HUNGERFORD & DISTRICT U3A
CHAIR’S REPORT 2025AGM
Our membership has grown steadily over the past year and now stands at 217 members. Although we have lost members for a variety of reasons we have also steadily recruited new ones.
This year we have had two successful outings one to Winchester where members could visit the Christmas market or the Cathedral or indulge in some early festive shopping. Our Summer trip was to RHS Wisley where we were lucky enough to see some beautiful flower displays including the stunning rose garden. This took place before the start of the last heat wave and so we were able to enjoy the gardens in temperate conditions. Our theatre outings have been to see a ‘Rebus’ thriller at Oxford and a production of ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’ at Windsor. On all these outings we are lucky enough to have the services of Barnes Coaches.
We have our monthly Coffee Mornings with an average attendance of between 40 – 60 members. We have speakers on alternate months and they have included a talk on the newly formed ‘Men’s Shed’, ‘Hearing Dogs and a talk by James Puxley on owning and running Welford Park. Our December meeting was once again our very popular Christmas Tea Party.
Our Groups continue to do well and our Groups Coordinator recently held a Coffee Morning where new members were invited to come along and find out more about the groups that we run. It was also an opportunity for us to find out if there were groups that they would like to join and any subjects they might be interested in. Pickleball is very successful with often all 3 courts at the Leisure Centre being booked on a Thursday evening. Our two Book Groups are now full and we have started a waiting list. The Gardening Group has also been successful with outings arranged to Highgrove Gardens, the Gilbert White Gardens and Rousham. We would be very happy for members to join us on these outings. The Walking Group continues to organise walks twice a month and, by popular demand, now includes a Strollers Walk to accommodate our less active members.
The Committee continues to work hard on behalf of all the members and we are very lucky to have a few dedicated people who do this. Brian Davis has been on the Committee since we first joined and has been a constant support especially with all things technical. He is standing down this year and I would like to thank him for all his work for the u3a over many years. Everyone else is staying on the Committee for another year but we do need another two members to join us. We meet about five times a year and so it is not a huge commitment. I would like to thank Richard, our Treasurer, Pat, our Membership Secretary, Gill our minutes Secretary, Jenny who arranges the speakers for our Coffee Mornings, Jane, our Groups Coordinator, Carol who organizes the outings and John who does the theatre trips. Particular thanks also to John Ryder who has taken on the task of keeping our website up to date. All these people have indicated that they are willing to stay on the Committee for another year.
I am beginning to find my way around Beacon which I do not find a user friendly means of communication and my ‘mistakes’ are getting fewer! I would like to thank all the Committee for their support as well as you, the members. We would always welcome ideas and help from any members to help our u3a to continue to grow.