North West Region

Welcome

LATEST SPRING NEWSLETTER IS AVAILABLE ON LINK ON NW NEWS PAGE

Some of this information from past projects and events may be of interest to your u3a and inspire more local activities.
See the list to the right for details

We have also included past newsletters for your information.

September Newsletter 2022

REGIONAL COMMITTEE AND SUPPORT VOLUNTEERS
The NW committee was formed to support the Regional Trustee, currently Neil Stevenson. Members are elected at an AGM but may be co-opted throughout the year. The members are also known as Regional Support Volunteers (RSVs), helping the Trustee to disseminate information and advice. This became a very important role during the pandemic and helped to develop lines of communication, not only between groups and the Trustee but amongst the u3as around the region. Each u3a has an RSV who would welcome an invitation to attend meetings or events as the North West Trustees representative.
Why not think about joining the “Meet the Regional Committee”? There is currently room for more members and we especially need someone to deal with PR and the Website. The committee is small and we meet every couple of months, sometimes on Zoom and now, more frequently, face to face. We plan events and share information. You can find details on the NW website
https://u3asites.org.uk/north-west/home
or by contacting your RSV or any committee member.

MEET THE REGIONAL COMMITTEE
Neil Stevenson:
Neil is the Regional Trustee for the North West of England. He is a director and board member of the Third Age Trust. Neil is the national subject advisor for Egyptology He has previously been chair of the North West Region and chair and Beacon Administrator at Upholland and District u3a.

Mary Waters:
NW Region Committee Chair, formerly NW Region Secretary,former chair and interest groups coordinator for Lancaster and Morecambeu3a with an interest in bridge, psychology, theatre, mysteries, travel and cultures, especially African and Asian.

Hilary Scarratt:
NW Region Committee Secretary, former Chair and Membership Secretary of West Cheshire Rural u3a with an Interest in travel,horticulture, garden design, cryptic crosswords, sewing, crocheting andbead weaving. She has just completed a self-designed, self-built new houseand garden.

Alan Hough:
North West Region Treasurer and organiser of the North West Summer School. A qualified management accountant in industry, interests include walking, crown green bowling, dancing and ocean cruises as well as his amily - 2 children and 4 grandchildren.

Tony Cheetham:
NW Region Committee member, and current chair, of Preston and District with interests in Walking, Cycling, Local History, Opera, Philosophy and Creative Writing.

Gill Russell:
Gill Russell, NW committee Vice Chair, formerly u3a Chair, NW Committee Chair and NW Trustee and has interest groups and has run coursesat the NW summer school. Hobbies include music and languages, with aspecial interest in Japanese language and culture. She is keen to promote networking as she believes this is a way for members to appreciate the widermovement and to share ideas, experiences, concerns and successes.

Bill Woods:
After a career in local government, Bill understands the importance of adding value to the local community and believes the u3amakes such a difference to people’s lives and outlook. He encourages members to do all they can to enhance this excellent organisation.

AGM AND CONFERENCE
The AGM and Conference were held on 15 June, with 22 delegates attending inperson, and 9 voting on-line. Maureen Eccles retired as chair, Jacqueline Owenas vice chair, and Maggy Simms as a General Committee member. All were thanked for their contribution to the work of the North West Region Committee. Fortunately, they are all continuing to support the work of the committee behind the scenes, and all deserve a big thank you. The draft minutes are on the North West Region Website.
The Conference was well attended and the feedback was very positive. The programme included a talk by Dave Carlos on Cyber safety, a workshop on “Meetings Made Marvellous, a keynote presentation by Liz Thackray, and adisplay of research projectsand various activities in the North West during the Covid lockdown. Those attending found that the day had given them newi deas to consider and a chance to share ideas with other members.

OUR WEBSITE
https://u3asites.org.uk/north-west/welcome
The North West website is worth visiting regularly. Two important features are:
1. The speaker list. Our speaker list is growing. All the speakers on our website have been recommended by a u3a. If your u3a has had an excellent speaker, please suggest to the speaker that he or she contactus and ask to be placed on our website, (form is on the Resources page, see link below)
https://u3asites.org.uk/north-west/page/103098
2. NW News and Events in the NW: These pages are in the process of being updated. We would love to hear about events run by your network or u3a. Not only is this a good way to publicise your event, but it is a good place to get ideas about what others are doing. (see link below for contact re this)
nwrchairu3a@gmail.com

NETWORKING
Networking is a great way to liaise with other u3a members and it is invaluable for sharing ideas, information, experiences, concerns and successes. There are various ways to networks are organised. For example, it might be a local group of u3as who choose to meet together or it might be a ‘peer to peer’ meeting where committee members with specific roles discuss how they deal thec hallenges which arise.
Some networks plan workshops and interest days on topics such as language, science, literature, music, singing – and more. There is also a national ‘network link’ which brings together members from all over the country.
Networks are not another layer of bureaucracy. They may be formal or informal and u3as can belong to more than one. The u3a movement is like a arge family with many varied interests. If your u3a doesn’t already enjoy the benefits of talking to your u3a neighbours, please consider becoming part of a network.

WORKSHOP: RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION
Paul Martinez lead a workshop on Recruitment and Retention. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Paul’s contribution to Recruitment and Retention, he was the lead of the recruitment and retention toolkit and Pathfinder programme during Covid,
This workshop is intended for ALL members interested in recruitment and retention. This includes group leaders, committee members, diversity and accessibility officers and membership secretaries.

