Welcome to the U3A

ORKNEY U3A

MINUTES OF THE U3A COMMITTEE MEETING HELD AT 2PM ON29 January2014 AT LINDEN DOUNBY.

Present Richard Thomas, in the Chair, Moira Gunn, Sally MacKintosh,

Hilary Morrell, John O’Shea, Allan Way and Tim Wright.

1Apologies for absence

Apologies were received from Kate Barrett and Ken Hambly.

2 Minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on 20 November2013 were approved, following the proposal for acceptance by Allanwhich was seconded by Tim and signed by the Chairman.

3 Matters arising

3.1 Publicity. Tim commented on how well Kate was doing in submitting articles to the Orcadian on the activities of various groups.

32 Office Bearers. Richard confirmed that he would be standing down as chairman at the AGM having served 3 years.

4 Correspondence

4.1 U3A Scotland Dundee – an invitation to this conference. Richard will respond to this pointing out how difficult it is for members from the Highlands and Islands to attend events in the central belt due to cost and travelling time.

4.2 AGM Scotland Perth

4.3 Annual Return 2014 has been checked by Richard and Hilary.

4.4 Media Training

4.5 Textile Crafts

4.6 Chess by e-mail

4.7 Expansion of the U3A national website

4.8 Summer School in Penrith

Richard will mention the above opportunities at the next general meeting.

5Financial report

Allan presenteda comprehensive list of income and expenditure covering the period 1 February 2013 to 31 January 2014. The current balance stands at £856.72.

6Programme for 2014/15

Richard confirmed a further 3 speakers for the programme. He will follow up options to complete the last date for the programme. (Draft attached)

The U3A Band will appear at the AGM on 20 March 2013. The venue for this has now been changed from the Orkney Library to the St Magnus Centre.

The printed 2014 - 2015 Programme will be available at the AGM.

6Fair Trade Commitment

U3A member Robert Wilson has asked the Committee to consider signing up to making a Fair Trade commitment. This would require us to at least make Fair Trade provisions – tea, coffee, sugar and biscuits available at our meetings and to possibly promote these products in the future. The Committee agreed to support this proposal. Richard will provide further information in his next blog and at the next general meeting.

7AOCB

Tim pointed out that not many groups made regular contributions to the website. Sally also made a plea for more photographs of groups in action. Richard would mention this in his next blog.

John will now take over the task of coordinating the tea/coffee rota.

8Date of next meeting

The next meeting will be held at 2pm on Tuesday 11March 2014

at Linden, Dounby.