University of the Third Age Leeds Trustees annual report for the year 5 March March 2014

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1 University of the Third Age Leeds Trustees annual report for the year 5 March March 2014 Reference and administrative information Name of the charity The name of the charity is University of the Third Age Leeds. Other names by which the charity is known U3A Leeds. Registered charity number Address of the principal office of the charity c/o The Chairman, U3A Leeds, 31 Holmwood Avenue, Leeds LS6 4NH. Names of Trustees Bill Airey Jenny Atkinson Jackie Bennett Margaret Jones Janet Keogh Chris Lance Jennifer Stacey Lynda Wilcox Anne Wyatt Other persons who served as Trustees for any part of the financial year Roy Wheeler Structure Governance and Management The governing document of the charity is its constitution adopted on 21 January 2003, as amended at Annual General Meetings in 2005, 2006, 2011 and The Trustees are the members of the Executive Committee, elected by the membership at Annual General Meetings (or occasionally co-opted). Objectives and Activities, Achievements and Performance The charity is affiliated to the Third Age Trust (charity no ), the national coordinating body for U3A groups. U3A Leeds is devoted to lifelong learning, providing opportunities for those no longer in full time employment to share skills and interests by learning together. Financial Review Policy on reserves The activities undertaken during the year are summarised in the reports below. We have invested funds of around 32,000, thanks to a generous bequest from a former member. Our policy is broadly to maintain the value of these reserves and to use the income from them to advance our charitable purposes. Accounts for the year 2013 These have been approved by the charity s independent examiner and are appended to this report.

2 University of the Third Age Leeds Trustees' Report for This is the third annual report that I have written it is my final such report as I come to the end of my threeyear term of office as Chairman of U3A Leeds at the 2014 AGM. Overall it has been another year in which we have continued with the process of steady consolidation built upon satisfactory progress from the previous years. In retrospect it has been another successful year for U3A Leeds. The fortnightly programme of talks at the general meetings held at MASSC has continued to present members with excellent speakers who covered a wide variety of engaging topics throughout the year, and the Speaker Secretary is to be congratulated on putting these programmes together. Attendances at these meetings remained buoyant, with the average number of attendees up to the end of 2013 being not far short of 100. However it is gratifying to note that the number of attendees at the first few meetings into 2014 has risen to an average of about 120, the increase no doubt in part a reflection of a recent influx of new members. It should be noted that it is relatively uncommon for U3As to maintain a fortnightly schedule of general meetings/talks a monthly pattern, and often with a summer break, is much more usual, and some U3As do not offer general meetings at all. But at the heart of any U3A lie its interest groups in general these continue to flourish, although it has not proved easy in some cases to replace long-serving Group Leaders who have decided to stand down from these roles. Some further detail on group activities is provided in the report below from Janet Keogh, the Groups Coordinator who has continued to do an excellent job in liaising with Group Leaders and in encouraging members to set up new groups. In thanks for their efforts over the year, Group Leaders were invited to an afternoon summer tea party, very kindly hosted by Chris and Mary Lance. However, and as Janet notes below, we always need more groups/group Leaders to provide further learning opportunities and to attract more members several groups are full or over-subscribed so all members are encouraged to consider what they can offer, from a one-off class to a short series of meetings and on to a regular programme of activities. It is apparent that U3A Leeds does not have as many groups (or related activities) relative to the size of its membership as do most other comparable U3As, and particularly those U3As which appear to be thriving. Members enjoyed a variety of one-off activities across the year, including the annual summer educational coach outing to experience the myriad delights offered by the City of Liverpool in June and occasional "Grand Days Out" to various locations/venues such as the NRM in York to see the iconic A4 steam engines and to Skipton for a cream tea during a canal trip by narrowboat. An excellent Christmas lunch was enjoyed once again by members at Castle Grove in early December, followed up with entertainment provided by our Choir. Encouragingly the attendance at the lunch was somewhat higher than last year, possibly in part because of the introduction of a policy of allowing members to bring guests. Collaborative relationships with neighbouring U3As were strengthened during 2013 by the establishment of a local network, thereby opening up some of the activities in any one of the other U3As involved to our members without the necessity of them having to join the U3A which hosts the activities. Contacts with several other external organisations, eg LOPF and MAECare, were maintained throughout the year, but in general these were at a relatively lowish level of activity. We continued to be approached from time to time by research staff from the University of Leeds seeking participants in a variety of research projects. The recruitment of new members remained buoyant across the year it picked up further in the later part of 2013 and this trend has continued into the early stages of In consequence the membership total has reached a record level for the early part of the year, notwithstanding the apparently inevitable high nonrenewal rate. This is a very encouraging picture for the future. The Committee has endeavoured to strengthen publicity efforts, but evidence indicates that the best publicity is word-of-mouth so all members are asked to play their parts by bringing the benefits of U3A membership to the attention of their friends and acquaintances. Meetings for new members were held during the year as and when warranted by the numbers they were well-attended and valued by those present, providing them with opportunities to raise queries and to meet committee members along with many of the Group Leaders. The website and continued to provide valuable means of communicating with an increasing proportion of the membership, especially at a time of increased postal and printing costs. The Committee held seven full meetings at regular intervals across the year to progress a variety of both

