AGM this Saturday 16^th November

If attending the AGM, note doors open at 9:30 am when tea and coffee will be available. AGM starts at 10 am followed by a hugely engaging storyteller and award-winning speaker Neil Hanson with a talk titled "Inn & Out at the Top" Details here.

We also need someone to take pictures of the meeting, including the main speakers that we can use in local media coverage. Reply to this News Flash if you can help. Thanks.

We need over 200 members voting to be quorate. Please select here to vote online.  The agenda and supporting documentation can be accessed here.

Spare seats for Christmas decorations at Harewood House

Historic Houses Group Christmas visit to Harewood House - 'Mischief at the Mansion' created by internationally acclaimed mixed reality artists Davy and Kristin McGuire.

Tuesday 3rd December 2024.  Minibus leaves Ilkley at 9.30am, picking up in Burley and Otley, returning from Harewood at 3.30pm. Only £27 (full price) or £11 (discount) for those people who hold Harewood House Membership cards. These to be produced on the day) Price includes transport, entry to the house and coffee on arrival. Email susanward29@icloud.com to book a place confirming your preferred pick-up location.

Festive Season updates

Christmas Concert 10am Tuesday 3^rd December St. Johns Church, Ben Rhydding. Details here. Mark your diaries for this splendid annual event organised by our Singing for Pleasure Group. If you enjoy singing, have a look at the group details and contact the organiser. See this link.

Christmas craft making session 10 am to 12 noon Friday 6^th December. We are running this as a one morning event alongside our usual Drop-in session in Clarke Foley. With a limit of just 10 members, this is already fully subscribed. But we are running a waiting list, so do register as places will be offered if anyone cancels their booking. Select here for more information

Registrations are now open for the Christmas Cracker. All members are welcome to join the fun in the main hall of Clarke Foley on Saturday morning 21st December. Free entry but we do ask for registrations because of restricted space and to more accurately judge catering requirements.  Select here to book your place. Please note a change to the original notification. Tea and coffee will be available from 9:30 am. Entertainment starts at 10 am.

Is your group having a u3a Festive Season meal?  Send a few pictures of your group’s meal, including the name of the venue, and a couple of sentences about the occasion to Helen (helen@saltedit.co.uk ). She will arrange to post details on our social media accounts, and we will then include in future editions of News Flash. Also please sent the best cracker jokes to News Flash. We always need content for the section on jokes.

Existing Group news

Readers Group 1: Offers a warm welcome to new members. They meet once a month on the 2nd Tuesday at 2pm at St John's Lounge Ben Rhydding. Worthwhile discussions on books that members can recommend. More details here or email Margaret Cook: mcrombalds@hotmail.co.uk.

Walking Moor & Dales: A very active group (in every sense of the word). Thanks to Heather Williams for sending photos with a lovely autumnal feel from a recent walk. Select here to see them on our website.

Saunter to Lunch: A new group, walking once a fortnight on a Wednesday. Next one will be 27^th November. Walks will be rotated. Some will be 3 to 4 miles taking a couple of hours at a moderate pace. Others will be shorter, more of an amble. Group members will be asked to organise and lead walks, taking responsibility for gauging levels of difficulty and booking lunch.

If you are interested in joining a walk with a social lunch to finish, text John Hunt on 07543 701052 remembering to include your name and note of home post code.

Quiz online. On the last Wednesday evening of each month, we enter two teams into a pub style quiz with other u3a groups across the UK. We would like to increase our participation to three teams so if quizzing is your thing, find out more by selecting this link.

New groups

Thank you to those who have responded to recent articles about joining new groups. We are working on getting these ideas to fruition. Here is an update:

Knit and Natter Group: A few more members would be welcome.  If you are interested, please email newgroups@ilkleyu3a.org and give any preference of venue area and day.

Bus Route 62 Walking Group: The efforts to organize are still on-going. Those who have already expressed an interest will shortly be getting a progress report requesting a response to check they are still wishing to participate.

The Art of Calligraphy:  We have interest but no-one with experience.  Is there anyone amongst our many members who can help to get the group started? Email newgroups@ilkleyu3a.org if you can help.

