Issue 31
Autumn 2008
STRAY NEWS
…but once a year
impressions of a busy day
9am at the Cairn Hotel and all is already humming with activity as preparations for the Harrogate U3A Open Morning and AGM are well under way. Small teams of Group Leaders and their helpers are quietly but purposefully engaged in setting up their displays, defending their space allocation and repelling encroaching neighbours if necessary. This is work that the members and public do not see – time is limited and a careful eye is kept on the clock.
Around 10.30 comes a small lull – all is ready or nearly so and the doors are not yet due to open. Time for a quick reviving cup of coffee while checking on the last details. The Membership Secretary is already busy with her desk disappearing rapidly under a mound of pink forms and surrounded by a small but growing queue of impatient subscription payers.
By the official kick off time a small crowd is waiting for the doors to open. The car park is already full to overflowing we hear and soon so is the hall with shoulder to shoulder gatherings around the exhibits. A certain amount of polite pushing and shoving is needed if you want to move along rather than just stand in one place!
Displays are viewed, sometimes with favourable comment, leaflets are handed out, questions are asked and answered, details are written down. The agenda for the day made mention of a lunch break but somehow the customers seemed reluctant to leave and many lunches were forfeited or eaten on the go.
AGM time – now for the serious business of the day. First problem –“ have enough of the members stayed to give the meeting a quorum?” That problem soon solves itself, leading to the next problem – “where can we find more chairs?” as the seats are rapidly filled.
The business of the meeting proceeds smoothly, swiftly and uneventfully. Our finances are in good order, the membership grows apace, we have oodles of new groups, new group leaders and new ideas.
The Chairman expresses a deserved thank you to the Group Leaders – “the bedrock on which Harrogate U3A is built” – and Committee Members. We elect two new members to the Committee and thank two others who are retiring from the Committee. The Chairman expresses special thanks to two Group Leaders, Daphne Fisher and Sheena Pawson, who are retiring after completing many years of service.
In all the bustle and excitement nobody thought to thank the Chairman, not only for the exemplary conduct of the meeting but also for another year of enthusiasm, leadership and achievement. Shame on us all!! I hope that she did not feel unappreciated.
And finally the day draws to its end. Time to take down the displays, pack everything up and load the cars once again.
Like Christmas AGM comes “but once a year”. Thank goodness we may think. But at the end of the day we go away with a certain feeling of pride at what has been quietly accomplished by a dedicated team of unpaid volunteers.
See you next year!
Bill Mallinson