Reg Robinson runs the Walking Group for U3A Newark and District.
Newark on Trent is a market town in Nottinghamshire and you can learn more about our U3A at www.newark-u3a.org.uk. We started in 2003 and have grown to a membership of 230, and it just keeps growing. We must be doing something right.

Our 32 activity groups are broadly in line with other UK U3As with groups ranging from Archaeology to Walking.

When I set up the walking group I had visions of enthusiastic walkers who would push me to my limits. How wrong can you be? The group has evolved into a social group on legs. It is not the walk which is primary focus but the interactions between members. I am constantly amazed by the memories, experience and knowledge which get revealed on every walk. However I should not be surprised as each member has had a few years to fill their minds.

Thus the essence of the U3A has been revealed to me, everyone has something to contribute; all it takes is the right environment. Proud to be a member of Newark & District U3A.

U3A Milton Keynes by Francine Allen.
Milton Keynes is this year celebrating its 25th Anniversary, and boasts over one thousand members attending 80+ groups, whose range of activities is staggering. Whether one is of the outdoors or indoor kind; scientifically, philosophically, artistically minded, or just curious to explore new avenues, there is enough on offer to keep one happy for a long time.

We also have mini series of talks on a wide range of subjects on Tuesdays. For instance, in February and March 2012: on Poster Art. Once a month, on a Wednesday, we have the privilege of Exploring Music with Adrian Boynton (Milton Keynes orchestra Conductor): absolutely brilliant.

I've attended the Poetry Group, the Philosophy and Religion Group, and the Writing for Pleasure Group. Sharing, learning, discussing the subjects in a friendly atmosphere, always is pleasurable and informative. Why so few subjects when there are so many to choose from? Well, I am retired and therefore have little free time! As someone said: ' I am so busy it is a wonder I ever found the time to go to work'!

In the past, I have also been a Group leader, teaching French for Beginners (and false beginners!). That too was rewarding and fun. I shouldn't forget to mention an online course I did: Russian Soul - magnificent.

Being a member of the U3A Milton Keynes has furthermore allowed me access to the U3A online Australia. Splendid courses there too. Our website is at http://www.mku3a.org

From Kathrine - U3A Durban, South Africa:
Membership: About 250 We meet in homes of members for small groups, otherwise we use library facilities, church halls and common rooms at various senior citizens facilities and we have regular monthly meetings with a speaker. Meetings have now increased to 11 a year.

Activities: We have some very challenging, different, informative activities. Croquet with prizes for fun achievements, special lunch for course leaders, a bring and share picnic in December. Needless to say there are a number of outside activities such as tree identification, frogging and sleeping in a tree house, even camping in tents, bungalows and various wildlife facilities.

We have the following groups: bridge for beginners and serious players, music appreciation, tree identification walks, chemistry in the home and garden= , book Club, Societe de All Sorts which covers anything snakes and ladders, the whole Spectrum up to debating philosopjical issues and belly dancing. IT training, free-lance journalism, cooking nutritious and inexpensive meals, Croquet with prizes for whatever we decide, Zulu lessons, Conversational French And German. Organized outings from the Local Battle Fields to as far north as Botswana, the Fish River Canyon, Cherry Festival, Namaqualand Flowers.

Personal: I learnt about U3A a couple of months after the group was established, and joined. Two months later I was on the Committee! Amongst the members new friendships have developed. There are so many changes in this day and age! How Fortunate we are to be able to spread the message of U3A by personal contact, friends and all the new technology.

From Joy Davies, Acting Chair, Isle of Skye U3A
Members: We are a very new U3A, having launched just a few months ago in September 2010. Current membership is 43.

