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Annual Report 2019/20
Introduction
Settle District U3A’s aim is to
- engage with people no longer in full time employment and
- provide the facilities for learning, leisure and recreational time for those people.
Membership and Groups
Membership increased by 6 during the year to 409.
Thirty nine groups were meeting regularly until the Covid lockdown in March 2020. Four new groups were set up during the year – ballroom dancing, swimming, Bible reading and baking . All groups are well supported and in many cases oversubscribed.Â
A constructive and helpful meeting with new members was held in November 2019 resulting in web site improvements.
A meeting of group leaders, via Zoom, in May was well attended and all were thanked for their enthusiasm, goodwill and co-operation; without their input the activities so much appreciated by all members would simply not take place.
Settle District U3A Twitter account was set up during the year – @SettleU3a
Accounts to 30 June 2020
The accounts show a deficit of £608 for the year ended 30 June 2020 and is in line with expectations. Income from 50p contributions and expenditure on room rental dropped off from April when lockdown due to the Covid 19 epidemic was introduced. A new screen was purchased for use by groups meeting at the Victoria Hall but this has not been installed.
Cash funds at the end of the year are £8,634 which is equivalent to 7 months worth of expenditure in a normal year.
Rorie Grieve was appointed financial examiner during the year
Committee Members
Committee members during the year were :
Chairperson – Les Chandler
Vice Chairperson – Nita Hart
Secretary – Barbara Herring
Treasurer – Barbara Herring (acting from March 2020)
Membership secretary – Chris Chandler
Group Co-ordinator – Jeanne Hine
Newsletter editor – Sarah Lister
Publicity – Jan Bolding
Programme Organiser – Kath Mason
Webmaster – Richard Hine
Beacon Webmaster – Keith Waterhouse
Committee member – Graham Cooper (Treasurer to March 2020)
Our response to Covid 19
We have followed government and national U3A guidance in addressing the risks from Covid 19. All face to face group activity ceased in March and was slowly restarted via Zoom in April, beginning with committee meetings and quickly expanding to groups that lend themselves to a Zoom format. More recently use of Zoom has been extended to the regular monthly meeting when an external speaker presents an interesting topic to all members.
Strenuous efforts have been made to maintain contact with members during this period. The newsletter is now sent out via e mail and delivered to any member who is not on e mail. New topics in the expanded monthly newsletter include quizzes and cartoons. Members were invited to submit any creative work for an on line exhibition and this was later included in the newsletter produced by the national U3A.
All members are encouraged to contact U3A friends or committee members during this difficult time for a casual catch up, if they need help with day to day issues or with joining the various groups now meeting on line.
Policies
The following policies were agreed during the year and are available on the website:
- Code of Conduct
- Complaints procedure
- Disciplinary policy
- Equality and Diversity Policy
- Finance policyÂ
Links with other U3A’s and organisations
We are associated with neighbouring U3A’s in Bradford, Craven, Ilkley and Keighley and contribute to a WestNet programme of events across the area. Members of WestNet U3A’s are able to attend events in any of those U3A’s without paying the usual membership fee.Â
Settle Hub have also supported us during the year in setting up and using Zoom.
2018-19
We have, again, had a very busy year with increased membership at 403 – over 400 for the first time and a diverse number of groups, all very active and popular.
Many groups hold their meetings at the Victoria Hall with a few meetings at group leaders’ homes.
The monthly meetings continue to be very popular with attendances between 60 to 110. The refreshments rota has been successful and will continue next year.
We have a new Webmaster, Richard Hine and our new website will go live in October.
With effect from today seven committee members are standing down having completed their tenure of office:
Chairman – Jackie Allott
Group Co-ordinator – Debbi Burridge
Treasurer – John Parry
Vice Chair – Sue Simpson
Newsletter Editor – Chris Taylor   Â
Membership Secretary – Keith Waterson
Secretary – Anne Webster
It is unfortunate that so many are leaving at the same time, but I know the committee is in good hands with new officers as well as all committee members. It will be a younger, enthusiastic committee which is good for our U3A – new ideas and more energy!!
