Some Good news! - 17th November

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A member has stepped forward to be our new treasurer! The committee will be bringing him up to date with what. this involves and hopefully he will continue to be interested!

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Also, you may have noticed that our new website is live! We hope you like it! 

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An urgent plea for Committee Volunteers! - 4th November 2021

Please note that no member has stepped forward to be the u3a treasurer.  This is a critical situation for our u3a and if no-one steps forward within 6 months of the 2021 AGM on November 17th we will have no choice but to close down u3a Norwich.

The background is that we’ve had a problem recruiting members to serve on the committee to run our u3a for a number of years but the situation is now very critical. The u3a is run increasingly by fewer and fewer volunteers both on the committee and off it to the point where key elements of our are no longer supported e.g. trips.

Our u3a is a charity run for its members by its members. But if our members don’t show an practical interest in enabling it to survive by helping run it, then its will inevitably have to close as the load on the remaining volunteers becomes untenable

Covid - July 2021

The current u3a Norwich plan is to re-open all u3a Norwich groups and activities from 19th July 2021 in line with current government guidelines. The Assembly Rooms talks are due to start again in person on September 1st.

However, our biggest challenge is that we need volunteers to help run groups, assembly room talks and trips as these cannot run until we committee members to organise them. Please write to me if you can help!

Lindsay Hickey - u3a Norwich Chair (chair@u3anor.org)

July 2021

We are finding a distressing number of people attending u3a Norwich groups who are not u3a members! Please note that people attending groups who are not u3a members invalidates the insurance for all the group so please make every attempt to get anyone attending to immediately join u3a Norwich!

Lindsay Hickey - u3a Norwich Chair (chair@u3anor.org)

March 2021

Pitch & Putt - After many years Derek & Lesley have decided to close the Pitch & Putt group that met at Eaton park Pitch & putt course.

A new class  “EXTEND Chair based exercise to music” has started. The group meets on Tuesdays twice monthly and will be via Zoom Sessions until the lockdown ends

The Advanced Italian conversation class is now led by Clare Read due to the untimely passing of Margarita Colombo, the previously convener. She will be sadly missed by the group.

January 2021

The AGM was successfully completed by a new process that yielded far more participation than ever before. Please here see the summary.

A new local Facebook group for Norwich members is live with 43 members at the last count.

The advertising of the Zoom talks on Facebook has yielded lots of interest. The next 2 talks are on Wed January 20th - “Jo The Firefighter” and “Reflections of growing-up in post war east London - Bernard Lockett” on February 17th.  email sue.sharples@U3Anor.org for details.

October update

We’ve successfully run our first monthly speaker via Zoom in October which was well attended. Others are booked and are being planned. Please see the ‘events’ calendar to the left for details or email sue.sharples@U3Anor.org.

August update

Many groups are now meeting again as the lockdown relaxes, especially ones that meet outdoors such as walking and cycling. Also many are meeting online via Zoom. Indeed the committee has been meeting via Zoom. We’re attempting to organise some monthly meeting via Zoom and if anyone knows of a speaker who is prepared to give a talk via Zoom please let us know. Also we may be able to help people ‘get going’ with Zoom.

U3A Norwich’s response to the Corona Virus Epidemic

All U3A Norwich members

U3A Norwich has has a duty to protect its membership to the best of our ability. The Corona virus is a notifiable disease and the risk is made significantly greater due to the older demographic of our members.It is therefore with reluctance that we have made the necessary decision to cancel all Monthly Socials, Assembly House gatherings and trips until further notice.

All Convenors

in line with advice with U3A Head Office, any member returning from an area identified by government then they should neither hold nor attend meetings until they have followed NHS advice given on 111.

U3A Norwich groups can still be run at the discretion of the convenors as long as they follow the guidelines laid down by the government and the NHS towards protection and isolation taking account of how these will inevitably change overtime.

We will support convenors who decide to cancel meetings for the foreseeable future and put this information on the U3A website. Will you please contact the groups administrator  (groups@U3Anor.org) if you make this decision so we can notify people which groups are closed via the web site.

Lindsay Hickey - U3A Norwich Chair (chair@U3Anor.org)

Please volunteer to help run U3A Norwich!

Some key skills required are spreadsheet skills, IT skills, desktop publishing skills, email distribution skills but generally a commitment to spend time every day in many cases handling events as they arise. Examples of tasks include regular email distribution to members (e.g. newsletters), regular web site updates, regular management of payments, organising printing and posting, envelop stuffing at renewals, ensuring the national Third Age Matters magazine is distributed to the correct current member addresses. handling member queries, organising bus tours and many more.

There is more to being on a committee than having a cup of tea and chatting!

Please register your interest to help run U3A Norwich by emailing the secretary at U3Anorwich@gmail.com.

Convenors please note!

There is a new online form for submitting changes to your groups that appear on the web site and the newsletter. Please make changes to vacancies here as well.

Joining and renewing U3A Norwich membership online and payment by Direct Debit

We’ve enabled payment for membership via direct debit as requested by members for some time. The online processes will help both members and the committee by reducing the amount of manual work and postage required particularly at renewal. Whilst not compulsory, the more members that use this facility rather than pay by cheque the smoother renewals will be and the less manual ongoing work for the membership secretary and treasurer.

Please use the links at the left of this page to sign up or renew. If you are an existing member who currently pays by cheque you can use the new online renewal form anytime before renewal. You will only be charged on the next renewal date, not when you sign up. New members signing up for online direct debits will have a separate payment for the current year.

Please note.
 

• Direct debits are only available as part of joining or renewing online as it’s an online system.

• Signing up or renewing online means you’ll never have to fill in a renewal form again (unless your details change). You’ll instead just receive a new membership card each year

• No bank account information is held by U3A Norwich