Activities: Monthly meetings are held in Portree and we already have a variety of interest groups, meeting in various points around the island. Interest groups include photography, art, walking, archaeology, genealogy, literature and dog owner training (yes that’s right, dog OWNER training - they believe it is the owners who need training, not the dogs)

What I like best about my U3A: We are fortunate in living on the Isle of Skye (‘An t-Eilean Sgitheanach’ in Gaelic),the largest island of the Inner Hebrides off the North West Coast of Scotland and one of the most beautiful parts of the UK. The island gives us easy access to many resources for some of our interest groups: beautiful scenery for the artists, photographers and walkers amongst us. Fascinating archaeological remains, a treasure trove for geologists – and the best resource of all - group of talented and enthusiastic people who will surely turn us into a very successful group.

My personal message: This is an investment in my old age – keeping mentally and physically active may not help me live longer but I believe it will help me have a happier and healthier old age. Curiously, I have noticed that “old age” retreats as I get older – currently I see it as 80+.

My name is Sharen McDonald and I am a member of MILR - the McGill Institute for Learning in Retirement in Montreal, Canada! http://www.mcgill.ca/conted/milr/milr20/

2. Members: We have over 800 members ranging in age from 55-95 and this year (2009-2010) we are celebrating our 20th Anniversary!

3. Our range of activities includes peer-learning study groups on a wide range of topics from art history to tea-ceremonies around the world, and lots more – 2 hour sessions once a week for 10 weeks each term: autumn, winter and spring, lectures, helping ESL students, outreach programs, social outings to local places of interest such as the Botanical Gardens or the EcoMuseum, luncheons and festive events designed especially for this year of celebration.

4. What I like best about my U3A: the wonderful, fascinating people I have met and the doorways opened to new studies!

5. My personal message: Smile and be happy! Listen to the river and the wind; feel the sun and the rain on your face, and share your laughter!

Patience Champion, Hackney U3A writes....
1. Hackney U3A is in north London just a few miles from Central London. Hackney is a very diverse and exciting place to live and there is lots going on. Many artists live and work in Hackney. Many local older people are quite poor so we use free premises and keep our costs down.

2.Hackney U3A has around 90 members. We officially became a U3A only in autumn 2006.

3. Activities - We have 13 Interest Groups: Walking, Current Affairs Discussion, Book Group, Exploring Free London, Introduction to Anthropology, Local history, Sketching in Museums etc, capture London by Sketchbook, Drama, Creative writing, Opera Appreciation, Gay Rights, Patchwork, Music Appreciation. We took a group of 20 to the Royal Opera House for just £6 each thanks to the Education Department. We hold a monthly meeting and are planning a Summer School on 21 August 2007 to offer drumming, singing and dancing to members and potential members. We have a grant to do this. New groups are springing up regularly.

4. What I like best about my U3A - I enjoy meeting people and love the range of groups offered. Opera Appreciation is my current favourite.

5. My personal message is that U3A is a wonderful idea and we must find ways to publicise it in all our communities.

From Anne Kirby, Warwick District U3A...

WARWICK DISTRICT U3A covers the towns of Warwick, Kenilworth and Leamington Spa in the centre of England. The first two are mediaeval towns with castles and lots of tourists; Leamington Spa developed in the 19th century when the rich sought medical cures by bathing in or drinking the natural waters. (tastes 'orrible).

WDU3A was formed 14 years ago and has 713 members.

We have 62 groups which meet weekly, fortnightly or monthly. Subjects range from crafts, music, art, history, philosophy, poetry, gardening, current events, world contrasts and languages to physical activities: dancing, sports, rambling, etc. There's something for everyone. We also have outings, occasional celebrations and holidays

Involvement in U3A has enabled me to dip into subjects as a taster and delve deeper when I want to, without the pressure of a heavy financial commitment, exams and competition. For instance we have no "experts" in our Ancient History Group but we each research a topic and share our findings with the group. It's a thoughtful way to learn and we aren't marked out of 10.

Today I attended our Open Meeting with a speaker (2 a month). Looking around I realized what a lot of friendly people I have met over the last 8 years. We've struggled together over irregular verbs, helped each other over stiles, enjoyed visiting gardens and other places of interest and offered and received hospitality. Retirement is an exciting opportunity for a new life.

