Speaker 1: Hello, I'm Ray Lee and this is the Gillingham Podcast
Speaker 1: for anyone living in the Gillingham and Spa area. I'm
Speaker 1: talking to Roger Laidler, who is the chairman of the
Speaker 1: Shaspbery and Gillingham University of the Third Age. Can you
Speaker 1: tell us a bit about the university and then who
Speaker 1: is it for?
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, the term university is a bit what's the
Speaker 2: word loose?
Speaker 3: Yes, that's a good word.
Speaker 2: The term universe is a bit loose inas much as
Speaker 2: certainly some people are war don't feel that it is
Speaker 2: for them.
Speaker 3: Because of the university word.
Speaker 2: But basically SGU three A was the U three A
Speaker 2: movement was started over forty years ago, forty five years
Speaker 2: ago and it's an international organization and over the years
Speaker 2: different areas in the country have started their own branch
Speaker 2: and our branch, Shaftsbury and Gillingham U THREEA started up
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety nine, so we've been going for twenty
Speaker 2: six years now. And it's a loose organization which caters
Speaker 2: for retired and semi retired people to come and enjoy
Speaker 2: and perhaps learn things to enjoy it, to take part
Speaker 2: in activities, in other words, to keep your mental health
Speaker 2: going and we are as The membership of our group
Speaker 2: is around about three hundred and forty. It's been around
Speaker 2: that for quite a few years really, and it's a
Speaker 2: very loosely mixed group of people from all walks of life,
Speaker 2: and we all enjoy sharing our life and our activities
Speaker 2: with other people. So it's obviously open to women and men.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, of course, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I had a look at your website yesterday and approximately
Speaker 2: thirty five groups on there doing different activities. Yeah, are
Speaker 2: they are they also active.
Speaker 3: Or yeah, there's thirty five groups which are active.
Speaker 2: Other groups on the website are active and they vary
Speaker 2: from walking, playing scrabble, book clubs, play reading, cosmology.
Speaker 3: There's a whole list of.
Speaker 2: Activities international history, philosophy, and music appreciation, digital photography.
Speaker 3: I could go on, but they're all.
Speaker 2: Active and they meet generally they meet in each other's houses,
Speaker 2: so it sometimes that will limit the size of the group.
Speaker 2: Other times, bigger groups like genealogy meet in a hall,
Speaker 2: a separate hall because it is a larger group. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a very eclectic mix of groups. Can anyone start
Speaker 2: a group, anybody can start a group. Yeah, and the
Speaker 2: group when the group is started, it's a member. You
Speaker 2: need to be a member of U three A to
Speaker 2: start a group. But once you start it, then you
Speaker 2: put the information out and people then join. For instance,
Speaker 2: our last couple of groups we've done, one is started,
Speaker 2: one is church visits where somebody organizes a visit to
Speaker 2: different churches and have someone to tell you all about
Speaker 2: the church. And the latest one is dancing ballroom and
Speaker 2: Latin American dancing. That group's just started as well. So
Speaker 2: it's a very varied mix of groups.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And so with the dancing, one of most people I
Speaker 2: just say retired, oh yeah, we're also having retired or
Speaker 2: retired it's still still. Yeah. Dancing is supposed to be
Speaker 2: one of the things which is really good for you
Speaker 2: because you're using your brain and you're moving as well,
Speaker 2: so it is really good for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I understand that you get guest speaker sometimes at
Speaker 2: your meeting.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: What we do is part of it for the organization
Speaker 2: that then they've always done this since it's been going,
Speaker 2: is once a month we have a meeting at which
Speaker 2: now we hold it at the Charlton Hall, the village
Speaker 2: Hall in Charlton, which is south of Shaftsbury going towards Schalisbury.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we have a guest speaker there, which is,
Speaker 2: you know, something of interest.
Speaker 3: Often it's.
Speaker 2: Moving, a historical thing, or once a year we will
Speaker 2: have a charity talk about. The last one we had
Speaker 2: was the charity the Friends of Guy's mass Prison, and
Speaker 2: we had a really moving talk from a next inmate
Speaker 2: whose life was turned around and a lot of it
Speaker 2: was through help from the Friends of Guys Mass Prison,
Speaker 2: and he gave a really memorable talk. So it's quite
Speaker 2: a variety of talks, but sometimes entertainments, entertaining, sometimes informative,
Speaker 2: but almost so. Does he take place every month every well,
Speaker 2: first Thursday of the month, you have a speaker everything.
