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Chairman' Report 2005 Once again, I am able to report a successful year for Wokingham U3A, our membership has increased to over 560 and even more spectacular is the increase in the number of groups from 40+ to 70+. This growth in the number of groups arose out of an initiative by Pauline Riocreux, Patsy Thornton and Colin Mitchell to run our "Freshers Fair" last September, our congratulations to them. We have been well provided for by the high standard of Patsy's speakers at Monthly Meetings, and we continue to give equal weight to the importance of group activities and our Monthly Meetings Please remember that we are always looking for members to take on roles as Group Leaders or committee members. It is pleasing to be able to report that we have had a number of volunteers come forward to take on these types of roles. Paul King, our Newsletter editor has invited contributions to a letters page in the newsletter and I would encourage you to take advantage of that to let the rest of the membership be aware of your opinions. Similarly, for those of you with access to e-mail we have set up an E-group to enable members to sign up to air their views and to see what other members are thinking. Again, I would encourage you to sign up. These two things would help with a continuing problem the committee faces, are we doing what the membership wants? It is very difficult to get feedback from individuals with the size of membership we have. Colin and I attended the National AGM as voting members on behalf of our U3A, which was particularly interesting for us this year as encouraged by the Regional Chairmen's Meeting, we had submitted a resolution to the effect that there should be only one proposer and one seconder for nominations and motions at the National AGM instead of what they had been doing of having long lists of proposers and seconders. We were gratified that the motion was carried overwhelmingly. As an experiment, we held the Garden Party in June last year and we were blessed by the weather which was just an ideal temperature so that we were able to circulate without being cooked. Due to circumstances beyond our control we had to change the date at the last moment but it is already confirmed as 19th July for this year. To make it more interesting we hope to have a small group from the Reading Barbers Shop Choir to entertain as strolling players. As foreshadowed in my report to you last year we have brought before you a motion to change the definition of a quorum and I would urge to support this motion when the opportunity arises later in the proceedings. Finally, it gives me great pleasure to thank all the committee members and group leaders for their sterling efforts throughout the year, without whom our U3A would not function. I particularly want to pay tribute to the long service of Alan Povall who is stepping down from the committee, after at least 8 years, but is continuing to undertake the role of Equipment Manager. Alan has been a driving force within Wokingham U3A for many years and we owe a lot to him. Also, we must thank Don MacDonald for his efforts as our treasurer over 4 ½ years, even carrying on until Ted Thornton was able to take over from him. And now I will hand over to Ted for him to report on our financial position. LenSmith |
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