Monthly Notices October
These are some notes from our October Monthly Meeting held on Monday 12th October 2026. The meeting was followed by a talk from Dr. James Taylor about "Grace Darling and the Fine Art of Saving Lives at Sea".
Chairman's Announcements:
Pauline opened the meeting by welcoming all the members to this month's meeting and gave us all the usual safety announcements and reminded the members of the meeting place in the event of an emergency.
Pauline started by thanking the ladies of u3a who have been knitting poppies for the upcoming Remembrance Day. She now has over 800 of them.
Pauline then told the members about the 'Group Leaders Thank You' Lunch held last Saturday. She sent a big thank you to the Really Useful Group members and others that helped at the event. The Committee was pleased to see that over 80 of the Group Leaders attended. Without these volunteers, our u3a would not be as successful as it is. It was interesting to hear that some groups have been running for over 20 years and that we've had 18 new groups start this year and 12 of those are run by new members. This is absolutely brilliant and a real credit to the enthusiasm and willingness of our members.
Pauline then mentioned that the Committee are always looking for new members and invited Chris to tell the members more about the upcoming event. See Chris' comments under PR below.
Monthly Meeting
PR & Communications
Chris informed members that she plans to step down from the Committee next April to focus on family life. This leaves a gap in the Committee and perhaps some of you might be interested in helping out, To this end, Chris reminded us that they are running a 'Come and Meet the Committee' session on Tuesday 27th October in the Cafe in Ickenham from 2pm to 4pm with coffee and cake. The Committee want to provide an informal session where members can just have a chat and find out what all the Committee roles are. Why not pop along but you'll need to let Chris know. Contact Chris to secure a place.
Post Meeting Coffee & Chat
Adele reminded the members that she would lead today's walk to the post meeting coffee and chat.
Rambles
Jasia informed us about the next Ramble on the 29th October. A circular 6.5 mile walk from Slough to Windsor, stop for lunch and then return. Walking along the Jubilee and Thames Rivers into Windsor offers some lovely countryside views. there is still a space on this walk.
Jasia then talked about the Short Rambles the group have been doing. The next one is on Wednesday 14th October. A short 3 mile walk along the Hillingdon Trail. Hillingdon Station to Hayes End and back by bus. Again, mostly fields and woodland walk. There are 14 spaces on this walk.
Jasia continued by telling us that she wanted to run more than the one short walk a month they have done. However, this requires more walk leaders to come forward. Can you help Jasia to run more short walks, have a chat with her.
Interest Group News
Chris also gave us some information from the Travel Group. The group had a guest speaker from the Wendy Wu Travel agent last month and as a result, Hillingdon u3a have been offered a 10% discount using a special code that Chris has. Contact Chris if this could help you.
Roger gave us an update on the interest Groups:
- A new Yoga via Zoom group has been suggested and we have a leader. If this interests you then contact Zahra so she can see what the level of interest is.
- The new Cribbage Group aimed at beginners will start on 9th November meeting 2nd & 4th Mondays of the month in the afternoon. Contact Christine via this website.
- A new Flower Arranging group has been suggested. Contact Zahra if interested.
- A new Sunday Lunch Club has been suggested. Run along the same lines as the current Curry Club, we have a leader who needs to know what the level of interest is. Contact Andrea to let her know
- The new Singers and Strummers group starts on Tuesday the 20th October. Contact Geoff if you want to join.
- Alan mentioned the new beginners Bridge group that starts 26th October. Contact Alan if you want to know more.
We are still calling on Group Leaders to take on the 'Table of the Month' in November and December.
Visits
Roger also reminded us about the Visit to see the Fuller Griffin Brewery in Chiswick. It's a 'Make-Your-Own-Way' on Thursday 12th November to meet at the Brewery in Chiswick at 10:45am.
After the Coffee break, Alan introduced our speaker Dr. James Taylor who gave us a very interesting talk called "Grace Darling and the Fine Art of Saving Lives at Sea".
Pauline closed the meeting at 12pm