Leigh & District

News

This is where we'll keep you up-to-date with all the latest news - even the occasional bit of gossip!

Membership Fees 2024-25
As we are approaching a new membership year, you will be pleased to know that we now have more members and different varieties of groups and venues than ever before. We hope that with this positive news that our members will carry on supporting Leigh & District u3a by renewing their memberships for 2024-25. Unfortunately our successful year has come at a cost since more groups require more rooms & therefore room hire fees. As it’s the groups that attract people to us, we are reluctant to increase the group admission fee. We have managed to hold the membership fee at its present rate of £15 since before Covid, but we have decided that we can no longer sustain it at this cost for the coming year. We have therefore decided to increase the membership for 2024-25 to £18 with the non-affiliated members (Associate) fee at £15. We hope that our members will understand the reasoning for doing this, and in our opinion it is still great value.

Safeguarding Policy
We have added a Safeguarding Policy which we encourage members to be aware of. If you have any safeguarding concerns, please contact Kathy Hopper by email or by phone on 07964 815192.

Newsletter, January 2024
Our January 2024 newsletter is now available from the link above or on the right. The latest Third Age Trust (TAT) Newsletter(s) are also available from links on the right.

Our newsletter is issued twice yearly – in January and July. Always keep a look out for the next edition when we’ll have lots of information about upcoming events and photographs of the past 6 months.

Magic Little Grant 2023
Thanks to the support of the People's Postcode Lottery, we received a grant of £500 from Magic Little Grants. This has enabled us to keep our group room hire fees at £1.50.

Indoor Bowls
Our Indoor Bowls group is now unfortunately at capacity and unable to accept any new members. If you’d like your name adding to the waiting list please contact Gillian Fisher – Indoor Bowls. The group meet at Leigh Miners Welfare at 10.30am on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of each month between October & March.

Policies
Can we please draw your attention to two policies for all Members to review: Social Media Policy and the Members Code of Conduct. Links to both are also on the Welcome page.

New Groups
Our new groups are going well. Here are some details if you’d like to join them:

Ukulele
A number of members of the Ukulele group have formed a band and are entertaining in and around Leigh at nursing homes, sheltered accommodation and charity events. They also supported Pensioners Link in Leigh for their Coronation Garden Party which included a mural artwork unveiling by the Lord Mayor. Pensioners Link have sent a letter of thanks.

Gift Aid & Membership Details
Would members please note that we ask you to complete a membership form and a Gift Aid declaration only once, at the time of joining. However, we are aware that personal circumstances change and members may come out of or into a tax-paying situation. If your circumstances, in this respect, do change, we would be grateful if you would let us know and then the Gift Aid claims we make on your behalf are as honest and accurate as we are able to manage. Again, should other details change, e.g. address, telephone number, email address etc., please inform us accordingly and our records can be updated or even update them yourself using our Members Portal. All the information we hold in your respect is for admin purposes only, and is kept securely and maintained in accordance with Data Protection provisions.

Facebook and Instagram
As well as having our Facebook page, which is now well established, we also publish details on Instagram.

Leigh Film Society
Leigh Film Society have asked us to share details of their activities. Please click on the link above for more details.

u3a Discussion Forums
The Third Age Trust has been looking at different ways to support our amazing u3a community. They wanted to enable and support u3as, members and Interest Group leaders, to stay active and connected with each other.

To this end, they have launched three online discussion forums so that you can share ideas and support each other. Thanks to the Beacon users, they are doing this by extending the existing (and successful) Beacon User Forum to all u3as, regardless of whether or not you are using the Beacon management system at your u3a yet. It is easy to get started. All you need to do is visit the forum website at https://forum.u3abeacon.org.uk, click the ‘register’ button and fill in your details. From there you will be able to explore the forums and get involved in the discussion.

There will be three forums that you can join:

  • Learning – discussions around subjects and all forms of interest and learning
  • Our u3a Community – discussions arounds how we support each other
  • Beacon – discussions around using Beacon, the u3a management system

This is just an outline of what the forums are about because it will be led and developed by you when you join and the conversations that are happening.

A volunteer team will moderate the site and support you to use the forums in a safe, positive and productive way.

Emergency Contact
If you haven't already provided them, please ensure we have your emergency contact details by sending the following to our Membership Secretary:

  • Your name & membership number
  • Emergency contact name
  • Relationship to you
  • Emergency contact phone number(s)

Please also remember to fill out the emergency contact details on the back of your membership card.

Wigan & Leigh Pensioners Link
Pensioners Link was established in 1988 and was the vision of two pensioners, Alan Taylor and Peter Kenny. An important element of their vision was to see organisations and people linked together so as to provide maximum benefit for older people. Their aims are to:

  • Maintain independence and well-being
  • Reduce isolation
  • Stimulate social interaction
  • Access information and services in the community

Reciprocal Agreements
We have reciprocal agreements with both Wigan and Ashton-in-Makerfield u3as, which means our Leigh & District members can attend Ashton & Wigan activities without having to join either of those u3as (and vice-versa of course). You would still need to pay the relevant group session fees and any trip costs, but you should only need to prove you are a current member of Leigh & District u3a by showing your membership card.
Please see the Ashton-in-Makerfield and Wigan web sites for more details about their activities.