Newsletter from your Chairman July 2019
Well it’s finally mid-Summer and we are into yet another dry spell. The pollinating insects have done their job superbly and my apple tree is overloaded with fruit. (For those apple lovers it is a Worcester Pearmain). Looks like a bumper crop this year!
At the end of our U3A year it is traditional to look back over the past twelve months. Membership has grown and we ended up with around 250 members. New groups have been formed and some new members have joined the committee. One of those, Sue Farrell, has produced our new website, and I hope you are all enjoying using it. Behind the scenes your committee works very hard to maintain the high standards that we have set ourselves and we thank them all for their hard work. We are always looking for members to join our committee.
Sadly, we are losing one of our long-standing committee members. Christine Byrne is standing down from her role as Vice Chair and member responsible for P/R and local advertising. We thank her for standing in for me and for raising the profile of our U3A amongst the Edenbridge community. So, there is an immediate vacancy on the committee starting in September! July 30th sees our Annual General Meeting where all our officers are up for re-election.
As usual the meeting starts at 2pm in Crockham Hill Hall. We try to keep the formal part of the meeting brief so that we can also enjoy a speaker. This month Dennis Kelly will take us behind the scenes with his talk on ‘Tinsel Town – the Dream Machine’. Sounds like yet another fascinating talk.
The start of a new U3A year means that it is time to renew your membership. This year you can renew by electronic payment and the details can be found with the renewal details. You can of course still pay by cash or cheque in the usual way. The good news is that membership remains the same for July 2019 to June 2020 - £20 for single membership, £35 for joint membership. Where else can you get such good value for just 38p per week!
If you are unable to attend the AGM you can send your apologies via email to me at [email protected] . Last year our membership secretary and our treasurer spent many hours over a period of 3 months chasing up non renewals of membership. We do understand that your circumstances may change, and you may wish to resign your membership. If this applies to you could I ask you to let us know as soon as possible to make life easier for our membership team. Please let Estelle know at: [email protected] . Hope to see many of you at the AGM on Tuesday 30th July at Crockham Hill.
Best wishes
Mike Collins
PS – Spoke too soon! Just 3 days after taking the photo of the fruit crop woke up this morning to find the apple crop was too much for this branch. Oh dear!