Colin Roberts - U3A Johannesburg

Our branch started about six years ago, and we presently have nearly 600 members. Last year we helped a new group to form in the Eastern part of our big commercial capital city. (Cape Town is the political capital - the ‘Mother City’.) The new Group is called Joburg East. We struggled to find a more evocative name for it, but we don’t have clearly defined natural boundaries on the Highveld. Our municipal namings are not anything to go by either. Joburg East is going great guns and succeeding in attracting new members from different parts of the sprawling metropolis.

I maintain the material on the common SA website for the U3A Groups in South Africa except for the ones around the Western Cape, which Peter Lawson does. All our sites can be accessed immediately from www.u3a.org.za - Johannesburg, Joburg East, Pretoria, Durban, East London, Port Elizabeth, Plettenberg Bay, Knysna and George, in addition to the ones in the W Cape. Most of our U3As offer 25 to 50 courses at a time, held in private homes, libraries, church halls, etc. In addition we all hold General Meetings monthly, addressed by eminent guest speakers.

I’ve added a section to the SA Home Page listing national rebates, discounts and concessions available to Senior Citizens. It adds up to a lot more than our modest annual U3A membership. I can’t recall seeing anything like that on other sites. Did I miss it?

U3A gives me a chance to do good things for my fellow seniors, trusting that they too will realize that life goes on, so stay fit and think young, and take all the benefits you can from the varied affordable stimulation that U3A can provide.

Dr Sajjan Singh is founder of the Chinmaya U3A, Rewa, in Madhya Pradesh - the first U3A in all of India.

We run some general meetings here at the Chinmaya Ashram, but also run many camps in the rural districts. You could say we have about 100 regular members/attendees.

Our studies are Fitness, Sociology, Domestic Economics, Psychology, Spirituality, and we hope to add Computing/Communications to that list of subjects.

What makes me so happy with U3A? Well we had a Gynaecologist member who lost her husband and became so depressed and withdrawn that we were concerned that she would simply pass away from her grief. We persuaded her to come to one of our rural camps and after just 4 days she called me to say it had given her a new purpose in life and now she wanted to spend her days helping those who cannot afford family planning services. U3A has that effect. Yes - those who teach shall learn,and those who learn shall teach. Dr S Singh

We started our U3A in June 2006 and currently we have 30 members but with the push this year for more courses and tutors we are looking extremely good to increasing our membership for 2008. We are currently offering 20 courses e.g. Painting, Art in all its Mediums, Home Repairs, Hobbycraft, a Variety Group, Computing, English History, Home Budgeting, Play Reading, Public Speaking, Recorder, Musical Appreciation, Italian, Sculpting, Myer Briggs, Tai Chi, Korean Cooking, Public Speaking Listening and Communicating, and Choral Singing. We have many talks and workshops programmed; as interesting as Antarctica , Mt Everest, Precious Gemstones, Famous Australians and Health Issues.

What I like best about my U3A is the opportunity it gives me in being instrumental in offering friendship, encouragement and interests to our older citizens. It is certainly true: "Those who teach shall learn and those who learn shall teach".

Rick Swindell. Name and location - U3A Online has no physical location. Rather, it is a virtual U3A located on the Internet, open to any older person from anywhere in the world. Our main activity is providing intellectually challenging courses particularly for older people who are carers, ill, immobile or otherwise unable to travel to a U3A meeting. However other U3A members can also join. Our second major aim is to provide resources for Australian and New Zealand U3A leaders to help them to meet their members' needs.

Number of members
Difficult to say at any one time but in August 2010 we have approximately 1400 members. Membership is for twelve months and the membership year is on an individual basis so the numbers are in a constant state of flow.

Range of activities
Our volunteers have now written over 35 courses, each of which represents about 8 weeks work. The beauty of the Internet is that courses can be written and led by any qualified person no matter where they live. If you'd like to try your hand at writing a course let us know and our volunteer course coordinator will show you the ropes.

