CROUCH VALLEY NEWSLETTER http://u3asites.org.uk/crouch-valley WINTER 2016 COMMITTEE 2016/17 Acting Chairman Ray Burns Vice Chairman David Shea Secretary Ken Walker Treasurer John Gable Membership Secretary Colin Pegrum Programme Secretary Lynda Burns Groups Co-ordinator Bob LeBeau Committee Member Rosemary Green Welfare Officer Joyce Sach Webmaster Don Wragg NEXT NEWSLETTER I plan to issue the next newsletter at the April 2017 meeting. Articles of interest to members are very welcome and will be included, space permitting. Please send Group Reports and other items to me by 30th March. Thank You. Jan Campen 2 A Word from the Chair Welcome to our winter 2016 newsletter. This has been an active year in our U3A. At our AGM we were not able to find anyone to take over the Chairman’s role vacated by Ray Burns (aka me) so we took a lead from the Essex Association of U3As who found themselves in the same position last year and I agreed as a member of the committee to carry out the duties of the Chairman in the role of Acting Chairman. The ideal outcome would be that at the AGM in 2017 we can find someone new to take the role as this will keep the ideas fresh, this is very important. Our thanks must go to Lynda who lined up some really good speakers for the year. She has booked most of the months next year already and the dates and details can be found on the ‘Events’ page on our website. We ran three events during the year. The first was a quiz in April and our thanks must go to the quiz committee who made all the arrangements and set the questions and generally provided us all with a really fun evening. The second was a barbecue which was held at the scout hut in August. Lots of thanks must go to David Shea who arranged the venue, got most of the food and did the cooking with the help of Joyce and Don Wragg. We also had some great music from Alan & June Saunders and their ukulele band which was enjoyed by all those who came. Lots of others pitched in to make a very successful afternoon so thanks goes to them as well, even the weather did it’s bit. We hope to hold another next summer but have no details as yet. The third was the Cockney Evening in October at Champions Manor Hall which was a very good evening. The event went very well indeed with an excellent band ‘Cockney Pride’ and some very welcome fish & chips mid evening. Thanks to all those involved in the arrangements for this one. Also worthy of a big thank you are the various Group Leaders for their organisational skills and keeping their groups up to date with the news of their activities, and of course the members of those groups who pitch in and share the work load by arranging activities as well. The groups are the lifeblood of our organisation and we are lucky to have so many people who are involved. 3 We have kept up contacts with the Essex Association of U3As. We have also had an attendance at the Essex Assoc. meetings in Chelmsford and while these meetings are not the most scintillatingly interesting events in the calendar we do it for our members and it is a scurrilous rumour that suggests the only reason we attend is in order to enjoy a tasty lunch afterwards and to stock up with fish from the terrifically well stocked fish stall in the market. Again this year the monies paid for tea and coffee will go to the Essex Air Ambulance, Aspire, the spinal injuries charity, Dementia Adventure and Lupus, all excellent local charities so when you get a cup of whatever and a biscuit or cake at our meetings please be generous and put some coins in the box because it should be remembered that the tea, coffee, milk, sugar, biscuits and cakes are donated by our members and not paid for from U3A funds and our thanks must go to them for their generosity. Finally our thanks to Jan Campen who edits this newsletter and does a great job for which we should be very grateful. Ray Burns – Acting Chairman. From the Secretary’s desk So just what does the Secretary do, apart from sitting at the front during our meetings? Tasks: To keep the Chairman well informed, as correspondence is often addressed to the Secretary To assist in arranging venues and equipment as required To ensure meetings are quorate in accordance with the Constitution To convey decisions taken to the people who may be required to take action To take action as required following meetings To deal with correspondence 4 To maintain full and accurate files, including minutes To circulate minutes to the Committee for approval at the next Committee Meeting To be the link with the National Office, and to ensure that information and relevant events are relayed to the Committee and passed on to the membership To keep the Committee Reference File up to date To be the fall guy if anything goes wrong And lastly, and most importantly, assist in clearing up after meetings! And that’s all there is to it…………………………… Ken Walker - Secretary P How To Write Proper, Like What I Does. 1. Avoid alliteration. Always. 2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with. 3. Avoid cliches like the plague. They're old hat. 4. Comparisons are as bad as cliches. 5. Be more or less specific. 6. Writers should never generalise. Seven: be consistent! 8. Don’t be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it is highly superfluous. 9. Who needs rhetorical questions? 10. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement. 5 Treasurer Treasurer - More Words of “Wisdom” We started the financial year with strong reserves of £1,189.60 in our General Account and £1,736.47 in our Social Account. Strictly under Charity Act rules our reserves should not continue to increase and The U3A Trust recommend that they should not exceed more than 12 months running costs. As a consequence I budgeted for and expect to make a small deficit for this financial period (eleven months to 31/3/2017). I hope you agree that the strength of our Social Fund monies has meant that we have been able to provide the BBQ, Cockney night and Quiz at cheap rates and this should continue on into our Christmas activities. The donations of “tea money” raised at the monthly meetings is for this year being paid over to Four Charities as agreed by you all. Details of these payments and thank you letters are put on the web site regularly and so far this year we have paid at the time of writing this article, £111.18 to Essex Air Ambulance (2 collections), £118.25 to Aspire (2 collections and includes £17.10 donated by Ray Dickens book exchange), £104.72 to LUPUS (1 collection and includes £50 donated by speaker) and finally £40.32 to Dementia Adventure (1 collection). Whilst I believe we have done very well it does seem to me that at some meetings the amount collected does not do justice to the spread of cakes and biscuits provided. If we can all slightly increase our donations I am sure that it will still only represent a fraction of the price you would need to pay at say Costa in the town centre. Come on everybody let’s try harder. As intimated above our finances are very healthy and will continue to be so in the future as long as we maintain strong membership levels. Finally I note that my three year tenure as Treasurer comes to an end at the next AGM. If you are interested in becoming the next treasurer then please do not hesitate to contact me or any other member of the committee. I will of course be prepared to give all the support necessary to my successor. John Gable - Treasurer 6 Groups Coordinator We have 21 Groups all run by our own members which range from Bird Watching to Wine Appreciation. We also share an Aviation group with Maldon U3A. Any member wishing to organise a new group will have the full support of the Crouch Valley U3A Committee - including, where appropriate initial financial assistance. Bob LeBeau - Group Co-ordinator Membership Our membership has steadied at the current 145 plus a couple of people interested in joining, which is on a par with last year. May I take this opportunity to remind members that renewals will take place in March next year and the full year membership will revert to £16. When renewing would you please fill out a membership to accompany your payment, forms are downloadable from the web site. Colin Pegrum – Membership Secretary. Webmaster I have now been responsible for the website for nearly a year. I would like to thank all group leaders and members for their support in providing information / news for inclusion. It is understood not everyone has internet access but with a very small number of members who don’t have access the committee considered the use of the web would be the most effective way of keeping the growing membership numbers informed. I am able to see the number of page visits to the website from members / non-members, we are currently getting (on average) 125 hits per day. Don Wragg – Webmaster. 7 Welfare Officer The Committee have introduced a new role of Welfare Officer, to be a point of contact between our U3A and any member who is unwell or in hospital.