3 routine and one-off business, together with a more informal short update/briefing meeting over the summer period. It has had a settled membership with good attendance throughout the year, and it continued to work well. Jackie Bennett and Margaret Jones were elected to the Committee at the AGM in March 2013, and Jenny Atkinson was subsequently co-opted by the Committee. Jackie has taken on the major responsibility for publicity, Jenny for producing a members' newsletter on a regular basis and Margaret for a variety of tasks aimed at keeping U3A activities running smoothly. Jenny Stacey and Anne Wyatt were re-elected to the Committee at the AGM, and continued in their roles as Speaker Secretary and as Committee Secretary respectively. Other elected members continued in their existing roles. At the end of 2013 Roy Wheeler resigned as a committee member. U3A Leeds has been fully represented by the Chairman and by various other committee members at all the meetings of the Yorkshire and the Humber Region (YAHR) of the U3A held during the year. These meetings provide valuable opportunities for attendees to exchange views on a range of matters of concern to U3As across the region. A new set of officers was elected to the YAHR Committee at the YAHR AGM held in April 2013, and that Committee has been pro-active in setting up a continuing series of workshops, study days and the first regional summer school, some of which were attended by members of U3A Leeds. With grateful support from U3A Leeds, two committee members attended the National Conference of the Third Age Trust held at the University of Nottingham in Sept 2013, a wider forum for the exchanges of U3A views nationally. As my parting summary, another good and steady year for U3A Leeds, and with a very pleasing increase in membership numbers. As Chairman I am grateful for the support of the Committee as a whole, and on its behalf I would like to thank all those members who keep U3A Leeds running smoothly, especially Group Leaders whose contributions are vital to our success (but we need more of you) and also everyone else involved in running the general meetings at MASSC etc. Bill Airey Chairman Report on the Interest Groups I am happy to report that currently we have 28 interest groups offering a diverse range of subjects. Since the last AGM, we have added Bird Watching, History and the Ukelele Groups to broaden the range of activities on offer. The Book Group now has a second group, and the Racketball Group meets twice a week, to accommodate members on their waiting lists other groups with waiting lists should consider this option. A highly selective snapshot of the past year saw the Music Group celebrating a milestone birthday, the Garden Group enjoying a packed programme of talks and visits, the Book Group walking the literary pages of history by visiting Wentworth House, setting of the bestseller 'Black Diamonds', and the Racketball Group hosting and playing in several Yorkshire inter-u3a tournaments. The past year saw two of our longest-serving Group Leaders, Jane Edwards and Marian Garnett, step down from these roles in the Walking and the Historical Yorkshire Groups. They leave their respective groups in excellent order and, after a period of some uncertainty as to their successors, in capable hands. We owe both Jane and Marian a massive vote of thanks for the sterling work they each put in over long periods. Sadly we saw the Yoga Group cease at the end of a difficult year, and our sincere thanks go to Nasim Rabbani who set up the group from scratch and who worked so hard to maintain it. Once again, my thanks to all our Group Leaders the unsung champions who work so hard to maintain all the groups on offer. They are at the centre of our organisation, and by volunteering to share their interests they give members a chance to gain new skills and knowledge, and to make and meet friends new and old they make U3A Leeds what it is. It will be our 30th Birthday in 2015 I hope that members, both new and old, will reflect on how they would wish to see U3A Leeds progress in the future, as a large part of our success will depend upon members contributing whatever abilities/skills they are willing to offer to keep U3A Leeds vibrant, relevant and interesting not just for today's third-agers but for all those who will be joining us in years to come. Janet Keogh Groups Coordinator

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5 Subscriptions Notes on the 2013 accounts Membership has increased during the year, with 509 paid subscriptions, compared with 431 in The annual subscription for 2013 was 7, of which 3.50 will go to the Third Age Trust as affiliation fee. The 2013 AGM authorised the Committee to set the subscription for 2014 at any amount between 7 and 10. In view of rapidly increasing costs and the deficit incurred in 2013, the Committee decided to set the subscription for 2014 at 10. Groups The interest groups are broadly speaking self-financing. Several of them take care of their own finances. Others generate a modest surplus (or in some cases loss) for the main U3A account. Savings accounts The three-year fixed term bond with the Royal Deposit Plan 3 yielded an income of 1,000 for each of the years 2011, 2012 and This bond has now matured, and the Committee agreed to transfer the proceeds to a Charity Savings Account with United Trust Bank, which currently pays 2½% interest. The interest rate on the COIF account remains negligible. Equipment We have paid for the purchase and installation of an amplifier which we hope will solve the long-standing problems that we have had with the sound system in the hall at MASSC. The managers at MASSC have agreed to share this cost with us. Donation As last year, we again made a donation to the HEART Centre to show our appreciation of the fact that they allow some of our interest groups to meet there rent-free. Christopher Lance Treasurer January 2014