I would like to express thanks to all the committee for the time and effort they have put in on your behalf to ensure that our u3a has kept viable during  the  past  few months. I would  also  like  to  thank  them  for  the support  they  have  given  me  as  your  new  Chairman.  I  have  really appreciated it. 

When I first took over as Chairman, we were in full lockdown, so we were still  running  twice  monthly  Zoom  meetings  with  speakers  for  our members. 

I would therefore  like  to give particular thanks to Christine  Hobbs  for managing our Zoom software and helping members to get on line when necessary as well as Gill Postlethwaite for organising the Zoom invites and Steve Baker for booking a range of very interesting speakers. None of these Zoom presentations would have happened without all three of them leading the way. Thanks should also go to those Committee members who helped with emailing out the invites to these presentations 

All newsletters were sent out by post during this period, so I am very grateful as I’m sure all of you are for the time and effort made by Terry Carter, ably  supported by  Mary McElarney, who  continued to  produce interesting and lively editions each month. My thanks go to Heather and John Carnera who did a sterling job ensuring that you all got your copies in a timely fashion as they filled and stamped the envelopes and then went out and posted them. This work still continues after lockdown, although we are now back to normal with newsletters distributed at these meetings for those of you who collect them in person. My thanks to all of those involved. 

Huge thanks must also go to all our Group Convenors, who in so many different  ways  sustain  the  life  of  our  U3A  with  their  commitment, enthusiasm  and  more  importantly,  their  time.  Some  went  above  and beyond during lockdown and kept their groups going via Zoom. Once we were able to open up again, the remaining group convenors were very quick off the mark to get their activities up and running as well. We held a successful Group Convenors conference in August, when we were able to discuss our ideas for the future, including a re-vamping our website and updating the Group Convenors’ handbook. My thanks to Barrie Gunter (our Groups Co-ordinator) for leading on the Conference. Unfortunately, some groups  were  lost  during  lockdown  with  a  few  Convenors  unable  to continue for various reasons but others have come forward and some new groups are now beginning to emerge. 

Barrie has produced an up-to-date list of groups so please contact him if you would like a copy.  Hopefully with the support of new members joining us we will achieve our on-going objective of starting more groups in the future. I would like to point out however that often when we have tried to set up new groups that have been suggested by our members, or keep original groups going, we have met with a poor response. It is up to you 



our members, to be active and take up the challenge. I can assure you that your committee will give you, Group Convenors and members alike, all the support they can. 

Now that we are able to meet up again, I would like to thank everyone who helps out at monthly  meetings, not just the Committee  but also others  who  lend  a  hand  each  month.  In  particular,  John  Carnera  on reception, Sheila Shulton, Sandra Carter and Anne Pratt who help out on the newsletter desk, Trish Haslehurst and her team for the refreshments, Terry and Val Eagles for their charity cards and Julia and Paul Wilson who have now taken over the book swap from Terry and Jean Cave who ran so it ably for the past few years. I am sure that Julia and Paul will be just as successful. We are also getting our welcome team up and running again. We are always looking for people to help us with this, so if you would like to and help new members feel welcome and are willing to don a sash at monthly meetings then please contact Mary Terry.  I would also like to thank Elizabeth Price who maintains our events diary and Sue Carter who takes the lead on hall bookings. 

Ralph Rosen, our new and efficient Treasurer took on the role officially in February but the handover took much longer than anticipated due to the bank officials that we had to deal with who were working from home. We renewed our membership in February instead of the previous September but agreed that we would only charge half the fees partly because of cutbacks in the service we were able to offer during lockdown but also to ensure that we would keep our reserves down to the level agreed in our Constitution. As we remain financially secure, we have decided that there is no need to increase our membership subscriptions for the current year. 

However, the fee we pay to the Third Age Trust for each of our members is due to rise by an additional 50p from next April and it is likely that other costs such as postage, stationery and perhaps hall hire might also rise during the coming months so we will need to keep our annual fees under review. 

Before lockdown we had also identified that some of our groups who were using hired premises were making a loss whereas others were making a profit, we therefore began looking at ways of making this more equitable as we are obliged to ensure that the costs of activities in halls should break even. This may mean that in some groups during the coming year, members may be asked to pay slightly more to attend if they cannot increase their membership to meet the cost of the hall hire, where others who maintain a healthy membership may be offered a reduction in fees. Ralph will be looking into the best way to carry this forward once we move into 2022. 

This  year  saw  a  double  membership  renewal.  My  thanks  go  to  Gill Postlethwaite who worked so diligently on this. I’m sure that during her tenure as membership secretary she did not expect to have to deal with a 



double renewal yet again but she has stayed smiling in spite of the extra work  load.  Nationally,  during  lockdown,  many  u3as  saw  a  significant decline in membership; unfortunately, there were a few that decided to close as a result. Our membership also declined during this period. Prior to lockdown we had just over 800 members; this fell to 630 in April this year. 

Because of our concern over a declining membership, we embarked on a publicity drive during the spring and summer months, with articles in local publications, posters on Council notice boards and a stall at the Epping Town Show. This exercise seems to have paid off as our numbers have begun to rise again; between April and August this year our membership increased to 692 and further enquiries from potential new members have been received since then. 

