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CHAIRMANS REPORT - DECEMBER 2018
Christmas seems to be rushing upon me with alarming speed! I’m sure you feel the same. Time appears to telescope as we approach the celebration of Christ’s birth with so many events to enjoy and opportunities for gift giving occupying our minds.
We are looking forward to our December monthly meeting with our fast becoming traditional quiz and celebratory mince pies and fruit cake. Last year we had a hall packed with members eagerly trying to decipher the dingbats and answer the questions fired at them. We are lucky to have again this time the recorder group performing to get us into the Christmas spirit.
Since the last newsletter we have enjoyed some amazing talks. On November the 8th the various history groups were fascinated by Julie Adams research into a name on a local war memorial. Her discoveries about Edward Wyndham Tennant, a pupil of the former West Downs School and Winchester College who died in battle aged just nineteen, really made this talented young man come alive as a moving representative of all those brave souls who gave their lives in the Great War.
Julia has asked me to write about the informative presentation by the Bumble Bee Conservation team who had us all enthralled with unexpected facts. For example the Chinese have destroyed so many of their “good” insects with pesticides that they now must pollinate huge areas of agricultural land by hand! What an awful warning! I for one was surprised to hear that potatoes, tomatoes and many other vital crops can be pollinated only by bumble not honey bees. They are clearly vital to our survival. The final image showed a bumble bee waving one middle leg in the air. Apparently it had detected the carbon dioxide being exhaled by the photographer and was signalling “move away.”
By the time you read this the Groups Meeting on the 22nd of November will have encouraged many of you to add something new to your portfolio of interests. How lucky we are to have so many thriving groups. I can tell you we are the envy of many other U3As. However we are still looking for some of you to come and help us with the committee responsibilities and I fear that the three out of seven of us holding two positions are finding it hard. Please consider coming and having a look - perhaps at the next committee meeting on January 2nd, 2019 at 14.00 in the Littleton Hall and see what it’s all about.
It just remains for me to wish you every happiness over the coming season and all the very best for 2019.
Freda Bates
12/18
As Editor of the Newsletter, I would be really grateful if you could send me contributions which would be interesting and informative to other members. For example, how often have you been asked, or have you asked “Have you read any good books lately?” All of our ten Modern Novels groups are reading a book a month and I guess that usually someone kicks off discussion with a summary of the month’s book. Your prepared summary could easily be rewritten as a review. If you feel the book is worth reading, it would be of great interest to many other members. Don’t keep it to yourself!
We do get contributions from some groups (e.g. Several Quester Groups, the Architecture Group) about their activities, but other groups surely do things or come across material which would be of interest to some other members. For example, the History or Local History Groups may come across interesting and/or curious material. Photographs of triumphs of the knitting group? It would be good to see masterpieces from the Painting Group? A poem of great beauty from the Poetry Group? An update on a scientific break-though from a Science Group. Recipes from a Cooking Group? Wine recommendations from a Wine Group? The list can go on and on.
Interesting photographs for the front cover are also very welcome. And, of course, there must be lots of good jokes out there that you would like to share for the Joke a Month section.
Make the Editor happy, please send your gems to . Thank you!
09/18
The new regulation on data protection (the GDPR) requires us to get the consent of our members so that we can contact them via post, telephone or email. Thanks very much to all members who responded to our email or returned our form with their preferences on how they would like to be contacted. Anyone who did not respond or want to change their consents can contact our membership secretary, Lianne Hill ().
Just one clarification: a significant number of members who responded did not give us their permission to send them ‘bulk emails’. These are the updates we send out via email about Winchester U3A events and newsletters etc. These emails come from Winchester U3A - we will never give your email address to any other organisation. We apologise if the term ‘bulk emails’ was unclear, and if you would like to receive these email updates, please let Lianne know by email.
Barrie Brinkman
Following up Barrie’s notice, please note that members may not receive a printed copy of the Third Age Matters in future if they have not sent back the GDPR form.
Lianne Hill
09/18
ANNUAL LOCAL HISTORY TALK - Thursday 8 November 2018 - 2.30pm
This year's annual local history talk is being given by Julie Adams at the Littleton Main Hall, on Thurs 8 Nov, and will be on Edward Wyndham Tennant: War Poet with Winchester connections
Julie Adams will show how researching Local History really can result in surprising discoveries. The talk marks the centenary of the end of World War I, and explains how a throwaway comment from a friend took her on a journey to various destinations in this country, and then to the battle site close to the Somme where this talented young man fought for his country and paid the ultimate price.
All U3A members are welcome to come along. Doors opening at 2pm ready for a prompt 2.30pm. There will be a charge of £1 towards the cost of hiring the hall and tea/coffee/biscuits will be provided.
Alison Henry
U3A Local History Co-ordinator
09/18
SUPPORT AT HOME (THAT IS COMPUTER SUPPORT)
When you buy a computer you hope that with time and some experience you’ll be able to do interesting things.
I’ve been getting on quite well with my MacBook and I’ve had it for more than four years. But recently I had a set of photos which I had organised into a virtual album, and I wanted to get them printed. Friends had shown me hard back books of professionally printed photos so maybe I should follow their advice and do the same.
Except that I could not make it work.
Every time I tried to create a book, the computer set the photos from the album in an order that the software algorithm chose but that wasn’t what I wanted and over a few days I got very frustrated and annoyed. What to do? Eventually I thought I might try Apple support so I opened up the Apple support web page, requested help, and was asked for my phone number, my Apple i/d and the serial number of my MacBook. The screen then said I would be phoned within two minutes but I didn’t even have to wait that long as within a few seconds the phone rang and a nice lady somewhere in the world asked how she could help.
