For Facebook users, see the group  https://www.facebook.com/groups/U3AKeepingInTouch/
Lots of U3A members from all over the country, very friendly and fairly busy  group
​Third Age Trust
Ageism Webinars
​
See https://mailchi.mp/u3a/em-15-04-21-u3a-ageism-webinars?e=00c985e354 

for more information and dates
COVID-19    Coronavirus
 
​The latest information from our Secretary is now on the COVID-19 page

Please look after yourselves. 
Next Steps -  Please Read :-)
Brenda Dibley and Chris Noble were finally able to meet this morning to update our information on all our U3A groups. They say : We're working on a new layout for the Groups Directory as it currently appears in the magazine. Hopefully this will make it easier for new members to identify which groups they might be interested in joining and enable them to see at a glance where and when they meet, as well as contact details for Group Leaders. With this in mind, if your contact details have recently changed please can you let us know so we can be as current as possible. In the meantime, some of you may also receive a phone call from us if we need further information about your own Group.
​We can (hopefully) now start planning our U3A sessions at the Community Centre (where applicable). The room booking forms are available from the office on a Tuesday morning. It goes without saying that the sooner you complete a booking form and return it to the CC, the better your chance of re-booking the room you previously used. Ken has also informed us that they are setting up an electronic booking form which can be emailed to you on request.
There is, of course, the question of 'When will people in my group feel safe to re-join?' This must be a personal decision for each one of us. We will contact people in our own groups in July to try and agree a re-start date. However, we  know some Group Leaders who use the Community Centre are actually keen to start their own sessions in July. Whenever we re-start, Group Leaders will have to be responsible for whatever COVID hygiene arrangements have been put in place by the Community Centre.
If you have any concerns that either Brenda or Chris can help with, please do contact them.  Otherwise we are generally always at a Coffee Morning (once they re-start!)
Membership Renewals
Can we thank you, and all our loyal members who have taken the extra trouble of renewing under Pandemic conditions. Let’s not forget Veronica either, our hard-working Membership Secretary. Normally she has a team to help her with subscriptions in the Community Centre, but this year, apart from the online renewals, she has done it all herself, at home, with the additional faff of sending out cards by post. She sends her special thanks to everyone who remembered to enclose a SAE, which made her task significantly easier.
We held on till the very last minute, but sadly we have had to remove around 100 names from the Membership List because of subscriptions remaining unpaid. This is because our Third Age Trust (TAT) subscription is calculated as £3.50 for every member listed on 31st March, regardless of whether they have paid or not. (Next year it goes up, to £4.00) So the people concerned won’t receive this Bulletin, nor any more Magazines. If you are a Group Leader who uses Beacon for emails to your members, bear in mind that your list might have shrunk because of this.
Needless to say, Veronica has now changed gear and is collecting the 2021-2 subscriptions. Here is a reminder of the payment options:
You can pay:
    Online using a credit or debit card via PayPal. To do this, log on to to the Members Portal from our website (it’s the big button labelled “CHECK YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION OR GET MORE DETAILS ABOUT GROUPS” ; or go there direct from this link). OR
    By post: a cheque direct to Veronica:
Mrs V Richardson, 5 Cowan Close, Burnham-on-Sea TA8 2TG
Cheques should be payable to Burnham U3A; a stamped addressed envelope will be greatly appreciated.
For most members the subscription remains at £11.00, but if you are a paid-up member of another U3A you qualify for £3.50 off (what we call ‘Dual Membership.’) It happens because the TAT subscription, a lot of which goes on insurance and licences, is only levied once, irrespective of how many U3As you belong to.
Please use the Membership Renewal Form if you possibly can, as this allows you to sign for Gift Aid if you are a taxpayer. Margaret Budden does a sterling job with this every year, and it supplements our Subscription income to the tune of several hundred pounds.​

Beachcomber Lunch
Batch House are catching up on a backlog of Wedding Receptions this summer, so our next visit will revert to New Year 2022. So instead we look forward to celebrating a return to (relative) normality at the Beachcomber in Brean; This will probably be on Thursday 15th July after the Coffee Morning (to be confirmed)

