Craven U3A Craven U3A Magazine Magazine Spring 2012
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DATES FOR YOUR DIARY AGMAGM CravenCraven U3AU3A th Tuesday, 17 April Skipton Town Hall – 2pm **************** MagazineMagazine CeilidhCeilidh Saturday, 10th March SpringSpring 20122012 Embsay Village Hall – 7-11pm **************** OrchestraOrchestra ConcertConcert Wednesday, 21st March Embsay Village Hall – 2.30pm *************** ChatsworthChatsworth HouseHouse Tuesday, 3rd April **************** CravenCraven U3A WebsiteWebsite For more details of any of the above events go to: www.cravenu3a.org.uk Items for inclusion on the website should be sent to Doug Hirst at: [email protected] Tom and Barbara Anderson enjoy the sunshine with Dorothy Rae during last year’s Railway Study Group holiday to Cornwall and Devon. **************** Photo: Glen Rae. The editor is pleased to receive articles, photographs, puzzles, crosswords, reports on group activities for possible inclusion in future issues. Hard copy by post or electronic by email – both are acceptable and welcomed – but the latter is preferred. Issue No.52No.52 Contents U3A Newsletter Chairman’s Letter . .1 Enrolment . .2 Copy for the next issue of the newsletter should be sent to the editor Coffee Mornings . .3 st 2011 Carol Service Donation . .3 by 1 July 2012 at AGM . 4-5 Andrew Wilson, 21 Skipton Road, Embsay, Skipton Notices . .6 BD23 6QT New Classes. 7-9 or email: [email protected] Events Chairman th Ceilidh - Saturday, 10 March . .10 Douglas Goode email: [email protected] News from the Groups Literature Discussion Group . 11 Vice-Chairman Railway Group . 12-15 Gareth Davies Walking Group Emergency. .16 email: [email protected] Last of the Summer Wine. 16-17 Orchestra . 17-18 Lost Leader. .19 Treasurer Painting Group . .19 Alan Myers Strike Up The Band . .20 email: [email protected] Modern British History . 21-22 Birdwatching . 23-25 Membership Secretary Come Lunch With Me . 25-26 Vic Edy 101 Raikes Road, Articles Skipton, BD23 1LS Prisoner Problem . .26 01756 795997 New Zealand – A Personal Viewpoint – Part 2. 27-30 email: [email protected] For Sale . .31 A Message From The King. .31 Programme Secretary Fifty Years Ago – 1962 . 32-33 N.W. Passage . .34 James Hope I Want to Dance Again . 34-35 email: [email protected] Costa Concordia – A Seaman’s View. 35-36 Tutors’ Representative Wendy Stevenson email: [email protected] Craven U3A Newsletter No.52 March 2012 - Editor: Andrew Wilson Printer: Jason Miller – JAYMILL PTINT Craven U3A Registered Charity No.1038617 mention. Costa Cruises had all the crew and passengers repatriated within Chairman’sChairman’s LetterLetter two days, which was a miracle of organisation. I am writing this on a glorious sunny Sunday which really makes me Whilst the accident should never have happened, the conduct of the crew think winter is past and spring is here at last. Craven U3A goes from afterwards was shown by the survival figures to have been much better strength to strength with the Coffee Mornings providing a well attended than described by the tabloids. Being lowered to the sea in a crowded and enjoyable social experience and our thanks go to all the helpers, boat in the dark is not pleasant. The impact with the sea and bobbing particularly Barbara Anderson, Rosemary Bundy and Margaret Morgan about afterwards, perhaps banging against the ship’s side or other boats is who organise it so well. frightening to passengers, with children crying and crew shouting to each other to communicate. This will have contributed to their view that there Our other great asset is our 48 Tutors/Group Leaders who put in so was chaos. much time and effort to make their courses interesting and enjoyable. A few are finishing this year and I particularly thank them for what they have done in the past and wish them well in their ‘retirement’. A number The ‘Costa Concordia’ off Palma, Majorca of new Tutors have come forward to offer their services next year and we hope that courses on ‘Play Reading and Theatre Visits’, ‘Cribbage’, ‘Charles Darwin’, ‘Films’ and ‘Holiday Spanish’ will be in the programme, being prepared by James Hope our Programme Secretary, which will go out with the next Magazine. James will still be pleased to receive offers to run other groups. Vic Edy (Membership Secretary), in a later article in this Magazine, outlines our Enrolment procedure for this August which, we hope, ensures that all applicants will, at the very least, get on their most preferred course. Don’t forget to come to our Open Day on Tuesday, August 7th at 2 pm in Skipton Town Hall