All courses are completed online and discussion takes place via secure online forums. Courses can be undertaken as Independent study or, when they are available, with an online courses leader. Members can also participate in online social forums.

What I like best about my U3A
Comments on our website, such as....
"Nowadays, living alone and physically limited, I was being stupefied by knitting, crochet, patchwork, computer puzzles and occasional bus trips. There is a limit."
show that the online U3A community is making a big difference to the lives of isolated older people. In particular, frail people with sound minds are clearly finding extra meaning in life through their online courses and enjoying virtual friendships with people they'll never meet. I like the way that U3A people have a go at something new by offering to help other people to keep their minds alert.

Bob Mountfort of Blackbourne U3A. Location - Suffolk, England.
As you will see from our web site - www.blackbourne-u3a.org.uk - we came into being in 1992 as an offshoot of the Bury St. Edmunds U3A, becoming independent in 1994. Since then we have grown in popularity and numbers. At times we have to turn people away which is never a pleasant thing to do. With a waiting list in excess of 35 people maybe the time has come to "spin off" another U3A further along the A14. We have over 30 interest groups, several of which have waiting lists. More groups are being formed on a regular basis.

Membership
We have a membership of 500 which is limited by the maximum number of 250 that we can accommodate in the New Green Centre hall (above left) where we hold our monthly lecture meetings.

Range of activities
Advanced French Conversation, Big Bands & Jazz, Bird Watching, Book Group, Church Crawling, Computer Studies, Craft Studies, Discussion Group, Electoral Systems & Democracy, Family History and Genealogy, French Appreciation, Garden Visits, Local History, Music: Listening & Learning, Opera Appreciation, Parchment Craft, Photography, Poetry Appreciation, Scrabble, Short Walks with a Theme, Social History, Spanish Conversation, Travel & Tourism, Travel To, Videos and Video Editing, Walking with an Interest, Watching Wildlife, Water Colour Painting.

Dr Charles Afolabi J.P. is Executive Director of U3A Nigeria
Location: We are based in Ibadan and you can see from this map that Nigeria is a diverse country with many peoples and many languages.

We use intergenerational programmes to break the policy of segregation of older persons which are replaced with a strategy of participation in order to ensure a society of all ages and ineterchange of knowledge between the older persons and the youth.

U3A NIGERIA is striving that the elderly persons will not die with their ideas and vocations. We are making sure that these are passed on to the new generation. The elderly persons are important resource. when an old person dies a library vanishes, we want to try as much as possible that our senior citizens will not die with their experiences and skills. One major plank of our activity is to replicate good practices elsewhere by exchange of ideas and visits that can allow for cultural awareness and insights. Our members want to visit any of the U3As around the world and would appreciate members of these U3As to visit us in return and discover Nigeria.

Range of activities: Groups include:- Education Tourism group, Prayer Group, Language Group, Beautification and environment Group, Culture and Heritage Group, Research Group, counselling Group, library and information Group, histroy and Politics group, sports and Recreation Group, accident prevention Group, Publication Group, Expressive Arts for all ages to express themselves through arts, Crafts, Writing, Music, movement and Narrative Arts. Museum management and curatorship Group, bringing history to life for people of all ages, working in the service of a society that needs to know its past in order to inform the future and reserve the relics.

Personal thoughts: Our greying population in Nigeria is a skill reservoir which has to be fully utilised if we really want the ageing society to be maintained and continue its creativity and productiviity.

Brecon U3A greet you from Wales. Jean Hosie writes.....
Our U3A is just putting together the plans to celebrate its 25th anniversary in the next academic year. We have 340 members and see 130+ each Thursday morning for a lecture on any one of a wide number of topics..

Activities

Our 20+ special interest groups range from Science, French conversation, Art Appreciation, Singing, History, Poetry, Literature, Gardening, Hill Walking, Strolling, Sunday Movable Feast etc. etc. to Archaeology and Creative Writing. Of the 38 weekly lectures each year, approximately half are given by our own members and the others by invited speakers who are often friends, family members and occasionally eminent local academics, some retired and others still in harness.

