Latest Monthly Meeting Notices
Monthly Notices April
This is the notes from our Monthly Meeting held in the Winston Churchill Hall on Monday 8th April 2024. The meeting was then followed by a talk by Graham Horn which was all about "The Isle of Wight - England in Miniature".
Monthly Meeting - Chairman's Announcements :
Chairman Ann Lines opened the meeting by welcoming all the members in the hall and on Zoom and gave us the usual safety notices.
This month’s light hearted information included April 8th birthdays which was surprisingly only Julian Lennon (John Lennon's son) and Philip IV of Spain.
Today is the day in 1879 when milk was first sold in glass bottles. It is also ‘Draw a picture of a bird’ day and national Empanada Day. An Empanada is a crescent shaped savoury pastry which is particularly popular in Argentina!
There is also a solar eclipse taking place today but the best visibility will be in Mexico and the United States. Although a possible, 33% eclipse might be viewable in the north of our country but the clouds will probably beat us.
Chris Clare is stepping in for Sue Cobb as ‘New Member Coordinator’ today and will be in the Coffee lounge during the break for any questions.
Adele also reminded the members that the post meeting ‘Coffee and Chat’ group will meet outside after the meeting.
None of our groups were able to use the ‘Table of the Month’ this month but we look forward to seeing some of them at future meetings.
Ann again thanked the Refreshments Team for all their hard work and all the other members that help the committee run the Monthly Meeting. Without them there could not be a meeting.
Group Notices :
Interest Groups News:
Margaret gave us some group news…..
The second Wine Group that Margaret mentioned last month, has now formed. It will be called the Wine Appreciation Group and will start on the 14th May. They will meet on every second Tuesday of the month at 5pm in Ruislip Manor thereafter. There are still a couple of vacancies if this interests you. Contact Margaret.
The Pétanque group have now started their 2024 season. If this interests you then group leader Peter Huggett is in the hall today.
The new Golf group mention last month has formed and meets for the first time tomorrow, Tuesday 9th April, at the driving range. If this interests you or you want to join the group Petter Huggett is in the hall today.
For those who asked for advice on Smartphones, Margaret wanted them to know that planning for a session is in progress. To ensure the different phones are covered, it needs some thought but news of an event will be released soon. However, this will not be a monthly group, if successful it could be offered again.
Margaret needed to put out an urgent call for new members for the RUG (Really Useful Group). This group was formed when there were many jobs in Hu3a that needed that extra pair hands like envelope filling. Whilst those jobs are no longer needed there are still many important and key roles that we need help with. It’s mainly to support the Monthly meeting where we don’t have enough members to call upon to cover current members while they are away for whatever reason. The range of positions include covering the raffle, door clickers, meeters and greeters, kitchen helpers and car park marshalling. A big thank you to Ron McCann this month for stepping in to man the car park at such short notice. Please come and help us and if you can, contact the group leader Pat McAlpine.
London Walk
Brian informed the members that he has organised our next London Walk. This will be on Thursday May 9th called ‘Chelsea Odyssey’ and will be at the normal 10:45am meeting at Slone Square underground Station. Booking information will be released shortly.
Rambling Group
The next ramble will be on the 25th April and will be a circular walk from Harefield Hospital (Hill End Road entrance) via Rickmansworth Aquadrome. We’ll stop for refreshments at the aquadrome café before returning. It’ll be about 6 miles through countryside, woods (hopefully with some bluebells out), farmland and canal so it might be muddy. All the information is on the Events page or you can contact Jasia.
Sunday Concerts
Harvey gave the members some feedback on his last Sunday Concert for the 23/24 season. A great time was had by all and Harvey now waits for the 24/25 programme which he expects to see in June or July.
Visits News
Two new Quarter 3 visits have been announced. These are;
1) July 9th - a trip to the London Canal Museum with a tour, taking part in an ice-cream making demo and an exclusive canal boat ride. All should be finished by 4:30pm. Cost £25 and it’s a ‘Make your own way’ visit
2) September 26th – a trip to The Charterhouse in London to meet at 2pm for a guided tour and refreshments. Cost is £18 and it’s also a ‘Make your own way’ visit.
Full details for both are on the Events and booking links will follow shortly.
Membership News:
Freda was unable to be at the meeting in person but reported that we currently have 733 active members but there are still quite a few that have not renewed. Reminder emails have been sent out and these members have until the end of April when we’ll have to consider them as having left Hu3a.
PR and Communications
Nothing new to report.
IT News:
The Zoom facility has an upgrade with a new camera this month. A successful session where the speaker was in the hall this month. However, for copyright reasons we were not permitted to record the talk. this month.
And Finally:
The raffle took place before the members transferred to the Café.
After the break, Alan introduced our speaker, Graham Horn who gave us a very interesting talk all about "The Isle of Wight - England in Miniature".
Ann closed the meeting at 12pm.