AGM 2024 ~ Committee Reports
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Cronulla School of Arts
President Sydney u3a, Jennifer Waldron
We have had a good start to the year with 160 new members so far. Our office has been telling me that they have not been this busy since before COVID – getting renewals from some members who haven’t renewed for two years or more.
Last year was very busy for us with the move into the new office. Moving into the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts resulted in us halving the amount of rent we now have to pay, offset further rent by having eight classes in the office each week. Eight classes for which we don’t have to pay for venue costs. We were also very lucky that we had very good office furniture donated to us by Deloittes, including a large screen tv for classes in the new office.
This year we have a stall at the NSW Seniors Festival Expo. This has always been too expensive for us but Lyn Lennard, running our PR team, managed to do a deal with a much reduced fee. This took place 13/14 March at the ICC Building in Darling Harbour.
For the coming year. The most important item however, is the necessity to update our computer system. This is a huge project for us. We’ve had a committee looking at this for over 3 years, and are finally coming to a completion.
We cannot have a system designed for us, so we have to buy one ‘off the shelf’. At last we are close to selecting one. Once this is in place it will mean some changes in the way we operate. For instance:
* It will be easy to book on line
* Easier to renew fees
* We will have to learn how to operate some changes
In this day and age we need to be able to access Sydney u3a on our website and use all the modern devices such as our mobile phones.
Whilst it’s difficult for many of us to come to terms with these changes just take a look at how much our website has approved. We’re no where near putting the new system in place but hopefully it won’t be too long before this issues is completed.
We’re lucky that all the ground work to find a suitable computer system all this has been done by our very clever members.
Secretary, Cherie Clover
Enquiries on how to join Sydney u3a and what courses are on offer, have continued to flow throughout the last 12 months. Enquiries received come via: mobile, email and through Facebook. From the enquiries received, it appears that our approach to social media and materials in libraries and community centres is being seen and reaching the community as hoped. However, the majority of our new members continues to come through from family and friends. So remember to keeping spreading the word and sharing the Endeavour trifold.
Many other general enquiries are taken from our members, which are addressed in a timely fashion. These enquiries come in all shapes and sizes and no enquiry is off limits.
Over the last 12 months there has been a steady flow of a invites from organisations to participate in events. It is good to see that these have been taken up by our members.
The membership numbers for Endeavour are slowly on the incline. However, we are not at our pre-COVID numbers, but this is the same across all regions of Sydney u3a. 2024 has started off extremely well with 31 members already joining in January/February.
There have been members who have chosen not to renew and this is for varied reasons; personal or poor health, unable to get into preferred classes of choice or have moved away. It is concerning to learn that we have lost members due to them being unable to get into a class. It is important for our Leaders where possible, to accommodate as many members requests to join.
The good news is, that we are headed in the right direction, but this is going to take time. With the enthusiasm of the committee, our current members and the work going into promoting the organisation, we will continue to remain positive and chip away at increasing our numbers. On behalf of the Endeavour (Southern) Region committee, a big thank you to all Endeavour members.
Treasurer, Ray Smith
Calendar Year 2023
I’d like to thank all the members of our committee for their support and help over the year.
Overall, our costs have moved back towards a normal level.
Regional expenditure for the year (before GST) totalled $12,364, up from $10,087 in 2022, comprising –
Venue Rental $10,172
Printing $ 560
Meetings & AGM $1,633
Social Account balance 31/12/22 $1,288
Add Probus speaker donation $40
Social Account balance 31/12/23 $1,327
The Region’s membership dropped a little over the year, from 491 in January 2022 to 457 in January 2023. We have a long way to go to regain pre-COVID levels.
Course Co-Ordinator, Catherine Wormald
AGMs seem to come around very quickly. I imagine many of you are feeling that the past year has flown. Having only joined last year and taking on the role of Course Co-ordinator I have felt very privileged to work with a wonderful group of people. I have been amazed at the variety of courses on offer with feedback demonstrating how much they are enjoyed by u3a members. New courses have been introduced with some faltering initially at the start. The Monthly Talks have been appreciated and thanks to Cherie there are many more to come this year.
Semester 2, 2023 was my first experience of the process required to organise the running of courses and collating the information for the course handbook. It was certainly a collaborative effort with Judy Breen, Venue Co-ordinator and her team providing support.
Being Course Co-ordinator has been a rewarding experience but due to circumstances I will be unable to continue in the role. It would be great if someone was interested in taking it on. I can assure you that there will be fantastic support were someone to take it on. Thank you for the opportunity and I look forward to at east being able to promote the u3a.