A special activity

Strong links have been made with the local High School whose Music Department is particularly keen to visit and play for us, and Year 12 students are invited to attend selected lectures of particular interest.

My name is Bob Boyd and I have been a member of Bromley U3A since retiring in 1990. I have enjoyed learning, and helping others with subjects that were not possible to take up during my working life.

1. We are situated in the London Borough of Bromley, and the County of Kent, approximately 13 miles from the centre of London. We border the 'Green Belt' of countryside and the North Downs. The borough has a wealth of history and is famous for its connections with HG Wells and Charles Darwin.

2. At present we have nearly 1,800 members.

3. Our activities cover a wide range of subjects such as Art Appreciation, Computers, Languages, Local Studies, Literature, History, Music and Mathematics. Recreational activities include Golf, Dancing, Walking, Keep-fit and Tennis - to name just a few of our 90 different activities.

4. What I like best is the diversity of subjects, giving one the opportunity to try new things, listen to talks and make social contact with like minded people.

5. A personal message would be "Keep active in your retirement, both in mind and body. We all want to live an active life as long as possible, U3A is your opportunity to do so"

6. If you would like to get in touch with us please e mail u3a.bromley@btinternet.com or visit our web site - www.u3abromley.org.uk

I'm Jean Walker - Vice President of Glenorchy U3A

We are a very recently established (2008) U3A in the city of Glenorchy, near Hobart in Tasmania, Australia.

Membership: Around 100 and growing

Range of Activities: We presently run 12 courses of ten weeks' duration over three terms. These include Tai Chi; a Book Discussion group; Meditation; Computer Skills; Art Group; Collecting; Great Scientific Discoveries; The Literature of Henry Lawson; Travels with a Camera; Maps and Map Making.

We hope to extend these next term as we have just obtained the permanent use of new premises in a local high school where we will have three classrooms, a kitchen and an office. We are looking forward to moving in and getting settled there. We were lucky enough to win a government grant for furniture and equipment.

What I like best about my U3A: the friendships and camaraderie, which have developed between members and the stimulation of continuing to learn and study at every age and stage of life.

My personal message: There are so many positive spin offs from being part of a U3A from mental and physical wellbeing to creating new friendships and gaining new knowledge and skills - all at a bargain price!

My name is Natasha Strommer, I belong to Kingston U3A, Australia and our slogan is "Friendship in Learning"

1. Kingston U3A is one of several dozens U3A-s in Melbourne, Victoria State, Australia. Our U3A is situated in Mordialloc suburb, South-East of the city.

2.We have above 300 members and growing each year.

3.Range of activities in our U3a is wide and can be summed up in several sizeable groups, as:
Technology and Science , which include various Computer groups, Internet and E-mailing, Genealogy, Astronomy, Why and How.
Health and Leisure, which include, Walking group, Yoga, Tai-Chi, Aerobics, Line dancing, Israeli dancing, Mah-jong, Crossword, Sudoku, Solo, Gardening, Let's Do Lunch .
History and Sociology, which include:, History of Australia, Islam, Current Affairs, Social studies (with wide varieties of topics), Investment Club .
Arts, Craft, Music, which include:, Photography, Painting with oils, Water colour Painting, Freehand drawing, Marquetry, Craft class, Classic Music appreciation, Jazz group, and the new Drama class.
Literature and Languages, which include:, Book discussing, Play reading, Poetry Appreciation, Creative writing, Italian, French.

New classes come up every year.

4. What I like best about my U3a - the very concept of a U3A as a place where I can still keep my mind and body as active as I want, participating in the range of activities.

5. My interests lie with the Science (particularly Astronomy) and Languages classes and my personal message to all "third age " people would be" "Come on, join us, participate and learn - and make friends in the process!"