SUGGESTIONS FOR WORKSHOPS WELCOME
The events programme for 2022-3 will include a Creative Thinking zoomw orkshop, a Japanese Day, and a Getting involved in Research workshop. owever, before finalising the programme we would love to hear from you. What would you like a have as a workshop? event? talk? get-together?Please send suggestions to Mary at nwrchairu3a@gmail.com

SOUTHPORT FLOWER SHOW
(Picture reference, u3a 40th Anniversary FaceBook page)
Neil had the privilege to visit the Southport Flower show on Saturday 20 thAugust as the guest of Southport u3a. What a fantastic demonstration of the creativity and imagination of u3a members. Thousands of visitors will have admired the u3a garden, which won both a trophy and gold certificate. Over one thousand u3a members from across the country took advantage of the substantially reduced ticket price, because of Southport u3a’s participation. Iam delighted that the Third Age Trust was able to contribute towards thef unding.
Congratulations to Paddy, Chris, Jim and everyone else at Southport u3a who made this such a wonderful showcase for the u3a movement.

u3a WEEK
This month many of our u3as will be celebrating u3a Week. Neil will be pleased to hear about your event. If you can let him have a few words and a couple of photographs, he will collate them together and tell the story of how we celebrated here in the North West. Neil will also share your stories and photos with our Communications Team in u3a Office to support our national coverage. You can contact Neil at
neil.stevenson@beacon.u3a.org.uk

ONLINE WORKSHOPS
A range of online national workshops, to help you run your u3a, are available for booking. There are currently seven different courses available. For further details see https://www.u3a.org.uk/advice/workshops
By the way, if this link does not work for you, it maybe because you are not registered to access the advice section of the national website. To register go to https://www.u3a.org.uk/login?view=registration

u3a BANNERS FOR EVENTS
The North West Region now has 2 large outdoor banners that stick into the grass. These can be borrowed by u3as for u3a events, but transport costs are not covered. neil.stevenson@beacon.u3a.org.u

NEWSLETTER NUMBER 65.

NORTH WEST NEWS Number 65, APRIL 2021
Message from the Trustee
Dear Members,
I hope you enjoyed the Easter break and were able to take advantage of the sunny, albeit cold, weather.
Member Link
I am grateful for the sterling work of our regional team. They have been busy contacting all of our u3as to offer support and help to begin reopening after such a long period. When we started, we had 29 of our 101 u3as that had not completed the survey or were hibernating or we had no contact with them. We have now made contact with almost all of our u3as. A number of u3as are now asking about guidance for re-opening and restarting groups. There are lots of retention and recruitment “How to” guides on the national website with more appearing almost daily (see Recruitment Archives - u3a Sources ). More information about Member Link is on the national website at u3a - Member Link

u3a Day
As I am sure you are all aware, u3a Day is on Wednesday 2nd June. I hope that your u3a is preparing to make this a great celebration and create lots of publicity for the u3a movement. Thank you to those of you who have completed our questionnaire about your plans for u3a Day.
We know that we will not be back to all meeting together again, but there are still lots of things we can do. Please see u3a - u3a Day There are also lots of ideas from other u3as posted on our u3a Day Facebook page at (3) u3a Day | Facebook

Model Constitution Workshop
I am pleased to announce that our CEO, Sam Mauger, will be explaining the new model constitution at an online workshop on Tuesday 18th May from 09:30am. A great opportunity to ask Sam any questions that you may have about the constitution. You can book at the Events page of the North West Region website North West Region : Events (u3asites.org.uk)

PR Adviser
Our regional PR Adviser, Theresa Rogers, has been gathering newsworthy stories from our u3as including Mawdesley Villages u3a’s success in keeping functioning during lockdown and Heswall u3a’s ukulele group activities. If you hear of any good news stories from your u3as please tell Theresa. There should be some really great stories arising from u3a Day. Theresa has successfully made contact with both Cheshire and Lancashire Life magazines and hopes to place good u3a stories with them. Theresa can be contacted at Theresam.u3a@gmail.com

We are looking for someone with social media skills, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to help u3as increase their social media presence. If you know of any likely candidates to be our Regional Social Media Adviser, please do let me know.
Best wishes
Neil

Neil Stevenson
North West of England Trustee
neil.stevenson@beacon.u3a.org.uk
Telephone 07595 233163

Message from the Chair
Dear Members,
Happy Spring Time! I hope that many of our members are enjoying some of the outdoor opportunities and meeting more people. There are still many digital experiences on offer through the u3a website, your own u3a and others for those who want to take advantage. We are hearing about u3as in our region who are ‘Keeping in Touch’ with their members through a variety of ways too. If you want to share how this happens in your u3a, please let us know and we will post some of them on the website.
The North West Region has held three more ‘Tuesday Talks’ since the New Year. It has been rewarding to receive the many appreciative comments made by our members both within our region and beyond and our thanks go to everyone who has presented. On 13th April, Gill Russell is giving a presentation on Japanese Culture which will be the last one in this series of talks. It was at the request of our members that we continued the Zoom training and this will continue for a little longer with the next session on May 5th. This, and Gill’s talk, can be booked via our NW u3a website in the Events section.
There are several National Committees working on various aspects of the u3a, one of these being Diversity and Inclusion. We were delighted that members of this team held a session for us in February that was well received.
We have re- launched the ‘My Street’ project that asks you to take part in displaying a local feature through pictorial and written work. The submissions provided so far have enabled us to update the welcome page and they can be seen in the News section. Thank you to those members who have provided us with this material. The details about the project can be found in the Newsletter, the NW website or through your own u3a. I do hope that you or a small group can take part in this venture.
As one of our speakers said – ‘keep u3aing’!
With all good wishes,
Mo
Mo Eccles, Chair of NWR of u3as
nwrworkshop@gmail.com

My Street Leaflet

A recent joint collaboration between Huyton and Halewood U3A commemorated the end of WW1 and the peace to come. To read an article on the event, click WW1 article.