Many, many thanks to all our group leaders, behind-the-scenes volunteers, committee members, and a special thank you, to you our wonderful members without whom Settle District U3A would cease.Â
Anne Webster
12 September 2019
2017-18
This, my second year as Secretary, has been another busy year for Settle U3A with an increasing number of members and a record number of groups in operation involving new activities and trips.
Our membership has grown to 366 which includes six associates, three honorary and four WestNet members. There were 60 new members this year.
We have had 31 groups in operation with regular favourites retaining a faithful and growing following. It is difficult to give a full mention to them all – many attract small but dedicated followers – Singing for Pleasure, Circle Dancing, Line Dancing, Exercise and Geology continue to attract large support. Other groups such as Lunch Group, Poetry Appreciation, Great Lives, French, Art Appreciation, Family History and Looking at Old Buildings also attract many members. The weekly Badminton and Table Tennis group meeting at the Langcliffe Village Institute continues to prove popular, and the Walking group maintains a regular weekly programme of walks which cater for all abilities.
This new year we have five new groups – Dry Stone Wall Building, Bird Watching, Creative Writing, Crime Novel Book and Wine Appreciation Groups.
The monthly meetings have continued throughout the year with an attendance of between 60 – 120 members. Speakers have presented a wide variety of topics which have included:
The Vikings – Britain’s Ancestors, Garden Wildlife, Stories from the War Hospital, The Science of Chocolate, The life of L S Lowry, The Year of a Gamekeeper and The Secrets of Handwriting.
Again, we held a very successful Christmas Social with contributions from many of the Groups and this was much enjoyed by a record audience filling the Victoria Hall to its full capacity.
We have continued to have the use of the Victoria Hall for most of our monthly and for many of our group meetings with some groups such as the Book Group and Card Making meeting in private homes and others making use of the Friends Meeting House when necessary. We are fortunate to have the use of such a good range of facilities.
Our monthly meetings have been enhanced by the installation of the large projector and new audio system at the Victoria Hall. After a few early difficulties the system now has the hearing aid loop system linked to the head set microphone. The improved speakers help us all to hear more clearly, when we get the volume setting correct!
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GDPR 2018
This policy had been produced to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation that was applied in the UK from 25 May 2018 replacing the Data Protection Act 1998. Keith Waterson has very competently introduced the Settle and District U3A Data Protection Statement that met all the necessary requirements well before the 25 May. This can be found on our website.
The U3A Beacon system is now successfully up and running and is being used more and more by group leaders and members as we have become used to it.
There has been much activity in our region this year. Jackie Allott, with help from Sue Simpson, has been enthusiastically involved in all the developments.
Jackie continues to represent us at the Yorkshire and Humberside Regional meetings. Also, at WestNet committee meetings. Several successful events have been arranged including a Treasure Trail and Quiz nights and a second Ceilidh has been arranged for 02 November at Ilkley.
Jackie is arranging a WestNet Settle Trail in June 2019.
Day visits were arranged by Art Appreciation, Looking at Old Buildings, Theatre, Weekenders and Geology. Also, longer trips by Geology and the Walking Groups have taken place along with the U3A National Summer Schools ensuring plenty of variety and participation for members.
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FLYING OUR FLAG
On three occasions this year volunteers from the committee and members have set up and manned our new display boards at Booths, the Co-op and Age UK at the Cricket Club. We handed out information leaflets and booklets to members of the public encouraging them to join our U3A.
On your behalf, my thanks go to Jackie (our Chair) and all the committee members who contribute to the successful running of the organisation and have taken on the innumerable number of tasks to be done, mainly with a smile, and occasionally a sigh!
Also, our appreciation to group leaders, tea ladies and gentlemen, and every member who gives of their spare time and commitment to make Settle District U3A the ongoing excellent and successful organisation it is.
Committee members Keith Bradshaw, Jean Hall and Gill Rawlings are retiring from active service today and our very grateful thanks go to them for their dedication and generous gift of time (a very precious commodity) and we look forward to welcoming new committee members and group leaders; and look forward to another successful year 2018 / 2019
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Thank you!
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Anne Webster: 13 September 2018