Online Events

Organised through our parent body and free to join as part of your u3a subscription. Select here for details. Topics in the next few weeks include a lesson in geology, an examination of the 1921 census records and a presentation on class structure. Too many topics to list here!

Help required to distribute News Flash

A special edition of each News Flash is provided for a handful of members without an email address. The cost of postage is getting prohibitive so if you have a printer and can deliver to a couple of addresses in Addingham, please email membership@ilkleyu3a.org. Our last paper boy has moved from the area! Thank you.

Diary Dates

Drop-in Ilkley.Friday 15^th November 10:30 am to 12 noon. Details of all drop-ins on this link to our website.

Manor House Ilkley. A presentation by Olivia Johnson of Bradford Museums and Galleries, on Charles Harold Wood. 10:15 am Friday 15^th November. C H Wood was one of Bradford’s most prolific industrial and aerial photographers in the 1930s and during WW2. Details including advance booking on this link.

Coffee & Chat Monday 18^th November 10:30 am at the Court House in Otley. Details here.

PhD student wanting help with a research project

Rebecca Woodhouse is hoping to interview people aged 50 and over who have experience of suffering a negative impact on their mental health or wellbeing as a result of undertaking a work-related change, such as retirement. If you have experienced such a change within the past 5 years, select this link for more details. This opens a post on our Facebook page. No need to have an account to read the post.

A selection of other posts from our Facebook page

The following links open on our Facebook page. Anyone can access them. You don’t need an account.

A report on Saturday Morning talk for October (Assassination of President Kennedy).

Go With on an outing to the Court House theatre in Otley

Voyagers visit to Rochdale in October

Singing for Pleasure Details of their annual Christmas concert on 3^rd December at Ben Rhydding

Historic Houses enjoy a wonderful day out at Beningbrough Hall

Market Place for u3a members

Members can subscribe to the Market Place forum and receive emails when new items are added.  Here are the latest posts for upcoming productions:

Afternoon concerts at Kings Hall Ilkley: a short series of concerts at Ilkley Kings Hall featuring young musicians from Royal Northern College of Music. They start at 2.30 pm and last just one hour, so are popular with people who feel they can no longer go out at night.

Ilkley Playhouse production of BLEAK EXPECTATIONS: Filled with unexpected disguises, Dickensian misadventure, and eccentric characters lit by oil lamp, step into the gin-soaked satirical world of Bleak Expectations, based on Mark Evans’ acclaimed BBC Radio 4 series. 5^th to 14^th December

For the following items, contact the poster direct by clicking on their name to reveal email and phone numbers.

Retro Ceramic Internal Door Knobs plus Brass Pair

Modern Chrome Internal Door Handles

Do you have a spare Mahjong set?

Rosalind 20 bottle Wine Rack  (includes details on use of any funds raised by the sale)

Finally …

What do you call a herd of sheep falling down a hill. A lambslide.

Why are fish easy to weigh? They have their own scales.

Apparently, there’s a medicine that can cure scepticism. I’m not buying it!

Best wishes

John & Christine

Email: Newsflash@ilkleyu3a.org

How do you communicate within your group?

When our u3a was founded, communication would have been by letter or phoning a landline. Today, most groups send reminders via email, group text or What’s App. You may like to know that Monday afternoon Table Tennis use Signal, an alternative to What’s App and recommend it to others. Details here.

Do you watch “Only Connect” on BBC TV?

A recent team on the series was from Malvern u3a. Read about their behind-the-scenes experience on this link.

u3a Yorkshire & Humber (YAHR) Summer School 18^th to 21^st August 2025

Advance notice of the dates. Bookings now open. Select here for details and to book. This is always heavily oversubscribed, so you know what to do!

Are you receiving your copy of u3a matters?

We are aware that a few members have requested copies of the national u3a magazine but have not received recent editions through the mail.

We are investigating why this happened but, in the meantime, please reply to this News Flash if your copies not have arrived so we can update the mailing list. Many thanks.