Community Centre Roof
The roof knows nothing about pandemics and lockdowns, and continues to give concern. Another patch-up job was carried out recently following damage in the storms earlier this year; depleting the Centre’s funds a bit more, but not, of course fixing its basic problem of being 200 years old. Regular readers will recall that a huge fundraising launch had to be called off in 2020 when the pandemic got in the way.
Examiner of Accounts
Sadly, Rob Carey who has done this job for several years has had to step down, so we need to appoint a new Examiner to look at last year’s accounts in preparation for this year’s AGM. An Examiner is not an Auditor. His or her sole duty is to compare the accounts with the Bank Balances and confirm that they match at the end of the year. As such, an Examiner is allowed to be a member of U3A, as long as s/he is completely independent of the committee. If you could do this small task on behalf of the membership, we would be very glad to hear from you.
U3A National Day
This is 2nd June 2021.  Every U3A has been asked to do something to publicise the U3A.   
Brenda is organising a Beach Clean for that day.   Sedgemoor Council. will supply gloves, pickers, high vis vests and bags .  Please keep watching here if you would like to be involved.  The actual time of the Clean depends on the tide times  (high tide is about 1:30),   and will be announced later.
Let Brenda know (on 751808 ) if you want more info.
Facebook Page
A reminder from Gail Norton about our new Facebook page. It is a private group, so you have to be a Facebook member and logged in to use it (which lets me out!) The Group Name is Burnham on Sea u3a. 
Note that this is just a supplement to the official Burnham U3A website which you should always go to for latest information. If you have any notices and information of your own, for the website or the magazine, please contact Harriet the Editor

​Members' News 
Val Lewis. Founder member Val’s funeral was held on 12th March. Her family are planning a memorial service later this year.

Margaret Langley another of our Founder Members is reported to be very poorly at home.

 Margaret Budden had a spell in Weston, then Southmead hospitals earlier this month, but after getting us all very worried we are delighted that she is now at home, though still having regular visits to the hospital.
​
Chris  Noble now job sharing with Brenda as U3A Groups Coordinator. They both receive your emails addressed to groups@burnhamu3a.com. Brenda will continue to lead the Coffee Morning operation
​
Have you ever thought of writing your own memoirs? Not necessarily for publication, but for the benefit of your family and perhaps your friends. Joan (Mrs Secretary) has already done this and is involved with a possible project to get other people to do it, so if you would like more information write to her here. There’s no time like a pandemic!
Stay safe
Gary
Secretary, Burnham U3A
​
The Community Centre
The Community Centre, which is such an asset to the U3A, is having financial problems.  The roof needs repairing, and one of the outer walls needs work on it too.
For this reason, the Centre's Committee has decided to put up the rent we pay for the use of the Centre.  It will be increased by 5% from this April.
This will mean a small increase in the money we collect for Groups to use rooms, and also in the price we charge for drinks at the Thursday Coffee Mornings.   The actual amount will be determined by the Committee and will not happen until sometime after it and we  manage to open again.

Some members are under the impression the U3A owns the Community Centre.  This is not so, it belongs to Burnham via the Council.  It is an amenity for everyone, but the U3A would have a much more difficult time if it wasn't there. 
The latest news is that the Community Centre hopes to open after the middle of May, subject to the government restrictions that may be still in force
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​All the following are cancelled till further notice
 DAY TRIPS  ​     
THEATRE GROUP
WALKING GROUP
AGM News
At its meeting on 10th August 2020, the Committee decided, that since it remains both illegal and undesirable to attempt to hold a quorate AGM in any premises currently available in Burnham, and in line with the general advice to Charities on the Coronavirus published this year by the Charity Commission, we would abandon our intentions to hold an AGM this year. Essentially this is because the Constitutional requirement (in clause 14.i) to hold an AGM is overruled by a temporary statute that makes meetings of the size required illegal.
The AGM as provisionally booked too is early to be practical, and this too will need to be deferred till after 21 June. Now the 24th, at the Methodist church before we get too far into Summer. We will be hoping to include a zoom view for those who really cannot attend
​Not the end of the world. From the tone of the announcement, I feel the critical dates are unlikely to change, though the detail of the changes they signal could... but at least we have a basis for planning.
Please see the section below;  Running Burnham U3A
RUNNING BURNHAM U3A
​We have a Committee, which has 3 important officers, the Secretary, the Chairman and the Treasurer.  The rules of the TAT have limits as to how many years one person can hold an office without a break.  There is good reason for this, it stops an individual from taking over and it encourages other members to get involved in running the U3A. 
Now I have agreed to be Chairman for one year.  I have enough to do with producing the magazine, running the website and also my Groups to agree to do it any longer than that.  
Gary is asking for someone, maybe new to U3A, to ‘understudy’ what the Secretary does for when he has to stand down.  We do have a nearly full committee, but most of those have been doing it on and off for a long time.
What this boils down to is, we really would welcome new ideas. We know we have new younger members, many of you must have had some experience of Committees during your working life, and your expertise (however small) would be valued.
If at any time we have no-one to be an Officer, the whole U3A would have to close.  Whichever bit you joined for will no longer exist.
You would be very welcome to attend committee meetings as an observer, just to see what goes on. 
We have around 500 members, of whom at least half should be reasonably young and fit!  So where are you ?   

