News
Skiddaw
Website : www.skiddawu3a.co.uk
Issue 15
FB : www.facebook.com/skiddawu3a
May/June 2016
Dear Member,
We have just had our Annual General Meeting which was well attended. The meeting
unanimously approved the change in the constitution which will enable committee members
to serve a maximum of six years instead of three. This means that we can maintain continuity
whilst ensuring that we have regular changes in membership. This year, we welcome two new
committee members: Aline Hopkins and Christine Robinson. Aline, who is a member of the
Creative Writing group and has a background in media, will be taking on the role of Media
Liaison. Christine is the convenor of the Spanish groups and will become our Social Secretary.
A full list of the current committee can be found below.
The second motion, which was to have an “open-door” policy for current members of other
U3As, was also approved unanimously with the proviso that members of other U3As could still
become full members of Skiddaw U3A if they wished. This policy will start in the next full
membership year and will run for a year on an experiment basis. The committee will be
monitoring its effects.
At the beginning of April, we had a convenors meeting in Portinscale which was followed by a
convivial lunch at the local hostelry. One of the items for discussion was how to allocate
money available for equipment. Now we have been functioning for 2 full years, we have a
much better idea of yearly income and expenditure. We have agreed an amount for a reserve
but will be formalising this into a policy. The committee does not want to accumulate a large
balance and, where we have a surplus of income over expenditure, we prefer to use it to
support and develop groups. A lot of ideas were put forward by convenors and these will be
used by the committee to draft a policy which will be sent to convenors for comment.
This has been a very business-like newsletter so far – now onto more social matters. Places
are being booked for the trip to Liverpool. We have been asked whether partners/friends who
are not members can come on trips as well. The Third Age Trust advice is “Yes” provided the
committee agree. The committee agree!
After Liverpool, the next social event is a Treasure Hunt on Friday, June 17 th - details
following shortly.
Monthly General Meetings
Meetings 10:30 to 12:00 (refreshments from 10:00) unless stated otherwise
Wednesday May 18th – Portinscale Village Hall
Guest Speaker - Guest Speaker - Isobel Stirk - "The Bronte Family"
Wednesday June 15th – Braithwaite Institute
Guest Speaker - Prof David Marsh - "Falls and Fragility Fractures - a global challenge"
Finally, a big thank you to the Political Philosophy group for organising the open evening
meeting on the EU. Having the opportunity to hear factual, non-partisan information on the
EU and how it functions does help us to make an informed decision, whichever way we vote.
Don’t forget – now that Spring has sprung, watersports and bowling are back in business,
Details can be found in the Events Diary.
Best wishes
Maggie Potts
Chair, Executive Committee
SKIDDAW U3A EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
2016-17
Chair:
Deputy Chair:
Business Secretary:
Treasurer:
Membership Secretary:
Groups’ Coordinator:
Speakers’ Secretary:
Webmaster:
Social Secretary:
Media Liaison:
Maggie Potts
TBA
Ted McArdle
Leela Marsh
Sylvia Pilling
Gill Frances
Halle Stenhouse
Debbie Morgan
Christine Robinson
Aline Hopkins
NEWS from CUMBRIA NETWORK
SECOND ENERGY CONFERENCE Following the success of last year's Cumbria Network
Conference on Energy, many requests were made for a second conference and a lot of ideas
about content have been put forward. We are aiming to have a second conference in Spring
2017. Maggie Potts from Skiddaw and Mike Green from Ambleside have agreed to be
involved in organising the conference but they need a couple of other members to help in
planning the programme and the many other tasks such as sorting out the venue,
advertising, press releases and media, conference packs, bookings and money, volunteers
on the day etc. Mike and I would like two other members for planning to completion.
If you would like to be involved, please contact Maggie
[email protected]
Or Mike
[email protected]
An INVITATION to CARLISLE U3A’s 21st BIRTHDAY
Carlisle U3A invites you to celebrate its 21st birthday on Thursday 21st of July at the Crown
and Mitre in Carlisle. A full day of events and entertainment is planned starting at 10.30 and
finishing at 4.00pm. Refreshments will be provided and you will also have an opportunity to
meet the new Chair of the Third Age Trust. Whether you come for all or part of the day, you
will be very welcome.
ACROSS CUMBRIA U3A PROJECT:
Cumbria Network is looking at the possibility of developing a guidebook: not another
walking guide but a guide that follows the industrial or archaeological landscape: for
example a guide based on old railway lines, many of which relate to mining and
quarrying, or the history of tourism in the lakes. Other suggested areas have been cycle
rides about 10 miles or so with a loo, a brew and a view. If you or your group is
interested in contributing to any such guides, please contact Maggie Potts as above with
your ideas and she will relay them to the Network.
