Volunteers Needed

We Need YOU!

u3a events and activities don’t just blossom on their own – they need willing hands to make them happen; but to keep the work a joy and not a burden we need to expand our merry band of volunteers. Please read below and find an activity you’d enjoy adding your energy to. It’s a great way to get to know new people, and keep u3a blooming.

GROUPS TEAM

The groups team is responsible for:

  • talking to existing and new members and helping them to find and join our Interest Groups
  • finding out what new groups our members would like and helping to start them
  • ensuring that groups-related data is kept up to date on the website and our other IT systems
  • responding to requests for help or advice from Group Leaders or members
  • responding to incoming emails to the Groups team, one of the official Chichester U3A email addresses

We currently have 3 team members, who give varying amounts of time depending on their other responsibilities. We are over-stretched at the moment, trying to get our Interest Groups restarted after the pandemic, so we need to recruit a few more members to the team – both those who enjoy relating to our members and those with back-room admin or IT skills.
If you would like to help, we can start you off manning the Groups Table at Coffee Mornings and Monthly Meetings, talking to members and noting down ideas for new groups or helping members to join existing groups. If you are interested, you could later, for example, help maintain the groups data on our IT systems or take responsibility for overseeing the setting up of a new group.
To join our team, please Click Here to contact us.

MEETING AND GREETING

There are two regular monthly activities open to all members:  the Coffee Morning held on the first Tuesday of each month, and the Monthly Meeting held on the third Thursday of each month.  

Meeters-and-Greeters help welcome new members and introduce them to others; they can direct members towards Committee personnel to answer queries and give them general, non-specific advice on our activities and events.  Only one M & G is needed at each event, so a small team could take turns.

Please contact the Vice Chair

MONTHLY MEETINGS TEAM

To set up and run our Monthly Meetings with a speaker requires:

  • Sourcing interesting speakers on a variety of subjects throughout the year (currently 11 meetings a year)
  • Providing the “blurb” on the speaker and the subject for sharing on the website and in the Bulletin
  • Liaising with and meeting the speaker at each meeting
  • Liaison with the venue (currently the Assembly Rooms) to book the room and required equipment
  • Two people (to alternate dates) capable of setting up the projector and audio equipment at each meeting 
  • A reporter to write a brief resume’ of the talk for the local press
  • Two tea teams (to alternate) of 3 people in each (when refreshments are permitted)

We have recently formed a small team to do some of the above tasks, but extra help would be very welcome – especially with Tea!

BULLETIN AND NEWSLETTER

Our Bulletin is a fortnightly email to alert members of upcoming events and organisational business. We also send out Bulletin Updates as necessary with urgent communications. We have currently suspended production of the Newsletter, which had a broader variety of content, but would welcome interest in joining an editorial team to help with sourcing content, collecting information from Group Leaders and other members, design, editing, proofreading and publishing. If you are interesting in joining the publications team, please contact us at the Bulletin

TRIPS AND OUTINGS

Do you fancy being involved in organizing outings to interesting places locally or further afield?  Our members have plenty of ideas for visits but we need to collate these and decide which are feasible and which might be popular.  The Trips and Outings team would be responsible for these visits from start to finish:  finding out which trips to run, booking venues and coaches and contacting members for their bookings.  Payments can be made online so you wouldn’t have to handle any money.  Interested?  Please email  the Vice Chair

WEBSITE

Our new website was built during 2021 and needs maintenance.  If you are IT literate and are confident using WordPress  your contribution would be much appreciated by our Webmaster whom you can contact the WebMaster

DATABASE

Our membership database, Beacon, is provided by the Third Age Trust and is valuable because it links with payments for membership and Group activities.  Our webmaster is currently looking after Beacon and would like to hand it over to someone with appropriate skills.  Please contact the WebMaster.

AND FINALLY……..

Your Committee has some vacancies.  We meet once a month on a Thursday morning for two hours.     We would welcome new Committee members who have something to contribute, or visiting members who are interested in finding out how the u3a is run.  There’s no commitment  –  but this is your opportunity to contribute your ideas and suggestions.

It takes an Army of Volunteers to make these a success: Monthly Meetings, Coffee Mornings, pub quizzes, social events, outings etc – we can’t do it alone!

IF YOU CAN SPARE SOME OF YOUR TIME, NO MATTER HOW LONG OR SHORT, HOW REGULARLY OR JUST AS A ONE-OFF, please will you contact us here and one of our Committee members will phone or email you to discuss the best way of using your time, talents and enthusiasm.

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