Monthly Open Meetings
A resounding success
The Monthly Open Meetings at the Chequer Mead Theatre have been very successful, we are delighted to see so many of you coming along and many new members have joined the U3A in the last 4 years thanks to these meetings.
We had many very interesting speakers in 2019:John Bowers - Life in prison and after(that was in Oct 2018)
- On January 23rd the Speaker was Ian Porter who talked about charles Dickens Early Life. About 55-60 people came. It was a very informative, interesting and successful talk. In March we heard from Malcolm Wells in " so far so good" - Malcolm spoke about his 24 years in the Army as a musician, then a medic serving in N. Ireland and the Gulf War. He also talked about receiving the MBE at Buckingham Palace and his time with the Canine Partners, incl. how to teach a dog to use a washing machine. In May, we welcomed Len Brook who talked about "Myths and Folklore of the South Downs".
In September, Melanie Gibson-Barton talked about "Bruges, it's more than just chocolate"
and in October,we welcomed Laurence Leng who talked about Grafton & Simpson the writers of Steptoe & So, Hancock hour, and more.
On the 1st September, The coffee shop was taken over by the Chequer Mead Theatre and called "The Apron Café". Prices will stay the same: £1.50 for tea/coffee and £3.50 for drinks and cake. We now have the use of the 2 studios next to the Coffee shop for our speakers' talks.
In 2020 we welcomed Howard Slater speaking about Audrey Hepburn, and in February Dick Benson-Gyles talked about T.E. Lawrence ( Lawrence of Arabia's early life), and also in February Paul Umney from Crawley Police told us how to keep safe from Scams etc.
Then everything changed due to the pandemic
All meetings were cancelled at least until September 2020. However, the situation has not improved yet so the U3A Committee has decided
to organize Zoom Meetings for the Autumn:Wed 21st October at 2.30pm - Speaker: Melanie Gibson-Barton - Subject: Suffragettes and Suffragists - Zoom meeting on Wed 18th November at 2.30pm: Speaker: Dave Goulson - " The Bee Man" - Subject: Averting Insect Apocalypse.
Wed 2nd December: AGM - By Post or Email - Zoom Meeting Wed 9th December at 2.30pm: Speaker: Philip Caine TBC
Hopefully, "live" meetings will resume next year at Chequer Mead on the following dates:
15th Jan., 24th Feb., 24th March, 28th April, 26th May.
All information will be in the Janaury Newsletter.
Thank you - Danielle Clarke
01342-326400#