President’s Report – November 2022

An African elephant takes 22 months to gestate its baby; but that’s not a good excuse for taking so long to write your final e-Voice for 2022, which is not as cute but certainly as weighty!

Tutors & Volunteers Luncheon – an opportunity to share ideas:

Our last big event on our annual U3A calendar is the Tutors and Volunteers luncheon on Sunday November 27^th at the Kawana Surf Club, when we thank the many people whose energy, time and enthusiasm keep our organisation running.

One of the joys of this function is the opportunity it provides for tutors to meet other tutors, share ideas, and make new friends.

We also invite those members who have achieved their 25^th year of membership – this year, four of those are able to attend, namely: Peter Hiddins, Shirley Boland, Barbara Yule and Jan Smith.

Entertainer Rex Egglomese has accepted our invitation to play some Christmas music for us. And thanks to our social photographer Judy Wells, we’ll have some good photos to share after the event.

Annual I Age Well Seniors Festival – an opportunity to ‘strut our stuff’:

The “I Age Well” 4^th annual Seniors Festival was held at the Sunshine Coast Turf Club, Corbould Park on Thursday October 13^th, with many of our own performing groups present on the day. These included our Tap Dancers, Belly Dancers, two of our Ukulele groups, the Hand-Chimers, Line Dancers, and the Japanese students’ group. A few of us also found ourselves somewhat reluctantly doing a hula dance on stage to accompany a gyrating ‘Elvis’ Pete Memphis.

What a joy to witness our members’ enthusiasm and delight to be on stage, showing off what they have been learning in class.

Our site, provided to us for free, was well attended and over a hundred gift packs were given away. Thank you to our Project Officer Karen Martin and her team for preparing all our giveaways and running the stall all day.

Photos have been posted on line in our Social Photos Gallery here, thanks to our Communication Officer John Armstrong.

Although none of our groups won the $2000 incentive prize, the members of the Zumba group (pictured above) stayed until the end to see the counting of the tokens in the election boxes, to find out that they had received the most votes. Their bright, amusing costumes and lively dancing added to the Kitty Kats’ performances throughout the day.

Staying fit at home over the holidays:

One of the Zumba members is Sigrid Welder. Siggy and her husband John Thoma have developed a health routine in their own backyard to keep fit, with a mini-trampoline, skipping ropes, bat and ball, and stretch bands. John is approaching his 90^th birthday so the program is clearly effective! Siggy looks forward to joining U3A herself in the new year.

How can we promote our courses without a January Open Day?

An event we always look forward to at the start of the year is our Open Day, when all our tutors are offered the chance to show off their courses and attract new members.

However, during January 2023, our host venue, the UniSC Innovation Centre will not be available as it will be closed for renovations. Unfortunately, other venues are not provided for free, or they are just too small to accommodate us. This is very sad – and the only plus is that some of us don’t have to spend the Christmas holiday break planning for this huge event!

Tutors may like to consider how else they can promote their classes, and perhaps take advantage of other media, like Radio 104.9’s free 20 second Community Service Announcements. Check out how to do it at:  https://www.sunshinefm.com.au/csa-request

And there are some really exciting new classes in the system for next year, for example there’s a group planning to teach stagecraft and then put on a musical!

But wait! There’s still an Enrolment Day!

Although we can’t host our annual January Open Day, members can renew their membership from December 5th by going online or by ringing the U3A Office which will be open until Friday 9th December.

All 2023 courses can be viewed online after December 16^th.

The U3A office will reopen from Monday January 9^th to assist with renewing memberships.

Then on Saturday, January 14^th, members can either logon and enrol for courses themselves, or they can go to the U3A Office in person, from 9am to 12 noon, to meet with office volunteers who will assist members to enrol for classes.

Refreshments will also be provided on the day courtesy of Di Aspinall.

Midyear U3A Showcase

In lieu of our January Open Day, we propose to run a “U3A Showcase” of our classes and all our tutors will be invited to participate on a Saturday when there are no parking fees during the midyear semester break at UniSC. The day will combine interesting lectures and tutors presenting in market stalls under awnings… We’ll keep you informed as planning goes ahead.

As we all head towards the busyness of the Christmas season, I wish you all the best for a peaceful and happy time, reuniting with family and friends.

Glyni Cumming

President
U3A Sunshine Coast