A NETWORK CALENDER for 2017:
It has been suggested that Cumbria U3A Network has its own calendar in 2017. This
could be an opportunity to promote older people in a positive way as well as promoting
Cumbria. Ideas include photos of activity groups in beautiful but sometimes unusual
places eg the quilting group on top of Latrigg or the watersports group walking on the
water, cycling, bird watching, wild swimming etc. The photos for the calendar could be
selected by competition. There are lots of possibilities – if this appeals to you, again
please contact Maggie Potts.
A Report for Skiddaw U3A Newsletter from the Poetry Reading Group
Gill Frances, April 2016
The last three meetings have focused, in turn, on the Liverpool Poets, poems about the sea
and poems written in the sonnet form.
Ted McArdle led the session on the Liverpool poets, introducing the Group to some of the
most engaging and accessible poetry of the 20th century. Roger McGough’s ‘Summer with
Monika’ took us back to our younger days (“They say it was just like any other summer/ but
it wasn’t./ For we had love and each other and the moon for company.”) Adrian Henri
reminded us that young love is fraught with anxiety (“Love is feeling cold in the back of
vans”) while Brian Patten re-traced the steps to destruction of a relationship damaged by
youthful cynicism: “In the morning I opened the cupboard/ and found inside it a pair of
wings,/ a pair of angel’s wings./ I was not naïve enough to believe them real.” Some poems
by Matt Simpson were a revelation to most of us who had not previously read ‘Homecoming’
or ‘Joe Ellis, English Teacher’ – “In a scrag-end classroom, jerry-built/ after the War, Joe
Ellis chalked / the dirty bits from Shakespeare up/ while lorries trundled to drab docks.”
The following meeting produced a completely different bag of goodies. Gill Frances had
nominated The Sea as a theme and the discussion kicked off with a reading of Andrew
Greig’s haunting ‘Orkney’ brought in by Elisabeth Lowis – “It is the way sea and sky/ work
off each other constantly,/ like people meeting in Alfred Street, / each face coming away
with a hint/ of the other’s face pressed in it.” Patricia Howell treated us to Hardy’s ‘Beeny
Cliff’ – “A little cloud then cloaked us, and there flew an irised rain”. Martin Pugmire’s
reading of Matthew Arnold’s ‘Dover Beach’ provoked some interesting disagreement in the
Group, while Sylvia Pilling’s choice of ‘Once by the Pacific’ by Robert Frost (in which Frost’s
wisdom is characteristically expressed in apparently homely verse) proved to be new ground
for most of us. Gill Frances read an extract from Walt Whitman’s ‘A Song for All Seas, all
Ships’ – a romantic and skilled description of the way in which the water moves when a ship
cuts through the waves. Anne Molyneux raised a laugh with a reading of Spike Milligan’s “I
must go down to the sea again,/ to the lonely sea and the sky;/ I left my shoes and socks
there -/ I wonder if they’re dry?” But then plunged us into much more demanding territory
with Emily Dickinson’s ‘As if the Sea should Part’.
The meeting closed with Ted’ McArdle’s choice of an extract from Dylan Thomas’s ‘Under Milk
Wood’. Who could forget Captain Cat, “the retired blind sea-captain, asleep in his bunk in the
sea-shelled, ship-in-bottled, shipshape best cabin of Schooner House”?
Chris Pilling led a session on the Sonnet next. He began with a reading (in Sicilian Italian!) of
Lentino’s ‘Io m’aggio posto in core a Dio servire” – ‘I have a place in my heart for God
reserved’. The Group discussed this early sonnet with its 14 line verse divided into octet and
sestet, and was intrigued to learn that Lentino, as a court poet, was constrained in his choice
of subject by an instruction from Frederick the Second not to write about politics. Hence his
introduction of courtly love instead where the (male) poet shows off his wit and skill in
describing his devotion to “la mia donna” – my lady. It was a subject and a style that were
to prove dominant in sonnet writing.
Chris showed how the sonnet form was transported to England and the Group went on to
read Sir Thomas Wyatt’s ‘Whoso List to Hunt’ and ‘Farewell love and all they laws forever’.
These highly intricate, witty and – in one case – politically dangerous poems produced much
discussion. But it is perhaps fair to say that the Group turned with a bit of relief to something
written in more modern English: two sonnets by Wordsworth – ‘Scorn not the Sonnet’ and ‘I
am not one who much or oft delight’ and one by Southey (writing under his pseudonym of
Abel Shufflebottom!) called ‘Delia at Play’.
After much talk about rhyme schemes and the evolution of the sonnet, Chris handed over to
other members of the Group. Martin read Milton’s mighty ‘When I consider how my light is
spent’, Elisabeth read a delightful modern sonnet from the Penguin Book of Sonnets, but it
was again left to Ted to end the session, this time with a poem by the American poet Robert
Hayden. This poem is not a true sonnet in the traditional sense but I quote it here in its
entirety because of the impact the reading of it made on us all:
Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
The Poetry Reading Group meets fortnightly on a Friday afternoon at the Millfield Retirement
Home. Contact Gill Frances tel 73409 or online at [email protected].
