** The premises are now OPEN again **
The contribution that our members make by volunteering is crucial to the ongoing success of U3AC – it is highly valued and there is no doubt that we could not manage without you.
Members who volunteer say they have found it enjoyable and fulfilling, it is also part of the ethos of the U3AC, as a member organisation.
Please come along TODAY to our Volunteers’ Day in the U3AC premises between 11 am and 2 pm and find out about all current volunteering opportunities.
Today’s Wednesday Lecture at 2.15 pm entitled Russians at war: what the Russian people think by Alla Viktorova. Please note: today’s lecture will not be recorded.
There are a small number of places remaining to attend in person in the Pink room – please email the Office.
Tuesday 12 November at 1 pm – Film Group screening will be Charulata (The Lonely Wife)
Tuesday 12 November at 4.30 pm – Norah Boyce Science Lecture – Pattern formation: the secret of (multicellular) life and the key to understanding development of the brain by Professor Jack Price.
Wednesday 13 November at 2.15 pm – Wednesday Lecture –The USA elections: consequences for the UK and Europe by Lord Balfe of Dulwich. Booking is now open to attend in person in the Pink room – please email the Office.
A visit to Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake at Norwich Theatre Royal has been arranged for Thursday 20 March 2025. Cost £68. Application forms are now available on the Trips and Visits page of the website or in person from the Office.
This year’s Christmas Lunch will be held in the Park Seasons restaurant at Cambridge Regional College on Tuesday 17 December. Cost £22.50. Application forms are now available on the Social events page of the website or in person from the Office.
If you are unable to attend one of your allocated courses, please let us know so that the place can be offered to someone on the waiting list. Thank you.
Climate Change Adaptation
Speaker: Nigel Blackmore
Date and time: Friday 8 November, 12.00 – 1.15pm – **THIS FRIDAY**
Venue: U3AC, Pink room
Places: 30
Climate change is inevitable and worsening. It will, in the near future, have a devastating impact on all aspects of human lives, especially food production. We, and our government, must prepare now how to live in a new, frighteningly different world. This talk explains the problems, with evidence, and proposes solutions.
Nigel Blackmore, now retired was a civil servant, Budget Manger for the £1 billion Standards Fund at the Department of Education.
Our Changing Water Environment – Challenges and Opportunities
Date and time: Friday 15 November, 10:30 -13:00
Venue: Main Seminar Room, Cambridge Conservation Initiative, David Attenborough Building
Location: Pembroke Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ
Speakers include: Chris Gerrard, Anglian Water, Andy Turner, Environment Agency, Matthew Bullock, FenlandSOIL, Rachael Brown, CambsACRE
Places: 60
Water is fundamental to our health. Globally, access to water is being affected by climate change, and in Cambridgeshire, a high growth area, the added demands to build additional houses is placing more and more stress on our water infrastructure. Our challenges include water quality, flooding and water resource management. These challenges are affecting our chalk streams, agriculture and the future of farming. Our speakers will cover how these environmental considerations are impacting our water resources and their management and how some of these issues are beginning to be addressed. There will be an opportunity for questions, discussion; and identifying personal actions we can all do to help. The event is open to members of the U3AC and CCF. With thanks to the Cambridge Conservation Initiative for kindly allowing us to host this event at the David Attenborough Building. Please contact the Office to book a place – the deadline for applications is Wednesday 13 November.
The Great War 1914-1920: shaping loss, mourning and commemoration
Speaker: Colin Hurst
Date and time: Thursday 5 December, 9:30 – 11:00
Venue: U3AC (Pink room)
Places: 30
How the Great War is remembered and written about is a continuing process, and one which is shaped by prior experiences and begins in the War itself. The whole area remains academically contested with new studies and new controversies still regularly appearing. It is the war that we think we know and yet it remains alien to us. I would ask you to put aside (for a while) ‘O What Lovely War!’, the ‘War Poets’ and the last series of ‘Blackadder’ and come to the War as ‘first travellers’; as L.P. Hartley put it ‘the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there’. This lecture sets the War in its contemporary context and then focuses on the great national commemorations of 1919 and 1920. Consideration is also given to local expressions of loss and grief and the War’s continuing influence.
About me: A retired parish priest with a life-long interest in history. I enjoy teaching adults, both in the Church and beyond, and have run history courses at Peterborough City College.
