Category: General News/Events

Our next monthly meeting is on Wednesday, 14th September, 2002 and I look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible. Please ensure that you enter the building from the car park rear entrance and book in at the desk. Please try to remember to wear your name badges so that folks (especially new members) know who you are, if a group leader or committee member, again pleased wear your ID so that others know who they are talking to. Please remember to either silence or turn off your mobile phones.

The holiday period is drawing to a close, I trust that those of you that have been away, enjoyed your breaks and are refreshed and raring to go. If you still have holidays planned then good luck, have a nice time.

This month’s guest speaker is Sally Smith, talking about ‘Magnificent Women and Flying Machines’ sounds intriguing.

After our coffee break, David Rose will be telling us about four groups and what they get up to – Easy Wheelers, Pickleball, Science and the Short Walks groups.

If you are a new member, looking for activity groups to join, there is a list of groups in our newsletter and on our website, or talk to Sue Tedstone our co-ordinators co-ordinator. We are starting two new groups, Wine Group 3 and a Bridge Group.

We have a volunteer to edit our October newsletter, however, we are looking for someone to be our Deputy Editor, to cover for Steve, when he is on holiday. Please talk to either myself or Steve.

Advanced notice that we will not be having a formal monthly meeting in December, however, we are planning to have a ‘Film Afternoon’ for those that want to come and watch, these have been popular in the past.

Melvyn Francis, Chair

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of the u3a organisation in the UK and The Notts u3a Network are planning a week of events from Saturday 18th to Saturday, 24th September 2022. We have about half a dozen volunteers, so many thanks to you all.

The Flash Mob is taking place on Saturday, 24th September, at HIGHFIELDS PARK which is situated on University Boulevard at Lenton, NG7 2RD and is accessible via the NET tram service from Hucknall.

The day’s activities will be:-

12.00: Set up
13.00: Steelband
13.30: Beacons & Banners arrive
14.00: Flash Mob
14.30: Steel Band
15.30: Finish

The details of the dance have been sent to all taking part in the form of a video, along with dates and venues for practices. Still not too late to join in, see Lynda Smeathers our Activities Organiser for details.

It promises to be a good afternoon out, take a picnic and watch the fun.

Melvyn

On Friday 22nd July, 2022, I held a Meeting for all our Group Leaders.

We started with briefings on Beacon, the Website and the Newsletter, which we found very useful. One purpose of the meeting was to look at how we advertise our Interest Groups. We also redesigned the back page of the Newsletter, making it more user-friendly. This will be launched in the September Newsletter.

We also looked at the possibility of introducing some new Interest Groups. We have a long list of ideas, ready for the Committee to consider! If any of you have any ideas for new Groups, please let me know.

Sue Tedstone,
(Groups Coordinator),
email – coordinator@hucknallu3a.org.uk

The U3A High Street project was originally designed, in 2018, to research and report on the history and current state of shops in each U3A’s local area. Local groups would then be able to identify trends and speculate on what the future might hold for their High Street.

The project was ‘ready to go’ by March last year, but then of course it was derailed by the arrival of Covid-19, which meant that no on site survey work could be done. By July, it was decided that a national survey was achievable in September, and I went out and photographed all the premises on Hucknall High Street near the end of the month. All the photos, along with descriptions of the use of each frontage, have now been uploaded to the national database. The thinking was that it was a good time for the snapshot; as well as being ‘legal’ to be out and about, it was before the end of the first furlough scheme, after which it was thought that more shop closures would be likely. There are currently some 20,000 premises on the database.

114 individual U3As took part, and a progress report went to the U3A Board last month. This was followed by a national Zoom session for all those who took part, and it was going well until it went slightly wrong, which will be a consolation to all of us who have encountered all sorts of glitches when using Zoom!

The plan is to resurvey all the High Streets during this September and then produce a final report in 2022, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the U3A. As well as producing a comprehensive national baseline of High Streets, it is hoped that individual U3As will be encouraged to run spin-off projects in their own areas. Examples so far include producing new ‘Town Trail’ leaflets and ‘Urban Sketching’ in Manchester. I was pleased to learn from the Zoom session that the East Midlands is well represented, with 69 members of 33 U3As taking part.

For anyone interested, the new Progress report is on the national U3A website.

John Tedstone