Welcome to West Oxford u3a
The West Oxford branch of
the u3a, (the University of the Third Age), was created
in 1995. The u3a exists for a group of people to get
together to do things with everyone taking equal responsibility.
We meet on the 2nd and
4th Monday of each month, except for July, August and December. Our year begins in September and ends in June, with the AGM being held
at the second meeting in May. Once the
membership fee is paid there is no further charge, although visitors make a
donation. Membership of West Oxford u3a does not cover membership of
Oxford u3a or Headington u3a.
The meetings take place at Dean Court Community Centre, Pinnocks Way,
Botley. The proceedings start at 2.15 pm and (fairly short)
notices are given before or after a talk as set out on your
programme. Tea and biscuits are always served after the talk. Please stay and use this time to
get to know new people and meet friends.
What’s happening? Recent & Upcoming
events. Local
historian Liz Woolley is one of our fairly regular, and very popular, speakers.
At our meeting on 27th April she gave an excellent presentation
about Felicia Skene (1821 – 1899), who was considered by many to be a local
saint. She devoted herself to improving the lives of the poor, particularly in St
Thomas’s, one of the most deprived areas in the city at that time.
Our
next meeting is on Monday 11h May, when local author Christina
Hardyment will tell us about her new book, “Novel Crime Scenes”.
New Members Welcomed - We are really pleased that our efforts to increase our membership
have been successful and in February we welcomed 23 of our new members at a
‘getting-to-know you’ sandwich lunch, to which SIGs leaders and other
volunteers had also been invited. It was a very cheerful and friendly event.
Special Interest Groups
Eighteen
Members of the Churches & Pubs Group visited St Mary’s Church,
Cholsey on 1st May. St Mary’s was founded as an abbey church by King
Ethelred in around 986, and was substantially rebuilt in the latter part of the
1100s. Our guide, Howard, gave us a great deal of information about a recent
restoration project which has modernised the church and made it fit for the
future. Howard remembers seeing crime-writer Agatha Christie, who was a regular
attender at the Church for some 40 years until her death in 1976. She and her husband
are buried in the church-yard beneath a rather opulent headstone; you cannot
miss it.
Contact
person:
Lis Froggatt l.froggatt66@outlook.com
The
Walking Group had two walks in April, one to Iffley Village and Meadows,
where the fritillaries were in full bloom, the other to Cumnor and surrounding
area, skirting the southern part of Farmoor Reservoir.
Iffley:
The fritillaries were in full bloom in the fields
Cumnor
& surrounding area: The sky was wonderfully blue
Contact
Person Alex
Brown
alex.beale@gmail.com A list of the Special
Interest Groups (SIGs) is on your programme and they are open to anyone who would like to
join. Just contact the person referred to as arranging the
meetings. If there is a group you would like to start then, if you
think the Committee can give you some help, please ask. For information about each SIG, please see the Groups section.
Newsletter The
membership fee
entitles you to the West Oxford u3a Newsletter which is sent out three
times per year, by email. Members without an email connection can collect their copies at a Monday meeting. The
Newsletter is also published on this website under the 'News' section.
It is full of information about forthcoming events, both those
arranged
by this branch and also those organised by Thames Valley
Network. Please
be certain to look at the notice board at the back of the meeting room
for additional
details of outings and study days and also on www.u3atvnetwork.org.uk as
well as this website.
u3a National A membership
subscription is paid annually to the National u3a office. You
are entitled to attend the Summer Schools and other events. Details and costs
are on the National u3a website.
Queries Do raise any queries when
attending the meetings or contact the appropriate person in the 'Contact Us'
section. To join
West Oxford u3a or to renew your membership:
The
current annual subscription is £20 and subscriptions are due in September
each year.
We
recommend that you use our online membership facility
which can be
found in the Membership section.
However,
you may prefer to complete a paper membership application form which can be
obtained by email or post or will be available at meetings. If you do not
have a form please contact the membership secretary listed in the 'Contact
Us' section. Each
year new members are invited to a 'welcome lunch', which
gives them a chance to meet each other, the leaders of the Special
Interest Groups, and other volunteers.
Gift Aid on Membership Subscriptions Maximising our net income,
for the benefit of members, is a consideration in everything we do.
One way a member can help us
achieve this is by Gift Aiding their membership subscription. This enables
WOu3a to reclaim the tax portion of the payment (25p for every £1 donated) from
HMRC. To be eligible for Gift Aid, the member must:
· be a UK tax payer; and
· have paid an amount of tax
(income and/or capital gains) in the current tax year which is not less than
the Gift Aid claimed on this and any other such donations across all Charities. The
relevant declaration and consent box is included in the online
Application Form which can be found in the Membership Section.
To send
an email to West Oxford u3a - please select the appropriate contact from the
'Contact Us' section on this website.
More information about how the u3a started, its benefits and services,
and other useful links can be found in the 'Links' section on this website.
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