Activity Group Co-ordinator Role (AGC)
Mid-Northumberland U3A
GENERAL INFORMATION FOR ACTIVITY GROUP CO-ORDINATORS (AGC)
[Activity Group Co-ordinator refers to an interest group. ‘Group’ is a general term denoting a particular U3A eg, Mid-Northumberland U3A, Alnwick U3A, Newcastle etc.]
Below is information about the Activity Group Co-ordinator role and what the responsibilities are. If you are interested in starting a group you should also speak to other AGCs to find out how theirs work. You will find that there are differences between groups.
Group names differ between U3As: we tend to use Co-ordinator, as that is how we see the role. An AGC is expected to deal with organisation and/or delegation of their group. Sometimes groups have someone who has a lot of subject knowledge and leads the work of the group but that person does not necessarily have to be the co-ordinator, although if they wish to carry out both roles there is nothing to stop them doing so.
Some U3A groups have a fixed-term for co-ordinator roles (eg: 2 or 3 yrs.), believing that this leads to a re-charging of energy and ideas; the successor shadows the co-ordinator for a period before taking over, which gives people time to build up experience. However, it is important to recognise that activity groups run themselves and if they – and the co-ordinator – are happy to continue without change, then that is their decision. In Mid-Northumberland, we benefit from having diversely organised groups that rightly identify a format which best suits themselves.
What’s Involved?
As AGC you are expected to:
- Be the first contact for existing members and potential new members
- Identify a method of organising the programme and ensuring this happens
- Take responsibility for collecting hall hire fees and passing on to relevant person for payment
- Take responsibility for ensuring that the group’s activities are carried out as safely as possible
- Arrange that the following tasks are carried out whether by you, or someone else:
- identify/book venue(s)
- ensure that timely information about future meetings is forwarded to all concerned
- Deal with any disputes which may arise within a group, or if serious enough to warrant committee intervention, discuss the matter with the groups’ co-ordinator
- Take responsibility for making groups’ co-ordinator aware of any change of co-ordinator
- Ensure that any necessary cancellation of venue bookings is made before the meeting in question
It is the AGC’s job to keep the group interested, motivated, and encouraged. This doesn’t mean that they have to do all the work. The most successful groups appear to be those in which all members take an active part. Some examples are: doing a piece of work for a particular meeting; hosting or organising a meeting; and ones where everyone takes an active part in each meeting. If you would like to learn more about how particular groups run and why they’re successful, you can speak to the AGC of that particular group or to the Groups’ Co-ordinator. You can also access the U3A Group Co-ordinator’s Handbook (see RESOURCES page).
Attendance at meetings will vary; as AGC you should be aware of habitual non-attendees. If there is a long-term non-attendance, you should ask whether such a person still wishes to be part of the group. Some groups have limited membership and a habitual non-attendee can stop another interested person from joining. In other groups this will not be so important as the structure and nature of the group is very flexible and open-ended.
Contact
As AGC you should be willing to have your contact details freely available to both the Groups’ Co-ordinator and to all members of your Activity group ie. name, email if applicable, tel no, landline or mobile (mobiles are useful for emergency contact).
Mid-Northumberland U3A now has a website which gives details of all activity groups and the name of the AGC. No other personal information appears. Any enquiries from the general public by way of the activity group page are delivered direct to the AGC via the envelope logo which is invisibly linked to their email address. This means that their email address is completely hidden and secure.
Register
The national guidelines require that group co-ordinators keep an attendance register of members. Some U3As have activity groups of 50+ where such a register will be a benefit. However, most Mid-Northumberland groups are small enough not to need a formal record taking. It would be good practice however, to keep an informal record of member attendance.
Handling Money
National guidelines strongly discourage using personal credit cards when paying for group activities. Groups are self-funding and must meet any outgoing costs themselves.
If an AGC uses Longhirst Village Hall, payment should be made to our treasurer who will pass this on to Longhirst Village Hall when invoiced.
Maureen Cairns: August 2012 (amended June 2016)
Retired Groups’ Co-ordinator
on behalf of Mid-Northumberland U3A