Speaker 2: We have a speaker everyone, Yeah, apart from August Chris,
Speaker 2: August time, Everyone's we have we have a lunch then.
Speaker 3: I understand.
Speaker 2: Also you do outings, theater trips and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: There is one group that does trips to the symphony,
Speaker 2: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and that is to their concerts in
Speaker 2: the season.
Speaker 3: And that is in their.
Speaker 2: Season which I think goes until about May. That maytime
Speaker 2: now and then it starts again. This episode of October
Speaker 2: so a lady who organizes a coach to take people
Speaker 2: obviously pay to go in and everything. So that's one
Speaker 2: out in there's a natural history group that has outings. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: at the moment we used to have a lot of
Speaker 2: day outings, day trips, but at the moment we don't
Speaker 2: get anybody to organize it, so we're waiting for someone
Speaker 2: to come forward to organize that.
Speaker 3: But we have had many in the past.
Speaker 2: So those those trips are they open to any members?
Speaker 2: Have you got to be a member of that specific
Speaker 2: group to go and they're open to members of the
Speaker 2: U three A, yeah, SDU three A. We do have
Speaker 2: visitors come in and that's fair. We're quite happy to
Speaker 2: have a visitor, but we don't encourage visitors to do
Speaker 2: more than two trips before they join. So that's that's
Speaker 2: the system recently. And if you want to join the
Speaker 2: you three are what are their membership fees? The membership
Speaker 2: fee is twelve pounds a year and that covers because
Speaker 2: we have to pay money to our national organization, which
Speaker 2: is called the Third Aid Trust, so we pay a
Speaker 2: capitation fee to them. We also pay so much towards
Speaker 2: them for our website and also for a data collection system,
Speaker 2: which is a secure system.
Speaker 3: So twelve pounds a year membership.
Speaker 2: They forms is on the website, or alternatively, people can
Speaker 2: come along to the first Thursday of the month and
Speaker 2: come in as a visitor, no problem, Come as a
Speaker 2: visitor and see what it's all about, and you know,
Speaker 2: join them if you wish. But I do recommend to
Speaker 2: people that that's the best way to join, is to come.
Speaker 3: And see everybody and join them.
Speaker 2: So it's the best way to join through the website.
Speaker 2: Or you can join through the website, or download the
Speaker 2: form from the website and you know, put it in
Speaker 2: the post as usual or as I say, go to
Speaker 2: the monthly meeting. I always say to people, just google
Speaker 2: SGU three A and then that brings up the website,
Speaker 2: no problem. Can you can you say Google, Google, Google
Speaker 2: or any other search engine?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean are you actively looking for members all the
Speaker 2: time or yeah?
Speaker 3: The knowledge of members? Yeah? I say this because people.
Speaker 2: Are dying, you know, yeah, yeah, so yeah, we are
Speaker 2: actively looking members. So do you do you get a
Speaker 2: high turnover of members? Were mostly we lose about fifteen
Speaker 2: to twenty a year, and game fifteen to twenty and
Speaker 2: you know, some people have been in it for twenty
Speaker 2: six years. You know, not many now, but there our
Speaker 2: people who have been in twenty six years. I mean
Speaker 2: I've been in it for me and my wife, Pam
Speaker 2: and I have been in it for probably about fifteen
Speaker 2: sixteen years. I've been on the committee for nine years
Speaker 2: because we're a charity. Charity commission don't want committee members
Speaker 2: more than nine years. Yeah, so we are a charity,
Speaker 2: which is quite important, which does affect some of our rules.
Speaker 2: But it means that you get that's the word gift
Speaker 2: aid we get, you get gift aid back. You know,
Speaker 2: it's really okay, Thank you, Roger, thanks very much for
Speaker 2: your time.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, thank you.
Speaker 4: If you have anything you'd like to share, be it
Speaker 4: news or details of organizations or groups that you belong to,
Speaker 4: you can email me at Gillingham Podcast email dot com.
Speaker 4: Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3: Oh