November 2025 Newsletter
Last month’s Meeting
The October meeting is always preceded by the AGM. This was successfully concluded and you will be able to see the minutes on our website shortly.
It was agreed that next year’s subscription will remain at £10 with the usual reductions for associate members and those who join later in the year. Again, all of this will be in the Treasurer’s report on the website alongside the Chairman’s report.
After the AGM was concluded the afternoon was spent being royally entertained by Rob Mason with his folk music and anecdotal wit!
Rob’s first song was all about things that happened growing up. It was a very amusing song (as all his songs were!) and preceded lots of memories about milk puddings – tapioca, sago (frog spawn), rice, semolina and junket which was thickened with rennet.
The second song was all about things that mothers would say and was called, “Put that down, you don’t know where it’s been”.
Rob hardly stopped for breath and he certainly triggered lots of smiles and laugh out loud moments. He was a mine of information about where many popular sayings come from and reminded us all about what life was like for us as children.
Susan’s full report is on the website.
Apology
It has been brought to our attention that some members did not receive the Agenda, and the Treasurers report. We have looked at the Beacon site from which emails are sent. Checking the audit log, for emails sent via Beacon, it became apparent that a problem had been encountered. This was reported to the u3a Central Office. They were aware of the problem, and responded as below.
As a result of a Beacon upgrade, a problem was encountered, reporting as "Despatched by Beacon". An update was applied to the system on Tuesday 7th October which caused problems with some emails sent to 100s of members and particularly if they included attachments. We became aware of the problem early 9th October and so the change was rolled back. Unfortunately, we have no way of determining which e-mails were affected however any that have status "Despatched by Beacon" were not delivered and will not be delivered so will have to be resent. On behalf of the Beacon Team, I apologise for the trouble and inconvenience this problem caused.
The AGM Papers were sent on the 8th, so within this time frame.
The AGM had already taken place, when we became aware of the problem, so it was too late to resend. The papers will be posted on the web site, if you wish to take a look.
Next Month’s Meeting
At our final meeting to be held at Owley Wood for this year Dean Nixon will bring us A Cat A Cow and A Coach – it’s panto time.
Don’t forget that tickets for our Christmas lunch will still be available at that meeting.
The Third Age Trust AGM
The Third Age Trust AGM took place on 15 October. It included speeches from CEO Iain Cassidy, Chair Allan Walmsley, Chair of the Council Sue Russell and a presentation on the work being done to help the movement reach its goal of 500,000 members by the end of 2028. You can find all the videos and presentations from the AGM on our website.
Don’t forget to look at the u3a Friends website for more information about online activities and see what other u3a groups are doing.