Bearsden & Milngavie

Starting a Group

If your special interest is not represented or the group that you wanted to join is full, you might like to think about starting a new group. Anyone can start an interest group on any subject as long as one or more people are willing to arrange and coordinate meetings. Please don't feel that you need to be an expert. All that is required is an interest in a subject or activity, and a willingness to organise meetings. If you wish to start a new interest group, just click Groups Enquiry and send us an email, or contact the enquiry desk at one of the monthly meetings.

The potential new group will then be announced at the next monthly meeting and will be mentioned in the regular monthly bulletin. People will get a chance to sign up for the new group at monthly meetings and can also send an email via a link on the website. If enough people express an interest, it’s the first step to getting the new group off the ground.

Usually after this a meeting will be arranged for all the interested members to discuss what they would like from the group and when and where to meet.

If several members have expressed interest in a subject or activity, but no one has offered to be the group coordinator, it is hoped that discussion at a meeting will lead to someone volunteering for this role. If no one volunteers, the group will have to be left on hold for a while.

If you would like to talk over what is involved in coordinating a group, please contact the Groups Coordinator, or one of the committee members for help.

FAQs
The BaM U3A Handbook is available as is the booklet 'Time to Learn', produced by the Third Age Trust. It focuses on the many and varied participative learning methods available to interest groups. Both are available from the Groups Coordinator or the Committee.

Subject resources
If you are willing to coordinate a group but are concerned about a lack of resources, there is help at hand. A large number of non-book resources can be borrowed from the U3A National Resource Centre in Bromley.

There are slides, videos, audiocassettes, CDs and DVDs available in many subject areas. Loans are for a period of three weeks and booking requests can be made up to nine months in advance.

Information about how to borrow the resources can be found on the Resource Centre page.