Mid October Newsletter
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MID OCTOBER NEWSLETTER Je zoome, tu zoomes, il zoome, elle zoome, nous zoomons….. Mon dieu, I hear you say! What is this, a new Verb ? Oh heck, and all those blessed endings! Ben oui! Like tout le monde our French conversation sessions are continuing as best we can via Zoom mais ce n’est pas facile du tout, especially for those of us who are, shall we say, technologically challenged or who would rather do anything other than spend their time in front of a computer screen. But mes amis, under Covid restrictions, the phrase “C’est la vie” takes on an even more pertinent significance. It has been six mois, oui, six long months since “le confinement” was introduced. (Think of the poor French suddenly deprived of all that kissing on both cheeks!). After the sudden shock of not being able to meet up as normal I must confess I did not quite know how to move forward. Like most of us I had never heard of Zoom six months ago. Initially therefore, with so much extra time on my hands, I suggested half hour one-to-one mini-sessions over the telephone to everyone in both the Intermediate and Advanced groups. Each person was allocated a time slot on a twice- monthly basis. This worked really well and was much appreciated by almost everyone. After a couple of months, however, I realised that whilst this set-up was great for my group members it was taking up an inordinate and unsustainable amount of my time (I have well over 20 members in the two groups combined, you can do the maths…!). By this time too, I had reached the conclusion that Zoom was really the only alternative and had gained some confidence by using it elsewhere. It hasn’t always been straightforward, however, and without help I would have found it impossible. I am so very fortunate to have group members and also a fiancé who can set up the Zoom sessions for me (merci mille fois, Tim, Val, Vicki ,Gary et James) so that I can simply focus on the content. Zoom does feel like being back in an old-fashioned classroom in many ways, though, doesn’t it? Holding normal conversations as we have been used to in pre Covid days are nigh on impossible although I guess they might work better with those break out rooms. In order to make Zoom work at all you have to impose a discipline, establish a running order, perhaps even nominate people in order to avoid everyone talking over each other. (Perhaps I should add at this point that I spent the last ten years of my career teaching French and EFL in Adult Education where the chief reason why people give up on learning a language is because they found it so uncomfortable if they were put on the spot by the teacher. The psychology and group management of it all is so important). Mais voila! Pour le moment, it’s the best we can do. I am proud to say that the two groups seem to be flourishing although a couple of folk have chosen to do their own thing for a while. We were extremely fortunate a couple of years ago to find two excellent course books which continue to give us a structure to follow. We manage to incorporate a healthy dose of good humour and general bonhomie into our sessions thanks to my trusty deputy Elisabeth who can always be relied on to come up with le mot juste. Elisabeth , your help is “inestimable” . A final “merci mille fois” must go to you, my members,for sticking with me. Like all interest groups we look forward hugely to the time when we can meet up again in the real world. To finish here is un petit quiz to reward those of you who have read thus far: Match these 3 verbs with the appropriate nouns below: A. Gardez …………….. B.Lavez …………….. C. Portez …………… (i) les mains (ii) la distance (iii) vos masques More especially, restez sains et saufs pendant les six prochains mois, AMITIES a tous , Carol Sheppard Lockdown musings on our U3A There we were, confined to ‘barracks’, not allowed to see friends and socialise, and certainly not allowed any U3A gatherings. So what to do? Standing back from life’s daily events and demands allows you time to think and to take the long view, and I did just that with our U3A. It seems to me that Ems ValleyU3A is a victim of its own success! And I doubt we’re alone in that. Having started in 2006 we now have well over four hundred members and 40-odd groups, several of which have been running since its inception, their leaders giving generously of their time and expertise. That’s all fantastic, but unfortunately we’re all getting older (a sad fact of life!) and therein lies the rub. Those of us of more advanced years have less energy than we had back then, and maybe even health issues. As we age we become more reluctant to take on new responsibilities, or even continue with existing ones. Some might even like to relinquish their role as a group leader, having fulfilled that role for some years, but fear letting group members down. As I thought about this I had a few ideas which I wrote down and sent to our Chairman, Anne Powell. Her response was one of great enthusiasm. When an organisation runs so successfully it is tempting to maintain the status quo and continue in the same vein. However, I believe that way can lead to stagnation and eventually boredom and a decline in members attending groups. So how could we keep things fresh, alive, and vital? That is the question I was pondering. I confess to being rather ruthless in my outlook, and you may find this uncomfortable or unpalatable, but nevertheless the idea is still worth consideration. I believe that if a group has run for a number of years, enthusiasm for it is waning among the members, and numbers are dwindling, then serious consideration should be given to closing it, rather than just perpetuating it for the sake of it. Discussion, at a group meeting, to address the matter does not always bear fruit or prove helpful, and perhaps requires some advice or guidance from the parent U3A committee. Understandably, long-running groups do get ‘tired’ and then need the fresh impetus and injection of ideas that could come from a new leader – someone with a different approach. Not ‘better’, just ‘different’ –this is neither a competition to find the best group leader for a subject nor a denigration of the hard work put in by existing leaders. Also, if a group leader wishes to stand down, for whatever reason, and no-one comes forward to take over then I believe the group should simply close having, perhaps, run its course and fulfilled its objective. But that might be a step too far, with members feeling they are being coerced into volunteering to take it on in order to keep it going– not good! This also begs the question of what is the optimum term of any group. Should all groups be open-ended, as they are now, or can they be of finite duration? It is obviously, to a certain extent, dependent on the subject of the group. Those like Mah-jong or Discussion lend themselves to being open-ended, whereas other groups that rely on one person’s specialist knowledge may be better running for a finite period. I currently see several possible ways of addressing this problem. The first is to do as I believe Havant U3A has done and that is to disband each group after a year, every year. If the group leader is happy to continue for another year then that’s great, but it does give them the opportunity to bow out if they want to. If members want to continue the group but the leader has stepped down, then the group can run for another year if someone else agrees to lead it. I’m sure more people would be willing to ‘give it a go’ if they were safe in the knowledge that it was only for a year, that is unless they were willing to continue further. Yes, this idea has its down side in that there could be a lack of continuity, but that is not for discussion at this point. The second is to have ‘beginner’ groups of a finite duration that can then feed into the main group on the more ‘academic’ subjects. This would address the question of beginners in, for example, Family History coming along for their first meeting and being completely mystified by the jargon and what’s being spoken about. The third is to run ‘short courses’, possibly through the winter months since most of us aren’t disappearing on holidays then or quite so responsible for minding grandchildren. These could be say four to six sessions, once a month as now, and could either end then or act as a kind of introduction to a subject, depending on the scope of the subject and the leader’s knowledge. If the ‘short course’ subject was well received and there were others who thought they would have liked to have had the opportunity to be part of that group then, depending on the willingness of the leader, it could be run again using the same material. No further preparation would need to be done for it, and therefore it shouldn’t be a burdensome thing.