to meet Tutors and see what is on offer. This is my last Chairman’s letter before I hand over to Gareth Davies at th our AGM on Tuesday, 17 April at 2pm in the Town Hall; the Agenda for this is on page 4. It has been an interesting two years and I would like to thank all the Committee for their support and hard work in putting in place an administrative structure to cope with our increasing membership which now stands at 871. Particular thanks go to Albert Real life is not like the occasion when a passenger at lifeboat drill asked, Bonham and Wendy Stevenson who have been on the Committee for “Could I book a non-smoking seat please?” many years and are now standing down. I am very pleased that Gillian Wheatley and Keith Mollon have agreed to be nominated for the posts of All seamen hope never to abandon ship but are trained for it in orderly Bookings Secretary and Tutor Representative respectively. We still need conditions without thousands of passengers in attendance to make it more a Business Secretary and another Committee Member, so fill in the realistic. Immediately after this incident many cruise ships in weather Nomination Form on page 5 and come along to our AGM. friendly tropical ports have initiated abandon ship drills with all boats being Douglas Goode launched. Gareth Davies 36 1 EnrolmentEnrolment I want to tap my feet and feel the heat from the rhythm of the beat. I want to dance again. I want to dance again. Thanks to a lot of help from other committee members and my wife, the You can stay away with your U3A. enrolment process in 2011 seemed to go quite smoothly. Thanks also to Don't make me yawn and sigh at the W.I. all the members who filled in their forms, for the most part legibly, and I want to Samba and Rumba almost without fail sent the correct amount of money. Not so easy now and maybe try a little Zumba. that different courses cost different amounts! I really have only two I want to Play Mas with all that jazz and the razzamatazz. requests for next year – if you have an e-mail address can you please I want to be there - Jump up for Jouvert print it carefully (I can usually make out postal addresses, but e-mails I want to go too far at the Mardi Gras are hard to guess); and please tick the box that tells me if you were a I want to do Dat Ting for Da Carnival King member last year. It seems a very small thing, but it makes my job much easier as, if you were, all your address details are already on the I want to stamp my feet and feel the heat from the rhythm of the street computer, so it saves me a lot of time. Before I go insane I want to dance again. I want to dance again We seem to be a very successful U3A, but that brings with it problems. I want to dance again... One of these is that some courses fill up very quickly, meaning that Valerie Lennard 2012 inevitably some people are going to be disappointed. We have therefore come up with a few ideas that might help a bit in 2012. The first is that Costa ConcordiaConcordia – A Seaman’sSeaman’s ViewView we won’t start opening applications until the week after the Open Day. Until now we have always started enrolling people on the day after Open This beautiful ship was our home for nearly six years. Many other seamen Day. So, if you only learn of an interesting course at the Open Day, there envied us and the high regard in which we were held. We sailed for the is a huge rush to fill in your form and to get it to me. By delaying things last time on Friday, 13th January. Many seamen are traditionally slightly, there is less of a rush. This should make things a bit fairer, superstitious about sailing on such a date. Suddenly disaster struck with particularly for new members. Secondly, we will ask you, when 3,200 passengers and 1021 crew on board. Abandoning ship in the dark completing your enrolment form, to put your first course choice first on with an ever-increasing starboard list was a nightmare for us all, the form, before any other courses you want to do. We will then go particularly as many crew members on a passenger ship are not seamen. through all the forms entering people onto their first course choice (as far Nevertheless, we managed to get all except about 30 people ashore as possible), then go back through the forms and enter all the other safely. Statistically, this was a 99.2% success story and the greatest course choices. This is a little more work, but should mean that more passenger ship disaster evacuation of modern times, especially people get onto their first choice course. Of course we cannot guarantee considering the lack of decisive leadership.