She asked if she could view my screen but said she would not be able to take any actions herself. A red arrow would appear, so when she told me to do something the arrow showed where to click. In total she was on the phone with me for almost half an hour by which time my photo album was set up exactly as I wished and she signed off.....I then went ahead and ordered the printed album which was delivered a few days later, looking beautiful. Shortly after that call ended I got two emails, one with a case number and an invitation to click on that link if I needed further help on this, and another with suggested links to things on the Apple web site which I might find useful in future.
My MacBook is well out of its warranty, and I think it’s really something to get unhurried help without any pressure: it’s so unusual to get fantastic service at no cost and no rush for the other person to finish up. My experience with most things is, after warranty you’ll be lucky if anyone will talk to you unless you pay for a visit at huge expense so I was really impressed.
But that’s partly why we pay an apparently high price for Apple products.
As the saying goes, it’s worth it.
Nick is group leader for the Apple Mac users’ group. If you have an Apple product whether an iPad or a pc / laptop or iPhone and would like to come to a meeting on the morning of the 4th Tuesday of each month, contact Nick on 01962 861680 or .
09/18
This magazine is issued five times a year, with the next issue this April. As many of you know it is now easily available on the net. If you had opted for a printed copy but would now prefer the digital version, please let Lianne Hill the new Membership Secretary know. Every little bit of saving helps the environment and Lianne can be reached on lianne.hill@btinternet.
Richard Costard 03/18
But, if you do have a hard copy...
After the A.G.M. I was handed a copy of Third Age News (presumably the original title of Third Age Matters) dated Autumn 1993. There was much of interest within but what caught my eye and made me laugh was a list of suggestions of what to do with it when you’d read it. I quote 1) shove it up your jumper to keep you warm while cycling over the Alps in the Tour de France 2) make a paper aeroplane to while away a boring meeting 3) send it to you M.P. 4) put it in your shoes to stop the rain coming in through the holes in the soles 5) show it to the chairman of your local education authority 6) line the cat’s litter tray 7) leave it in your G.P’s waiting room. Can we get more humour into our newsletter? How about joke or funny story of the month?.
Freda Bates 03/18
Have you heard the one about...?
Following Freda’s suggestion above for a joke of the month, this is an invitation to you so send to me, as Newsletter Editor, your favourite joke to include in a Joke of the Month section. There must surely be lots of you amongst our 1300 members who know good ones! Please don’t be shy! (If you wished, I could enter them anonymously!)
Two eskimos were out fishing. It was really cold, so they built a little fire in their kayak. Unfortunately, this resulted in the kayak sinking. This proves that you can’t have you kayak and heat it!
(Oh dear, you can do better than that!)i>
Member Enid Pollock submitted this Joke:-
Donald Trump held a meeting with Emmanuel Macron after which they gave a joint press conference at the White House. Trump announced " We have come to an agreement. We shall bomb 3 million Muslims and 1 dentist.
"Why the one dentist?" asked a journalist.
Trump turned to Macron and said " I told you that if we added in the dentist no-one would aske us about the Muslims.
Roger Warr 03/18
TILL WE MEET AGAIN, GUNNER BERT MARTIN, 1941-1945
A joint 6-month long project by two members of Winchester U3A has resulted in the publication of this book. Ian Douglas, who has self-published
his own books on Amazon, and Hazel Spencer, whose father kept a diary of his wartime experiences, were put in touch by Colin Chase, leader of the photography group.
Bert's attempts to have his diary published in the 1950s were unsuccessful as were those of his daughter, Hazel, after his death. Now, 75 years after his capture at Tobruk, its publication enables this story, of an ordinary soldier living through extraordinary times, to be told.
The book is based on Bert's handwritten account, documents and photographs, and his interview with the Imperial War Museum. It details life in PoW camps in North Africa, Italy and Germany, and the horror of Dresden after the firebombing.
This is the true, unheroic but moving story of a PoW and his comrades and gives an insight into the prisoners' lives: the fears, the boredom, the hunger and the comradeship.
Royalties from the sale of the book will be donated to the Red Cross, in recognition of the food parcels which they sent to PoWs.
In Bert's own words:
"As one may gather, the Red Cross parcels we received meant quite a lot to us. I dare not even try to imagine what would have happened to many of us had we not been fortunate enough to receive parcels."
Now available from Amazon, postage-free, cost £10:
07/17
Some of our members would love to come to our interesting monthly meetings but have no transport. If you know of someone in this predicament please let us know as we are trying to set up a car buddy system to tackle this. We also need help identifying members with visual difficulties who have no access to the internet and would benefit from a modified large print hard copy of the newsletter. please help us to get in touch if you know such a member.
Freda Bates contact details.
05/17
With a membership in the region of 1300, your Committee realises that not all members enjoy good health and that some may have a disability of some kind which affects their ability to access U3A activities.
We are keen to know whether any members feel there might be more we could do to help them access our activities. This might include, for example, obtaining car lifts from other members to monthly meetings or groups.
In order that we can establish what difficulties any members may have in this respect we should like to hear either from anyone in this situation or who is aware of anyone experiencing difficulty.
Also, if any member has experience how other organisations deal with this situation we should appreciate any ideas.
Obviously we cannot promise anything but we are prepared to consider any suggestions or requests.
If you have any views on this matter please contact either of us – if we are away when you contact we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Freda Bates
Secretary
contact details
07/16