In this edition:
Notices
u3a Publications
We’re still looking for a few more volunteers for our newsletter, whether as a single submission, a regular feature, or reportage about engaging and lively people and events of interest to our members. Writers, photographers, quiz mavens, cooks, bakers, candlestick makers, etc., are all invited to contribute.
Group Leaders please start preparing reports on your activities – with pictures please!
If any of you would like to join our media team on the production side of our newsletter and bulletin, we’d really love to have you!! Training happily provided if you need it.
Contact Miriam HERE or simply reply to this Bulletin email.
Upcoming Events for your Calendar
March Coffee Morning
5th March 2024 , 10:00 am – 12:00 pm at Minerva Bar, Chichester Festival Theatre.
u3a Monthly Quiz – new day and venue!
Due to popular demand, our quizzes are changing to a different venue and a different day.
We are moving to The Chichester Inn, at the end of West Street (just before the roundabout). They have offered us a large room on a THURSDAY, with the option to eat or not.
We will have further details in the next Bulletin on 1st March, but in the meantime please put THURSDAY 14th MARCH in your diaries. For those of you who have never attended our quizzes, this is a good opportunity to come and have an evening of (slightly) competitive fun in a new venue.
Monthly Meeting
14th March at 2pm at the Assembly Rooms
Our speaker will be James Vaux. His talk is titled “Tinker, Tailor, Canvas, Chair: How Modernism Became a Cold War Agent.”
A return for James, who gave us the amazing talk on Scandinavian furniture. This talk tells of the strange and unbelievable co-operation between the CIA and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) for propaganda purposes.
u3a Summer School
Dates: Monday 2nd – Thursday 5th September 2024 in Chichester
Courses will include subjects like: Art History & Mythology, Patchwork, Science, Jazz Appreciation, Cribbage, Psychology, Singing, Latin and Roman Culture, Crochet, Designing and Making Collages, Illuminated Manuscripts, Mahjong, Walking, Cycling.
Detailed information and links will be forthcoming in mid-March. Places fill up quickly, so we advise you to pounce on them.
Groups Notices
“Seniors are the true explorers of knowledge, navigating the seas of curiosity with the compass of a playful heart and the sails of a seasoned mind.”
Gauging Interest: Bus walking group
The existing ‘walks without a car’ group is full and has a waiting list so we are keen to explore whether there is enough interest to get another, similar group off the ground.
There are lots of walks available. The new group would use a similar format to the existing group, meet at an agreed spot to travel to the start of the walk and before returning by bus (walkers bring their own refreshments and there is often the option to go for a meal or drink at the end of the walk for those who want to)
The group will need a group leader in order to get of the ground so please let us know if you think that this is something you could do (the leaders of the existing group are happy to share walks and their experience and expertise with the new group leader.)
If you think this is the group for you then please contact us via the link below. You can also speak to members of the existing group at the March coffee morning, do pop along and feel free to ask any questions.
To register your interest please click THIS LINK. Thank you.
The Recorder Group
The Recorder Group has two or three places available for new members (meaning anyone who hasn’t played with this group before) because of some movement in the group, which is limited to 12. If you’ve played the recorder in the past and would like to take it up again in a serious way, you’re invited to come along on Tuesday 12th March from 2pm-4pm (our regular weekly meeting time) to have a go. We will have our visiting recorder professional with us to help and advise and we will play easy music in 4 parts (SATB). Nothing at all scary – this is a friendly, supportive group that will make you welcome. We meet where I live in Chichester – on two bus routes (51 & 700), with car parks a few minutes walk away.
Ideally, you will have experience of two or more recorders (preferably C and F instruments), know the fingerings and be able to play some basic scales from music and also simple tunes. You will also need your own instruments and a music stand. We already have descant and treble players, so players who offer tenor or bass (or are willing to learn) are particularly welcome.
If you join us, reasonably regular weekly attendance is expected because we look to make progress in playing, and some practice at home will probably be useful. If you know about grades, we play from grades 3 to 5, but mostly at 4 (grade 8 is tops).
Our visiting recorder professional comes along once a month to add ambition to our enthusiasm and to enhance proficiency, and this works very well. You can also get advice on how to spread your recorder wings if you want to play more or in bigger groups.
So this isn’t a group for beginners or the faint-hearted, but it’s definitely one for budding recorder enthusiasts who consider themselves improvers and keen players!
Let us know if you’d like to come along in March by using this LINK to contact Jean Campbell, the group organiser.
National u3a & Regional Events
Events at the u3a HQ and locally – the Tuesday Talks at the West Sussex Record Office, the talks organised by Chichester University at the Oxfam Shop in Chi, and a one-off series of talks on Richard Cobden, the Victorian politician and economist, who was born in Dunford, nr Midhurst.
National u3a Activities
The u3a organises a wide range of learning activities beyond the zoom talks listed below: for example, their online interest groups and subject advice, Festival 2024 and U3A Week. Festival 2024 will be held at the University of York, comprising talks, sporting events, workshops and musical entertainment, spread over 3 days (18th -20th July): accommodation is offered at the university, but I don’t think you have to stay there. To get more information on all these, have a look at their website.
Following are details of Third Age Trust zoom talks for the next fortnight or so: please remember you can always find the latest, and fullest, information on these talks here.
Thursday, 22nd February at 10:00 (weekly)- Mindfulness and MeditationFriday, 23rd February at 14:00 – David Hockney and the Theatre.
Tuesday, 27th February at 9:30 – Science Network (this week, talks on Pathogenics and Botany)
Tuesday, 27th February at 15:30 – Laughter Yoga
Wednesday, 28th February at 10:00 – the first of 5 talks on Advances in Public Health
Thursday, 29th February at 10:00 – More Number Fun with Dr Knott (Ancient Egyptian Maths)
Thursday, 29th February at 14:00 – Secrets of the Human Brain (Talk Two)Tuesday, 5th March at 10:00 – Captain John
Hutchison shares his 15 years’ experience of being a Concorde Captain
Thursday, March 7th at 15:30 – Artificial Intelligence News
Local Events
Tuesday Talks at the WSRO
Talks have been arranged for January to May 2024, all at 19:00, all costing £8 to attend in person. More information here. The next two talks are:
27th February – Recovering Britain’s Amateur Theatrical Past 1789-1914 – A West Sussex Perspective
26th March – Life in Elizabethan Chichester
Oxfam Talks 23/24
These talks take place at the Oxfam shop, 36, East Street, Chichester, and are arranged by Chichester University. They all run 17:30 -18:00 on a Wednesday evening, usually the first Wednesday in the month. They cost £5 (tickets can be bought in the shop). The next two talks listed are:
Wednesday, 6th March: Writers of Exile: Kafka, Murdoch, Nabokov
Wednesday, 3rd April – Poetry Reading
Talks on Richard Cobden
All the talks will be given at the Council Offices in the Old Library in Knockhundred Row, Midhurst at 19:00. Details of the remaining talks are as follows:-
Thursday, March 7th – Richard Cobden and Dunford House
Tuesday, March 19th – Richard Cobden – International Man and Treaty Negotiator
Thursday, March 28th – Cobdenism after Cobden
The next bulletin is due out on 1st March, so if you have an item to submit, you may use this link.
Links to our Website
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Best wishes, Miriam Knight and David Rees😎
The Constitution of the Chichester U3A is available to view here, and its Terms of Use here.
Enquiries If you wish to write to the Chichester U3A, then the correspondence address is: U3A Chichester, Box 809, MailboxesEtc., 26 The Hornet, CHICHESTER, PO19 7BB If there is an urgent matter that needs to be discussed then call 07460 109600, or contact the membership secretary.