November enews
The most recent enews came out on Monday 30th November (last Monday of the month). If you missed the deadline and want items posted in the December enews, please send them to the enews Editor
In the meantime, if you want u3a information posted on the website, contact the Web Team.
The Third Age Trust also has a National Newsletter containing government information on covid-19 along with very interesting, entertaining and useful advice, stories, titorials and ideas from across the U3A movement on all manner of topics. Members of u3a can subscribe for this other National Newsletter to be emailed to them monthly. (Members can also access archived past issues from that same page.)
Christmas Card Gallery Guidelines
- it should be your own work, or you’ll need to check that included photos, clipart etc are free of copyright
- it should be a single page
- send in your digital ‘card’ as an attachment in an email to webteam@aughton-ormskirk-u3a.co.uk if you already have it stored electronically (or take a photo or scan it and send that file)
- greetings text can be included in the image on the page and / or on the gallery ‘caption’ area which will appear below the card in the gallery. Include your caption in the email message when you send in your card file attachment
- the recipient(s) of the greetings should not be personal or individual, though the sender(s), ie the card maker(s), can name or identify themselves as they wish
To further explain this last point ……. we are looking only for u3a-related greetings to recipients at the Group / Committee / u3a friends level. Therefore suitable greetings (appearing on card or caption or between both might be along the lines of:
- “Happy Christmas to members of the Such-and-Such Group from Josephine Bloggs”
- “Joe Bloggs sends Best Wishes to all his u3a Friends”
- “Christmas Greetings from the Web Team to our Website Visitors”
For further guidance, please ontact: webteam@aughton-ormskirk-u3a.co.uk
Covid-19 advice on u3a activities
Following the introduction of government restrictions, the National U3A has published some Covid-19 advice on u3a activities.
You can also read messages from our Chairman Alan Starkie and Trustee Sue Watkinson about what our u3a is doing in the meantime.
Of course, any restarting of activities in the foreseeable future will involve assessment of risk and acceptance of some required changes to behaviour (social distancing) and additional tasks relating to hygiene. Our work to date on this subject is given in this Covid-19 Risk Management presentation.
Short Story Winners
Here are the winners of the Short Story Competition organised in 2020 by the Creative Writing Group. Click or tap on the links below for a good read!
- Winner: The Mojave Flute Player – by Mike Briggs
- Highly Commended: Breath – by Ann Henders
- Highly Commended: Last Memory – by Sue Watkinson
- Highly Commended: The Man In The Smiling Mask – by John Winter
Gardening Group Gallery
Thanks to the U3A Gardening Group members (and a couple of other enthusiasts) that sent in photos of their gardens taken during the lockdown summer of 2020, the Web Team have created this interesting and colourful gallery.
Chairman’s message about re-opening
Many members are asking questions about re-opening our U3A. The Management Committee has been actively discussing the situation and examining the latest Government rules. You can read the Chairman’s statement (sent to members in a special Beacon email on 3rd July) about the steps we are taking to ensure a safe continuation of our activities.
MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN
There have been many announcements from Government detailing when and under what conditions businesses can open from 4th July. As a result, many members have raised the question of when our U3A will be operational.
Government rules on how organisations such as ours can re-open have been examined and as a consequence, there are several steps we need to take in order for us to make it as safe as possible for us to start Group activities again.
There are obligations on the owners of venues that we use such as Scouts & Guides, Aughton Village Hall etc.
Before we can commit to using any facility, we must be sure that they have been deep cleaned and how they will conform to cleaning regulations.
These and a whole raft of other topics will need to be negotiated and agreed before we continue with our activities.
When we can eventually restart meetings, we should not expect things to continue as before the lockdown.
We shall have to plan and allocate where and when meetings can take place, taking into account the size of the group; how many people a facility can accommodate within distancing rules etc., and if the wearing of masks will be mandatory or not.
For example, face to face Groups such as Bridge under present rules will probably have to wear a mask for the duration of the meeting.
It is also more than likely that Horizons will not be reactivated for some time.
There are many more rules for the committee to consider before we can give the go ahead to continue with meetings and meet our friends again.
Uppermost in our thoughts is that, according to the scientists, our generation is identified as being very vulnerable to Covid-19 and we must take very cautious steps when moving forward.
Even when we can continue, every member must be responsible for their own health and safety and should bear this in mind before attending U3A meetings.
I hope that a successful vaccination against Covid-19 will be found and we will all be vaccinated, rules and regulations will no longer be needed and we will be able to freely meet again.
Until then we must cope with how things are.
The Committee will strive to restart our U3A and we will inform you when it is safe to do so.
Keep Safe; Keep Well
Alan Starkie
Chairman
Gardening Group-Garden Visits & Photos
Lockdown 2020
All meetings are currently postponed until further notice.
Hello Everyone. Helen here from the Gardening Group. I do hope that you are all staying safe and well and enjoying your garden or outdoor spaces.
Garden visits
For anyone that hasn’t heard, the National Gardens Scheme have started garden openings with an online booking system for visits so that numbers are limited and social distancing can work.
79 Crabtree Lane – which our group visited last year is opening this weekend – Sunday 5th, Monday 6th and Tuesday 7th.
Hazel wood – which our group was due to visit this year is also opening this weekend – Saturday 4th, Sunday 5th and Monday 6th.
Just go online to ngs.org.uk and click on ‘book a visit’.
Photo gallery of our groups gardens .
Following on from the earlier success of the West Lancs in Bloom galleries on our U3A Website, the Web Team are wondering if Gardening Group members would be interested in a special gallery to add to our Group Page with recent pictures of your gardens? West Lancs in Bloom was nearly exclusively Spring Blossom, so we were thinking of a gallery this time with a theme like Our Summer Gardens during Lockdown.
Contributions can be emailed as attachments to webteam@aughton-ormskirk-u3a.co.uk. As the website is public, contributors should avoid the appearance in a photo of recognizable people or obtain permission from those appearing. Please provide suitable short captions for your photos and say whether you would like your name to be included or not.
Looking forward to seeing your lovely gardens. I’m amazed at how resilient many plants have been to the recent extremes of weather, gales, heatwave, drought and torrential rain !
Stay safe and healthy,
Pam & Helen
Last Updated on October 15, 2022