Bingara U3A is now officially up and running. All the paperwork has been done and now we are ready to run some activities and events. First, a reminder on what we are about. Universities of the Third Age, or U3As as they are more often called, are voluntary, non-profit organisations which aim to offer older people low-cost educational opportunities which operate in a pleasant, supportive social setting. There are no formal entry requirements, no examinations and no awards.
U3As are basically groups built on the premise that collectively older people have the skills and knowledge to provide learning/social opportunities for themselves. Most U3As offer a program of weekly classes conducted in daylight hours and arranged on a term or semester basis. A wide range of subjects are generally offered, depending on the interests of members and the availability of suitable group leaders and tutors.
For the term leading up to the end of the year, we will offer four activities.
Pilates is already running weekly on Saturday mornings and we are going to start another weekly exercise class called “Balance ‘n‘ Bones”. This class is for mobile, mature aged participants and was developed especially for U3A NSW. There are two programmes, Basic and Advanced. We will start off with the Basic and if there is sufficient interest we will look at also offering the Advanced programme on a weekly basis.
Seeing that it is getting close to Christmas, Barb Leech will run a 2 hour workshop on making cards and gift tags.
Also with the small amount of rain we have had recently, we thought it might be a good idea to run a workshop on trouble shooting and maintaining mowers and whipper snippers. Geoff Leech will run this workshop.
Courses are generally free (except Pilates) but you will need to be a member of U3A. Annual membership is $20 and the membership year runs from July 1st to June 30th. We already have 15 members and look forward to welcoming more.
U3A will send out a newsletter to members detailing the events and activities for this term. Anyone else who would like more information about either Bingara U3A or the activities mentioned above, please contact bingarau3a@gmail.com or any member of the Committee.
