Newsletter from your Chairman June 2023

Mike Collins

Dear members,

I hope this newsletter finds you all well.  Having experienced some very un-Spanish weather last week (with torrential rain on several days!) we have returned to a very dry and predominantly sunny UK.  It seems that Summer has come and the forecast for this weekend (10th/11th) is for temperatures in the upper 20’s Celsius. 

 

Our garden is fairly heavy clay and great cracks are already opening in the soil as the easterly winds are drying things out very quickly. This Spring, Sweet Williams have been the June stars in our garden – started as seeds last year this biennial has survived the wet Winter and is and providing an abundance of flowers at the moment.

I hope you enjoyed last month’s speaker talking about the ‘Toy train to the clouds’.  Quite a feat of engineering.

This month we are much closer to home with Janie Ramsay talking about the lifestyle of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.  They were an iconic couple and Janie will be exploring their extraordinary world of meeting VIP’s, possessions, their homes, travel and their friends.  This talk will appeal to all you history lovers but their story is far from normal in terms of Royal Family life styles!  All (well most!) of their incredible life story will be revealed on the 28th June at our monthly meeting.

In July we have our AGM – this will form he first part of our monthly meeting. This will be our 10th AGM of Edenbridge u3a.  The AGM will be followed by a talk by James Dickenson based around Arundel Castle, the home of the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk – the Duke was in charge of the arrangements for the coronation of King Charles III recently.

At this year’s AGM we have three members of the committee that will be standing down from their roles next month:

  1. Estelle Barling has been membership secretary right from the start of Edenbridge u3a and we are very grateful for her long service in this role. (we have a nomination for Diana Sharp to take on this role for the next year)
  2. Peter Welch as our treasurer has kept us on the straight and narrow and is handing over with our accounts in a very healthy situation. Details will be revealed at the AGM. (we have a nomination for Bill Salmond to take on the role of treasurer after the AGM)
  3. Sue Farrell as our website manager has ensured that all our u3a information on line is up to date – she also set up the current website. (Peter Gentry has been nominated to take on the web manager role post AGM)

We offer our thanks to Estelle, Peter and Sue for the wonderful service they have given us through their roles and their support on the committee.

Reminder – just one month of this year’s membership left.  Membership fees are due from the 1st July and are:

      Single membership will be just £15

      Joint membership will be £25

Membership cards for 2023/2024 will be pink in colour. Thanks to those members who have already renewed their membership for next year.  Some of you may wish to renew your membership at this month’s meeting.

That’s all folks – stay safe and stay healthy, see many of you on the 28th June

Chairman                  Email ([email protected])

 

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Previous editions  of our newsletter can be found in the Newsletter archive