Newsletter from your Chairman March 2020
Who would have thought that our world and our lives could be changed so quickly? Three months ago we were reflecting on Christmas and happy family times together. Then along comes coronavirus! More about that later.
It seems that I missed a very good meeting in February when Alan Haines entertained you all with his talk on “The Baby Boomer Nostalgia Show”. There was even better news after his talk when he explained that this was just part 1 of a two-part presentation. Your committee thought that part 2 would be a good talk to have at our Christmas meeting. So, Alan is coming back to present part 2 on the 15th December. Hopefully by then the coronavirus will be just an awful memory. I’m afraid that is the only good news I can give you this month.
Coronavirus and our monthly meetings
As your committee we have a duty of care towards you all - our Edenbridge U3A members. Our membership is made up of people ranging from 60 plus up to 90 and this puts us all in the higher risk group. Underlying health issues add to the risk. Our committee had a special meeting on Friday (13th) and we have made the decision that we will suspend our monthly meetings until further notice. In the light of the government and health department advice it is unlikely that these meetings will reconvene before the summer. Many of you may be anxious about the spread of the coronavirus and we feel that, with our duty of care to you all, we had to make this decision to cancel our monthly meetings and review group activities.
I would like to assure you that we will continue to meet as a committee each month to review the ongoing situation and return our events back to normal as soon as the situation allows.
What about our interest groups? Brian, our groups organiser on the committee, is writing to all group leaders with some recommendations. If you are a member of a group your leader will be in touch with you soon. There is a balance to be struck between you, the members, taking some responsibility for deciding whether you should attend a meeting while at the same time us recognising our duty of care to our membership.
So, look after yourself. Remember to wash your hands many times each day and follow the guidelines released about social distancing.
Best wishes
Mike Collins
Chairman
Email [email protected]