Minutes of the Main Meeting 8th January, St Martin’s Hall, beginning at 10am.
The Chair, Alison Currah, welcomed all to the meeting wishing them a happy New Year including guests Judith Nordett and Ron Gerdes.
Dot Dunning and Peter King were thanked as the ‘greeters’ and the usual safety and fire regulations were given.
Chair
The Chair began the meeting by thanking the Events Team for their organisation of the Christmas Lunch which had been a very successful and enjoyable event and displayed photos (courtesy of Carole Day).
Alison then informed the members of the benefits of ‘u3a Friends Extra’ which gave ‘Friends’ members exclusive offers and discounts across a wide range of services e.g.travel, leisure and well-being. Further information was available. She followed this with a reminder that the new Third Age Matters magazine, packed with articles and offers for members, was available to borrow.
The Chair then reminded members that this was her last full meeting as she would be standing down next month, at the AGM, having served her three years. She displayed an image of an empty chair which needed little explanation as members understood a replacement had not yet been found.
Next, the Chair explained the important dates relating to the forthcoming AGM. Any committee nominations and questions or proposals for discussion at that meeting had to be submitted by January 15th (28 days before). On January 22nd (21 days before), members would be sent the Agenda, committee nominations, any questions or proposals and the yearly accounts (if these were back from the examiner).
Events
Tickets on sale this month were:
Quiz and Fish and Chip Supper – Saturday 25th January, £5
Beetle Drive, pasty supper – Saturday 22nd February, £8
Swedish Night with Abba Disco, Swedish supper – Saturday 15th March, £10
The Chair then promoted 2 trips to the Theatre Royal Plymouth to see ‘Only Fools and Horses’ in May and ‘Calamity Jane’ in July for which seats could be reserved.
Groups News
‘Tunes in the Afternoon’ had resumed and would be meeting next on January 17th.
Barbara Leck, for the Garden safari, explained that they would have their 2025 programme out soon.
Community News
Member Regina Willard wished to inform members of the Looe Community Tea Rooms in the Rose Garden which offered tea, coffee and biscuits for £1 and ran subsidised trips.
Wednesday 15th January – Cinema By The Sea, ‘Thelma’, – 7pm.
January 16th – 18th – Looe Community Players Panto, Cinderella at the Millpool Centre.
March 26th – 29th – The Tudor Players present ‘The Ladykillers’, in Looe Guildhall Chamber.
The Chair then displayed the Looe Town Council ‘Wasson’ newsletter picking out some free ‘New Year, New Hobby’ sessions at Looe Community hub coming up this month amongst other interesting events.
AOB
Christine Barwell, Events Coordinator and previous Chair, asked to speak to the meeting regarding the AGM and lack of a Chair. She explained that whilst Alison used PowerPoint presentations at these meetings, that was not a prerequisite, and members should not be put off standing for the role because of that. She asked for members to carefully consider joining the committee.
The raffle was then drawn.
Following coffee, the speaker, Chris Jones from the Cornwall Beaver Trust, gave an informative talk about the work at his farm to set up a beaver enclosure, the benefits of having beavers on his land and the impact on the environment.
Looe & District u3a 