President’s Report – August 2022
Dear Members,
Our e-Voice contains several key dates to note on your calendars and flags several issues.
First Date Claimer: ‘Seniors Festival 2022’
Please note 9am to 2pm Thursday October 13th on your calendars, the date chosen for this year’s renamed I Age Well Expo, the “Seniors Festival 2022”.
This year’s chosen venue is the magnificent facility of the Sunshine Coast Turf Club, at Corbould Park, just east from the Bruce Highway en route to Caloundra, an easy trip down the coast thanks to the Sunshine Motorway and the M1.
There’s plenty of room for parking, the ‘buildings’ are huge outdoor pavilions – very high, covered, open to light and air, and the Turf Club will be selling both food and drink during the day.
Already we have several of our performing groups adding to the day’s entertainment, those noted are Pamela Woodrow’s Tap Dancers (pictured above), Lynne Charsley’s Line Dancers, Joanne Teazis’ Belly Dancers, Lorraine Quinn’s Serendipity Strummers, and Wendy Turton’s Hand Chimers (pictured right).
Everyone who goes along on the day will be given a voting token to choose their favourite performer – and the group favoured with the most votes, could win a prize of $2000!
I Age Well Director Tanya Dave has not only offered U3A a free stall on the day, but has also offered our Tutors and Honorary Tutors a table to promote their own courses – or to market their own book publications!
We will be looking for volunteers to help for a few hours on the day at our own U3A stall. All you will need to do, is smile, and tell people how wonderful our organisation is. If you’d like to come along, and enjoy a day out promoting U3A Sunshine Coast at a very different venue, please let Karen Martin know so she can pop your name down on the roster: U3aProjectOfficer@u3asunshinecoast.org.au
Second Date Claimer: Trivia returns!
Management Committee member Mike Loftus will be the Trivia Master at our first Trivia afternoon since Covid. The date has been set for two weeks after the Seniors Festival, on Sunday afternoon, October 30th from 2 – 4 pm at the Millwell Road Community Centre.
Nominees for the Tutor Reference group, who had provided us with their resumes, were invited to put their thinking caps on to come up with some ideas to assist Mike in the organisation of this event.
What makes this proposal different from past Trivia events, is that Mike wants the afternoon to be just for members, with Tutors forming their own class teams of 6 – easy enough to accomplish with larger groups. Smaller classes might like to work together to have teams of 6 under a common banner: “Literature Lovers” or “Music Maestros”.
Yes, there’ll be a single charge, of $10 per person to ensure there’ll be some good prizes to win! However, you’ll be able to bring along your own drinks and your own nibbles, or you can support a coffee van available on site.
Parking is easily accessible in the carpark under the new west wing of Sunshine Plaza.
Tutors – you are invited to form a team and have your names and monies in to the office by October 21st. Of course, we’ll also be looking for volunteers to help with setting up the venue and clearing up afterwards…
Please see the post below that links to the Flyer and Entry Form for the ‘Trivia Arvo’.
Maintaining – and losing – our memories:
Playing Trivia games may be one way of aiming to keep our ‘little grey cells’ active and alert.
However, losing our memories is a serious issue for some of our members, especially those who are having to adjust to daily life with a partner who is facing increasing memory loss. In the last few months, I’ve now met 4 of our members who are facing this issue on a daily basis, some just starting out on their journey.
With hers and Mark’s permission, I am sharing Lesya’s story (post below) as it is both heartfelt and moving, and she has listed the sources she has found helpful. Lesya is available to provide a good listening ear if you’d like to contact her, first at her email address: lesyar@bigpond.com
Also, the IAgeWell annual magazine, Lifestyle 55+ has an excellent list of resources for those looking for support. Top of the list are Lorrae and Vince O’Rourke who run the Sunshine Coast Dementia Network, and they can be contacted on scdementia.com.au. There are also several Facebook support groups.
Assistance needed with Equipment:
Our Equipment Officer, John Saint Smith, does the most amazing job, being virtually ‘on call’ to tutors or class captains who need assistance with setting up their equipment for their own classes or visiting lecturers. John is also responsible for following up tutors’ requests for additional equipment such as computers, or cameras, or assisted listening devices. However, John is interested in having someone to assist him with his job. If you have any capabilities in handling audio-visual equipment and would like to volunteer your time or expertise to help John, he’d love to hear from you: johnsaintsmith@bigpond.com.
Oh, and it is important to note that you can always claim your mileage costs if you are ‘called out’ to rescue a tutor or class captain.
Farewell to Jan Johnston: 
In July your Management Committee were sad to hear about the sudden passing of Jan Johnston, a former U3A Sunshine Coast President and tutor of the discussion group “Learning Unlimited” – which has now been renamed in her honour.
We would like to honour Jan’s passing, and had held off advising our members out of respect for her grieving family. Thank you to Jim Hales and Brian Holliday for their acknowledgement of her contribution to our organisation and the lovely photo (post below).
Calling for Life Membership Nominations:
Every now and then a member’s or tutor’s name is mentioned as a candidate for life membership. Please, can you follow this up with a formal request? Nomination forms with supporting details required are available on our webpage. Let’s do the right thing by those members who have made an excellent contribution to our organisation while they are still actively involved in running our classes and tutorials…
And another reminder, if you’d like to celebrate the achievements of those tutors whom I call our “Golden Treasures” please advise me or our Communication Officer John Armstrong so we can interview them.
Seen out and about:
Our U3A Choir mistress Kath Jeffers was the pianist for St. John’s Nambour “Christmas in July” dinner and show, here seen with entertainer Reg Egglomesse – a wonderful light-hearted singer and guitarist, who shared some of his South Sea Islander heritage with the audience, then had them all singing along to his favourite Harry Belafonte songs as well some of the best traditional Christmas carols. Perhaps we’d enjoy singing along to his songs at our annual Tutors and Volunteers Luncheon?
Photo above shows Kath Jeffers with Reg Egglomesse and his wife Vicki.
Sincerely,
Glyni Cumming
President U3A Sunshine Coast