Chairman's Report 2006

Chairman's Report AGM 2006

In my final AGM as Chairman I am pleased to report that our U3A continues to thrive and I would invite you to take a look at the graph of our membership over the last three years. Membership Record. You will see that we have a steady growth trend. It is interesting to see what happens over the renewal periods, some members renew very promptly, while others need reminding resulting in the saw tooth effects.

We now have 77 Activities or groups listed on our website which is a tribute to the work of Pauline Riocreux and all the other people involved in the two Freshers' Fairs we have held. Of those 77, 63 have links to more detail about what the groups are doing. It would be good to get enough input to ensure that we could have a link from every activity. The website is seemingly attracting more attention all the time as you can see from this slide Monthly Hits . I was very pleased that we achieved 100 hits for the first time in September, but last month as you can see we achieved 186. Colin has asked me, and I am pleased to continue looking after this website and if anyone has ideas for improvement please let me know.

I shan't sign off without once more asking those of you with access to e-mail to sign up to our E-group, it's such an easy way to communicate with other members at short notice and there is no question of your getting inundated with e-mails. A recent example of its effectiveness occurred at the end of November when we were invited to hold a group discussion to give our views on the disposal of nuclear waste. In the event a group of nine of us managed to meet, all but one came through the E-group and only one from my announcement at the Monthly Meeting. Also Colin is just trying to get people together at the moment for a discussion on the Government's Energy Review. Signing up is easy and the address is given in the detail block at the beginning of our newsletters. We do have 39 participants now so we are getting toward critical mass.

At last year's National AGM the then Treasurer presented a pie chart of how our £2.50 capitation fee is used and I thought you would be interested to see so we obtained a copy. By the way, I am aware of the spelling mistake but without the source data I am unable to correct it. Capitation Fee . Points made:

U3A Support via Office Services.

Staff costs:

The small staff - 3 full time and 5 part time staff - deal with all aspects of supporting the work of U3As by::-

Giving information via Monthly Mailings
Offering personal advice to U3As by phone and e mail
Preparing and providing a wide range of free materials to assist U3As
Running the Resource Centre - which at present includes free postage from the National Office of material required by U3As
Providing Committee Support
Preparation of materials for Summer Schools and the Conference
Taking bookings for all events organised by the Trust
Selling merchandise which is valued by U3As such as: - Badges, Ties; Diaries etc. Rent and associated services
All Office expenses

Insurances. These cover:-
Public Liability Insurance for all U3As
Trustee Liability Insurances (other Insurances e.g. for U3A equipment are available at cost)

U3A News. Production and Bulk distribution (Offset by Advertising revenue) Direct Mailing; All costs associated with

Direct Mailing of U3A News is covered by the charge made to U3As .

The Production and distribution of Sources is currently funded by an external grant and so is free to all subscribers.

Finally, I am confident our U3A will continue to new heights with a blend of experience and new blood and I wish the new committee every success. A thank you is due to all the committee members without exception with whom I have enjoyed working over the past three years, but I would particularly like to thank those who are stepping down, Gordon Wall for picking up the Membership Secretary role at short notice when Philip Harding left the committee to become mayor, Pauline Riocreux for developing our array of interest groups with such energy and enthusiasm, Andree Harrison coping as a committee member despite her transportation difficulties, and Patsy Thornton relinquishing her role as Speakers Secretary after unfailingly getting us interesting speakers. I shouldn't forget either, the Group Leaders and other helpers.So thank you all for jobs well done.

And now I shall hand over to Ted to present the financial affairs for the past year.

Len Smith