The advancement of education and in particular the education of older people and those retired from full time work by all means including associated activities conducive to learning and personal development.” This is the recommended wording from Third Age Trust and is accepted by the Charities Commission.
B(i) In clause16.4 reduce the quorum percentage from 15% down to10%. * (See below)
* B (ii) Prior to the consideration of B(i) above, a proposed amended Resolution had been tabled by two members as follows:
“Proposed Amendment to Resolution B(i) In clause 16.4 reduce the quorum percentage from 15% down to 5%.”
This amended resolution was proposed by Mike Pease and seconded by Jeff Jones.
It was explained that agreement of this amended resolution would negate the need for the meeting to consider B(i), above.
2. OUTCOME i] Following determination by the appointed Tellers of the meeting being quorate the Resolution shown at A above was put to the meeting. After a show of hands, the resolution to change the wording of the Charitable Purposes clause in the way noted was approved unanimously. ii] The Amended Resolution B(ii) was then put to the meeting and again a show of hands indicated that members unanimously agreed to the proposed amended Resolution B(ii). [For clarity this meant that the BU3A Constitution would be altered so as to change the percentage of members required to make a General Meeting Quorate from 15% down to 5%.]
Alan Swann Chairman BU3A
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THE 2020 CORONAVIRUS ‘LOCKDOWN’ IN ACTION (OR LACK OF ACTION!)
An unusual view from the bridge over the M1 Motorway at Woolley Edge Services taken on the afternoon of Saturday 11th April by the editor on his daily bike ride. A very rare, possibly unique sight!
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