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Chairman' Report 2004 Twelve months ago, Joyce gave a report on a successful year for Wokingham U3A and I am pleased to report that we have continued in that vein. Our membership has continued to grow and now stands at 490. The Groups are an equal part of the lifeblood of the U3A together with our monthly meetings and both activities are thriving. During the year we have lost Technology, Art (Painting), Holiday Greek and. Body Matters Groups. However we have start-ups for MOTO (Members on Their Own), Weather Watching (Replacing Body Matters), Mah Jong is restarting, and, just getting off the ground, Comparative Religion. Holiday Greek may start again when a Greek teacher we know of retires. If someone would be prepared to be convenor Art could start up again. There are several convenors who are looking to give up this year and we really do need some volunteers to help keep our groups going. Being a convenor is not a particularly onerous task We have again benefited from the largesse of a local firm, GE Power Systems, in the form of a second-hand laptop, which has enabled us to double up on our electronic projection systems. As a result we have decided to make equipment of this nature available to authorised members to use for non-U3A purposes under strictly controlled conditions, basically to make presentations to other small non-profit making organisations. During the year we have created a website for Wokingham U3A which gives a fair amount of information about our activities and which we try to keep up to date by publishing the newsletters after they have been distributed in magazine format. A photo gallery has recently been included that is so far rather light on photos, but we would welcome any topical photos that could be included. Another thing we do with the website is to keep the "Next Monthly Meeting" publicised. For those who looked, this would have been helpful on two occasions when Patsy's speakers had to be changed at the last minute. One went to hospital for an operation and one had to attend the funeral of a close friend. Patsy, however, produced from nowhere very good substitutes. We have had a very interesting series of speakers at our Monthly Meetings and we are indebted to Patsy Thornton and Betty Hughes before her for giving us such a varied programme through the year. The Garden party last year was not as well attended as we would have hoped, but it was one of the hottest days of the year and we feel this may have discouraged some people. One of our focuses this year has been to try to welcome new members and members who arrive on their own to meetings and we shall be especially doing it at this year's event. Due to the non-availability of the church, the Christmas event had a format that had not been our original intention, but we were entertained by the groups and I believe it was very successful with an attendance of 128. With our increasing numbers there is concern that we may not get a quorum at our AGM, so one of the options we are considering is to substitute a finite number instead of the 20% of membership figure we currently have. If we decide this is the direction we wish to go we shall bring it to you with an EGM at a Monthly Meeting. It remains for me to thank all the committee members and convenors who have made such a major contribution to the success of our U3A. Particular thanks must go to those committee members who are retiring at this AGM. Gordon Riocreux who has edited and produced our newsletter for seven years, David Tinker who has been Groups Co-ordinator for three years, Peter Harms, who has looked after our increasing stock of equipment very effectively, and Roy Madden who has been a member without portfolio, bringing a new voice to our meetings. To try to help us find people we can invite to serve on the committee or as convenors we are going to issue with subscription renewals a short questionnaire, which we invite you to return to us if you would be so kind. It is entirely voluntary whether you complete it. I cannot close without a mention of Phil Harding who gave up the role of membership Secretary to become Mayor of Wokingham. Sadly, Phil is in hospital recovering from major surgery and I am sure you all join me in wishing him a speedy full recovery. Thank you very much Len Smith
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