Dear members,

I hope that you are enjoying what seems to be the occasional (chilly) day of Indian summer?

It has been another busy month with the 25th anniversary social event, in addition to finalising the arrangements for our stand at Burnham Carnival – our u3a stall at the Carnival seemed to attract quite a bit of interest; I hope it allowed the Burnham u3a an opportunity to show a wider audience what we are and what we can offer. Thank you very much to all the members who helped out at the stall throughout the day – see the picture on page 3.

As I mentioned at the social event, the life blood of any u3a is its interest groups and whilst we have almost 30 thriving groups several of them have waiting lists: in one way that’s very good as it shows that the groups are successful; but on the other hand it means that members who can’t join the group they’re interested in could lose interest and leave, this would be a great shame.

At present we have substantial waiting lists for another Book Group, a Gardening Group, Family History and Scrabble. Some other groups do not have long waiting lists but are still full: Table Tennis, Line Dancing, Mah Jong, Life Anew, and Explorers Luncheon Club to name just a few. Diane Caulkett, our Groups Coordinator, also writes about this in the newsletter.

So a personal plea from me, could I ask that if whether you are on a waiting list for a particular group or not, but you would consider becoming a group leader, please contact us. We can offer support to help with setting up a new group, offering help finding a suitable venue (if one is needed), publicising the new group to get members interested, and even help with buying equipment etc.

Your u3a needs you!

-Carl