We are in the process of renewal at the moment, so we should have some more up to date figures soon. But as mentioned earlier, we do need to ensure  that  we  have  a  wide  range  of  groups  and  activities  to  offer members; if we don’t have enough to interest new people, then we cannot expect to maintain a healthy membership. 

Members of our new events team have been very active in the past few months having organised several art and museum trips and days out as well as the Autumn break. Previously activities of this nature were run by just a couple of people which took up a lot of their time and placed a lot of responsibility on them. Now that we have a larger group of people willing to help out, future events and trips of this nature will be less arduous for those involved as they can share the organising between them. My thanks to all the members of this team who have helped out so far especially Jackie Pam, Anne Pratt, Beverley Swift and Annette Chesher. 

Next in the pipeline, is the Quiz evening at the end of this months. My thanks to Heather Carnera, Chrystine Hobbs and Linda Cohen who have taken the lead on this; I am looking forward to a very successful evening. 

Again, I ask you to support these events and if you choose not to go on them because they are not what you are interested in, please come and speak to us as we welcome your suggestions but to act on them we need to know what you want 

Over the next few months, we will be looking at our at website and our general communication strategy. A small sub- Committee has been set up, led  by  Steve  Baker.  If  any  of  you  feel  that  you  have  some  ideas  to contribute to this initiative, then please contact me or Steve. 

I would also like to thank Linda Cohen, our Vice Chair; she is a good sounding board for me and always there with helpful advice and support when needed. The same is true for Trish Lockyer, our Secretary who deals with a range of admin as well as making sense of our discussions at Committee and somehow translating them into coherent minutes. Chrystine Hobbs has also proved invaluable in answering my numerous 



queries as I have begun to get to grips with my new role. And then we have Doug, whose knowledge, expertise and common-sense approach has ensured that I along with the rest of the Committee work within the legal framework. 

My final thanks as well as that of the Committee go to all of you who volunteer your help in so many other different ways. Thank you all. 



|tNcoitE|2022|||2021||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|AnnualSubscriptions|13399|||6480||
|Hall Hire Charges||||||
|TBVH|4977|||0||
|TBY&C Centre|1615|||124||
|MctoryHall|0|||0||
|GiftAidRecoverable 2021||||966||
|Other income|105|||322||
|Sociat Events/Outings|15216|||5't4||
|TOTALINCOiIE|35312|353t2|||8408|
|EXPENDITURE||||||
|ThirdAge Trust|2828|||2289||
|MonthlyMeitings||||||
|Hall Hire|4684|||50||
|Speakers|1268|||1876||
|Zoom|0|||259||
|Group Accomodation||||||
|TBVH|5312|||0||
|TBY & C Centre|1410|||0||
|MctoryHall|0|||0||
|Newsletter|5728|||7357||
|GroupLeader'sConbrence/||||||
|Committee Dev&Training|1435|||1313||
|CofieeMornings(new members)|0|||0||
|Administrative Expenses|91|||429||
|Miscellaneous Expenses|1'.t26|||471||
|Social Events/Outings|'t4939|||713||
|TotalExpcndlturc|38821|38821|||11787|
|Surplus/Deficit||.3509|||435t|
|FairFXEquals acc balance at 31 Aug 22|491||al3110812021|1362||
|MainAccountbalance at 31 August 2022|6706||a$Ifi812021|10244||
|Membership accbalanceal31Aug2022|161||al31lO8l2O21|30||
|Social acc balance at31Aug22|2472||af3llOBlSO2'l|20il||
|Accruals-memberpaymennts held inSocial||||||
|A,/Cagainstevenbuptojan2023 as at31st||||||
|Aug-22|0||ai31fi82421|142||





|tNcoitE|2022|||2021||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|AnnualSubscriptions|13399|||6480||
|Hall Hire Charges||||||
|TBVH|4977|||0||
|TBY&C Centre|1615|||124||
|MctoryHall|0|||0||
|GiftAidRecoverable 2021||||966||
|Other income|105|||322||
|Sociat Events/Outings|15216|||5't4||
|TOTALINCOiIE|35312|353t2|||8408|
|EXPENDITURE||||||
|ThirdAge Trust|2828|||2289||
|MonthlyMeitings||||||
|Hall Hire|4684|||50||
|Speakers|1268|||1876||
|Zoom|0|||259||
|Group Accomodation||||||
|TBVH|5312|||0||
|TBY & C Centre|1410|||0||
|MctoryHall|0|||0||
|Newsletter|5728|||7357||
|GroupLeader'sConbrence/||||||
|Committee Dev&Training|1435|||1313||
|CofieeMornings(new members)|0|||0||
|Administrative Expenses|91|||429||
|Miscellaneous Expenses|1'.t26|||471||
|Social Events/Outings|'t4939|||713||
|TotalExpcndlturc|38821|38821|||11787|
|Surplus/Deficit||.3509|||435t|
|FairFXEquals acc balance at 31 Aug 22|491||al3110812021|1362||
|MainAccountbalance at 31 August 2022|6706||a$Ifi812021|10244||
|Membership accbalanceal31Aug2022|161||al31lO8l2O21|30||
|Social acc balance at31Aug22|2472||af3llOBlSO2'l|20il||
|Accruals-memberpaymennts held inSocial||||||
|A,/Cagainstevenbuptojan2023 as at31st||||||
|Aug-22|0||ai31fi82421|142||