Your next edition of the Magazine will contain an invitation and a (new) date for our AGM. It will be doubly important, since we haven’t had one for 2 years, for reasons that are pretty obvious.
Gary will be standing down as Secretary, as he is not allowed to exceed six consecutive terms, (though  allowed another couple of years as an ordinary Committee Member). Several others have also come to the end of their permitted periods of office, so we will badly need some new blood on the Committee. Could YOU do it? We have ten committee meetings per year, so it is not arduous. For for the time being we are meeting once a month by means of Zoom, so if you are interested it would be very easy for you to sit in on a meeting or two to see how it goes.
At AGMs we do not directly elect people to specific roles; you just stand for the Committee. The Committee shares out tasks (such as Chairman, Secretary) from amongst its number at the first meeting after the AGM; obviously individual preferences are taken into account!
But we do need a new Minutes taker as Joan has had to resign. This does not have to be a committee post.
To repeat:  If at any time we have no-one to be an Officer, the whole U3A would have to close.  Whichever bit you joined for will no longer exist.
GROUPS LATEST​​
Please contact your Group Leader to find out if your Group is running or has been cancelled

GROUPS NEWS
 
So When Can U3A Groups Start Up Again? Part of the answer is that many Groups never stopped, as mentioned in previous Bulletins; they just decided to meet in different ways! The rest of the answer is more complicated, but here goes:
 
1. Expect everything to be different, in big ways and small ways. It is clear that many small restrictions (e.g hygiene, handwashing, masks) will be with us for many months, possibly years. The bigger restrictions (on meeting sizes, and activities) may get changed, so look out for announcements, and devise ways to adapt. It will be a long time before things return completely to ‘normal’ so you could even consider completely new Group activities temporarily, better suited to pandemic conditions. (Example: Table Tennis is -er- currently off the table indoors, and impractical outdoors, but members enjoy it for the fitness and coordination benefits. How about a temporary switch to an outdoor game that is permitted? Croquet, Boules, and Walking Cricket require minimal equipment and might fit the bill in the meantime.)
 
The activities that will take longest to return to normal will be the large-scale gatherings; Coffee Mornings and Evening Socials. When we are clear to restart these, you’ll be the first to know! 

2. Different Rules for different activities.
 Keep Fit, Table-Tennis and other Physical Activity Groups, including Singing and Drama: These activities remain impractical indoors, because of social distancing, or (in the case of singing, and performing) subject to an outright ban because of the risk of spreading the virus through deep breathing. But for the fitness activities, although the (various) community halls cannot host you for the time being, you could consider arranging meetings outdoors, while the weather is fine. Easier with some activities than others, I know…
 
Groups that normally meet in Private Houses.
You are not supposed to meet indoors at the moment, but up to 6 can meet in any outdoor space. If your group is bigger than this, consider dividing into sub-groups, or having some members take part remotely by video, perhaps in rotation.
 
Outdoor non-Sporting Activities
Walkers and Villagers can start again, with a few adjustments (Split into sub-groups? Don’t share cars. Check whether Refreshment Facilities have outdoor tables or require advance booking). Lunch groups probably fit this category too.
 
Consider a new activity. The Gardening group is overdue for reviving, but don’t think in terms of its ‘old’ activities or the previous scale of membership. Start with half-dozen like-minded members, meet outdoors, and extend as the rules allow…
 
Groups that normally meet in the Community Centre
As long as your activity is not one of the ‘currently banned’ sort, you can discuss meeting again. Contact Ken. Expect to be in a different room (room 2 or 3), with different seating arrangements, and maybe not meeting every week. Some Groups have already made their arrangements: Painting for Pleasure, Book 3 and Patchwork 1 are believed to be amongst them.
 