Activity Groups
These groups are currently active and have space for new members:
Apple iPad, Apple Macintosh Skills, Archaeology, Art Appreciation, Bird Watching & Wild
Flowers, Book Club, Bowls for Fun, Bridge, Circle Dancing, Clothes Alterations, Computer
Skills, Creative Writing, Dining Out, Enamelling, English Literature, Family History, Fell
Walkers, Gardening, Geology, German, GPS for Walkers, Guitar, Italian, Local History,
Mah-Jong, Map Reading & Navigation, Meditation, Pilates, Poetry Reading,Political
Philosophy, Popular Science, Quilting, Roamers, Scrabble, Singing for Fun, Social Cycling,
Spanish, Strollers, Swimming, Table Tennis, The Spirit of Man, Vegetarian Cookery,
Watersports.
If you’d like to join one of these groups, contact us by emailing [email protected] or by
ringing one of the following Group Co-ordinators: Gill Frances on 73409 or Debbie Morgan on 80101 and
we’ll put you in touch with the relevant convenor. You can also contact the Convener directly via the
message button on the 'Group' page of our website.
The following groups are currently full but if you would like to be put on a waiting list please contact the
convener using the 'Click here to send a message' button on the 'Group' page on the web site, contact
one of the Group Co-ordinators (contact details above) or add your name to the waiting list at the next
monthly meeting.
French, Italian Literature, Modern Greek and Pottery
Gill Frances
Groups Co-ordinator
Membership Cards
I still have quite a few membership cards that have not been collected. Please remember
that if you did not include 60p to cover postage when you renewed your membership you
will need to collect your new card from the membership desk at any monthly meeting.
Also, we have asked Conveners to collect the membership number of all the members of
their group so please would you provide them with this information at your next meeting.
Sylvia Pilling
Membership Secretary
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 017687 73814
Group Reports
Book Club
We met at Derwent House on the 8th April
to discuss Howard Spring's Fame is the
Spur, which was introduced by Val
Rushton. This is a classic story written in
the forties of a Labour politician' s rise to
power, and his betrayal of his ideals in
the face of the temptation of wealth and
fame. There was a lot to discuss and at
the conclusion we all agreed that really
very little has changed in the political
field!
Our next meeting will be on Friday 13th
May at Derwent House, Thornthwaite at
2.00pm when the book to be discussed
will be Suite Francaise by Irene
Nemirovsky, which will be introduced by
Val Pye.
Brenda Kealey
Recorders
We are a happy bunch of recorder players
who, from scratch, can now produce
recognisable music such as Any Dream
will Do. It would be nice to have more
players so dig out that school recorder and
come and join us.
Judy Duncan
Roamers
Beautiful weather on 21st April saw twelve
Roamers head for the Newlands Valley's
peaks of Ard Crags and Knott Rigg. A
steep ascent gave the group plenty of
opportunities to rest awhile and enjoy the
outstanding view in the warm sunshine.
The long, level ridge between the two
peaks gave easy walking and after a
leisurely lunch on Knott Rigg, a gentle
descent on a good path ensured a
pleasant finish to a perfect walk!
Table Tennis
We are a lively mixed group - some expert
and ex team members, others beginners
and others, revivers from long ago youth
club days. The games are played in really
good spirit, competitive in a friendly way
and always good fun. There are lots of
oohs and ahs and heartfelt expletives but doesn't it keep us fit and young in
heart!
Our first match, a friendly against
Cockermouth U3A came from an email
suggesting it might be a good idea to
bring the groups together. What a jolly
occasion! They even brought cheer
leaders! Each side fielded 2 teams
consisting of 4 players. Teams A were the
groups' best players while Team B from
the Skiddaw group at least was made up
from any members who wanted to play.
The overall result was 14 games to 6 in
favour of Cockermouth and though the
Skiddaw Team A won their match 6 - 2, it
was decided the Cockermouth team had
more strength and depth. A return match
is planned.
Sylvia Pilling
Watersports
The new U3A Watersports season started
at Derwentwater Marina on Thursday 22nd
April. It was a beautiful warm sunny day
but unlike conditions the rest of that week
there was almost no wind. So just as we
finished last season the sailors found
themselves in Kayaks. Still it did give
them an opportunity to pull into the newly
re-opened Nicol End Marina Cafe for
refreshments. One brave soul decided to
try out the stand up paddle boards and
thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Chris Lilley
Debbie Morgan
NOTICEBOARD
Do you have an item you want to sell or an event you want to promote? Just
send the details to [email protected] and it will appear on our
Noticeboard.