Venue Co-ordinator, Judy Breen
Archaeology Course: Finding suitable venues for courses can be a challenge and fortunately venue changes are not often required, with most groups content in their chosen locations. The Archaeology Group recently needed to relocate due to a hefty increase in room hire charges. They have found their new venue, Gymea Tradies, suits their needs and club staff to be very accommodating in making them feel at home.
Keyless Entry Changes: Sutherland Council are fitting out all of their venues with keyless entry and are rolling out the changes throughout 2024. Cronulla Central Community Hall and Miranda Community Centre have now completed the keyless installation.
Italian for Beginners: Sutherland Library venue has proven to be working well for the ‘new’ Italian Beginners course and the library staff are very helpful assisting with resource material.
Award Winning Books: After a refurbishment at South Hurstville RSL the Award Winning Books group have returned to this convenient venue.
Cronulla School of Arts: A popular venue for a number of u3a courses and other community groups, we are very fortunate to have the Cronulla School of Arts and its media equipment in the Lecture room, available to use. With a number of groups using the equipment it is recommended that extra time be allowed to test the equipment before a presentation, to prevent any hiccups. A number of groups have their own HTML cable to connect laptops. An added option now available for groups is wifi access with a mobile wifi. To book the wifi mobile contact Judy Breen at breenjju3a@gmail.com
A reminder that the Activity Room has a TV and DVD/CD player available for use.
Publicity Co-ordinator, Carol Cook
Continued efforts were made to publicise our activities using the community social pages on Facebook. Cherie Clover has recently agreed to take this aspect of publicity into her broader Facebook role, and this is working well. Leaders have been encouraged to submit material for posting. Each post leads to requests for membership of our Facebook group.
Presentations to local Probus clubs have continued. Four were completed in 2023 and two have been done so far in 2024. There are two further bookings to come this semester. There has been a lot of interest generated and definite new members because of these presentations.
At this time one Expo display has been completed for Senior’s Week with another to come at Gymea shortly. Lots of community interest was shown at the Hurstville Expo run by Georges River Council and it was an opportunity to circulate our advertising materials. Members were generous in volunteering to help on our stall. Bayside Council did not offer an Expo this year.
Hard copy advertising materials such as the trifold and other material supplied by head office have been distributed to non-members at the monthly talks. All trifolds printed for this semester will have been successfully distributed by the end of the semester
Delegate to the Cronulla School of Arts, Nilva Martini
The Cronulla School of Arts (CSoA) has been a valuable venue for Sydney u3a over many years. In the past year, around 10 groups have called CSoA home, along with the recently developed monthly talks and the committee meetings.
Our groups have full use of the A.V. equipment in the lecture room and activity room and both rooms have tea making facilities. Groups have been provided with locked cupboards to store their equipment.
There have been a few hiccups along the way- certainly the A.V. equipment has caused much frustration and hair-pulling. It is very hopeful that recent upgrades have solved past problems.
As the building is old and heritage-listed, there are frequent maintenance challenges. Generally, repairs have been carried out without affecting our groups. However, rain in the lift pit meant the lift was out of action for several weeks, but we all coped.
The CSoA committee has been very accommodating of our needs and we thank them, in particular Maria Townsend, who is quick to address any issues we hit her with.
Social Media and Monthly Newsletter, Cherie Clover
Facebook
The u3a Endeavour (Southern) Region Facebook group continues to be extremely worthwhile and beneficial in keeping our members connected, as well as gaining new members into Sydney u3a. Posts are made 2 – 3 times a week to the group and this often depends on what is happening at the time of topic specific. As of this report, we currently have 445 members. Our membership is made up of u3a Endeavour members, other Sydney u3a regions, family and friends and general public. Thank you to members who kindly provide content and pictures when asked for posting.
Monthly Newsletter
It is pleasing to receive the support from our Leaders, Bookers and our members who happily submit content and pictures for the newsletter each month. Contributions are often received without prompting. Without the support of everyone the newsletter wouldn’t be as informative as it is. It is always lovely to receive feedback after issues are distributed with compliments such as, “another good read, I really enjoyed the issue and great to see pics of our members.”
Monthly Talks, Cherie Clover
Our monthly talks are popular and the initiative to try these monthly has proven to be a wise move. 2024 saw Endeavour take a new approach of having a presentation once a month and not just on the 5th Tuesday of each month, as previously done for many years. The goal was to provide members with engaging and varied talks, which in turn would hopefully help build our membership. The Semester 1 talks are all different and the talks for Semester 2 have been confirmed. Again, a range of diverse topics for Semester 2 are on offer for everyone to choose from. The Cronulla School of Arts has been very helpful with accommodating our requests to host the monthly talks.
Website Co-ordinator, Cherie Clover
For the last 12 months the Sydney u3a website along with the regional website tabs has been about maintenance and keeping it clean and simple. This approach will continue until the new website /system is in place in 2025 – with all going as planned.