If you are interested in applying for additional courses, there is a Vacancy list on the website showing all courses with current spaces; this is regularly updated.
The Courses Committee has been asked to publish the data that was shared with the tutors and course leaders at the recent forum meeting.
At the point of allocation of courses in August, 97% of members secured their first choice. The number of courses offered in the programme booklet grew to 391 from 375 at the same point in 2023. Also, the number of places offered grew to 7598 from 7268 previously. The number of new tutors/course leaders recruited was 38.
The number of members in August allocated 1 course was 426, 2 courses 768, 3 courses 655, 4 courses 391, 5 courses 148 and 6 courses 29 out of a total of 2417.
John Procter Director of Studies (Courses) on behalf of the Courses Committee
**This visit has now been opened up for friends and family, so please encourage everyone to apply.**
A visit to Spencer House and Tate Britain has been arranged on Monday 25 November 2024. Cost £45.50. Application forms are now available from on the Trips and Visits page of the website or to collect from the U3AC premises. Closing date for applications is Monday 11 November.
**New** Alternatively, you can now purchase tickets in person from the U3AC Office.
CCSO will be giving its next concert in West Road on Saturday 30 November at 7.30 pm. You can support U3AC by buying your ticket through us as 50% of the ticket revenue will come to us. Cost £20, £10 (students), £6 (under 14).
The orchestra will be playing 3 pieces: Gershwin’s An American in Paris, Korngold’s Violin Concerto and Prokofiev’s Symphony no.7.
George Gershwin’s ‘An American in Paris’ is a cheerful and humorous overture portraying the impressions of an American visitor strolling about the city. The hustle and bustle of continental street life (complete with real taxi horns!) blends with nostalgic elements of jazz and blues in this entertaining cameo.
Erich Korngold emigrated from Austria to the USA during the 1930s, establishing himself as a film composer who brought symphonic techniques to the studio. By 1947, the year of his violin concerto, he was doing the reverse: his violin concerto is built on themes from his film music and is full of soaring melodies and rich harmony.
Prokofiev who, like Korngold, was also an accomplished composer for stage and film, composed seven symphonies over the course of his far from easy career. The seventh symphony was completed in 1952, the year before he died, in an attempt to improve his finances by winning the Stalin prize. Prokofiev originally ended the symphony on a sad note but was persuaded to add a more cheerful coda to impress the judges. How the symphony (and the concert) will end at CCSO’s performance in November will be up to the audience to decide; you can be part of that decision.
To buy tickets for the concert, go to the CCSO website https://ccso-online.org . There is a link on the home page to BUY TICKETS. When you get to the check out, there is an option to enter a discount code, where you should enter the code CHARITY. Please do remember to enter this code, as doing so means U3AC will benefit financially from your attending the concert. Alternatively, you can now purchase tickets in person from the U3AC Office.
This is the time of year when we invite members to consider becoming part of the overall management of the U3AC organisation, in other words to become a trustee and join the U3AC Council. Although you will know that the day-to-day operational work is undertaken and very well managed by our four members of staff, they are accountable to the Council which, in accordance with the Charity Commission regulations, has overall management responsibility. These two groups of people therefore work closely together.
The U3AC trustees come from varied backgrounds, experience and skills and we all contribute in one way or another to the running and support of the organisation. A number of current trustees will be stepping down at the AGM in March 2025, so we need some new trustees to replace them and to ensure the Council continues to work effectively for the benefit of our members. Speaking personally, over a period of years now, I have found it to be a very interesting and rewarding experience and – yes – it can also be challenging, but that is all part of good management. So – why not come and join us and help to keep this impressive show on the road. If you want to learn more about becoming a trustee and what it entails, then please contact me (Sally Livesey) using the address: secretary@u3ac.org.uk and we can take it from there.
The lift has now been fixed.
The first ‘Chat with the Chair’ will take place on Monday 18 November 2-4 pm in the Social area on the 2nd floor of the U3AC premises.
Several tutors have advised us that members have not been receiving their emails and when the member has checked they have found them in their spam or junk folder. It is a good idea to check these folders regularly so that you don’t miss any important information.
U3AC supports other local organisations by listing their activities on the Other organisations page of our website https://www.u3ac.org.uk/news/other-organisations/