3. There are more things that the Group Leader needs to do. Can you help him/her out? The Third Age Trust has just published a set of Guidelines which you can read here, but they can be summed up as:
  • Prepare and lodge (with me) a Covid Risk Assessment (help is available)
  • Supervise the Covid hygiene arrangements
 
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 Holidays.   Lynn Mathews and the rest of the team have decided this is too difficult for them to manage under the current circumstances.. All outstanding moneys have been dealt with.  
If someone would like to take this on once the Covid-19 is under control, please let the Committee know. Lynn will give any help needed.
​

Yoga  , It is with much regret that I have to cancel the yoga classes. Robert's chemo begins shortly and we will have to self-isolate for 6 months. I can't tell you how sad this makes me but obviously his health comes first. Hopefully you will continue to practice and I will be back to teach again next year.
  Laraine Bridges
​


The Philosophy Group is now conducting online meetings . 
 Anyone interested please send a message to Roger Miller 
 <r.miller365<a>btinternet.com>
Ukelele , I would confirm to you that the Ukulele Group is buoyant (I was going to say thriving but with the lockdown that would be exaggerating).
 However we hold 2 hour Zoom sessions on Monday and Friday mornings when the majority of our members get together to maintain a regular contact, enjoy a chat and put the world to rights, and fight the vagaries of the Internet to play some music (but not necessarily together).
 With the current restrictions on indoor meetings, limited number gatherings etc, we cannot visualise a situation when we might get together in person to play, so we expect to be meeting on Zoom until 2021.
Terry Smith

Table Francaise   (FR conversation) restarting late Aug/early Sept subject to weather (meeting outdoors at Dunstan House)
Robert Bridges

Painting for Pleasure  Jane Lee has attempted to keep this running, but the constraints and restrictions have made this too difficult.  This Group will be stopped again for now

Table Tennis
I  have been reading Table Tennis England’s Covid guidelines and came across that under current legislation “playing doubles” is not permitted unless from the same household, so if , a big IF,  we were to proceed it would have to be singles games only. 
Peter Manning

From Laraine Bridges: Vocal Mark:
‘Just in case any members of U3A would like to join us, it is free and fun. Please feel free to share.  The Tuneless choir might be interested.’
‘We are getting ready to virtually join up and sing together on Thursday 7th January at 7:30pm. I have also added two more songs to the Choir Player app for you all to look at. The first is ‘Does Your Mother Know’ by ABBA, and the second is ‘This Is Me’ from The Greatest Showman. The second is a bit more complicated to learn with more parts, so if you do get a chance to familiarise yourself with the song it will help. But please don’t stress if you don’t get the time!’
Contact sarah.a.sandbach@gmail.com for the Zoom link if interested and mention Laraine- not limited to Mark residents.
More Additions to Group restarts
Table Tennis 1 (BAY Centre, Weds PM) Contact John 787200 or Martin 783012
Brush Strokes Contact Sue 792021
French 3 (Temporary contact Geoff@burnhamu3a.com)
French 4 (Contact Robert 641853)

Burnham on Sea u3a New Facebook Group.
Group Name: Burnham on Sea u3a
Welcome to the launch of our new Facebook Group. We have all experienced great change and challenges over the past 10 months. During this time all of us have learnt new skills and as an organisation we have learnt the importance of looking after each other and ensuring we use every method possible to make our communication systems work for all.
Using technology to keep in touch is a skill many of us have improved, whether it is to order our online shopping or keep in touch with relatives, we have discovered that age is no barrier to learning new skills. In light of this we have now launched a new Facebook Group to provide a new medium for those of us who are happy to use it to share information and keep in touch.
It is a private group, open only to members of the Burnham u3a. On joining you will be asked to confirm you are a member of Burnham on Sea u3a as well as agreeing to very basic rules, such as being kind to each other.
Please use the group to publicise the groups you run, or belong to, tell us about what you’ve been doing or advertise any future events. If you know about anything of interest to our members, for example something happening in our area, you are welcome to mention it. We expect members to avoid contentious issues, such as politics; there are other Facebook groups for that!
Gail Norton