The past month has seen quite an eventful landmark for Southwell u3a as we enrolled our 900th member. For a town the size of Southwell (and the surrounding villages) this is a major achievement. It is also a great marker of the success the u3a group has become and is a recognition of all the hard work and commitment from my predecessors as Chair, all the various officers and committee members, the group leaders and so many others in key roles who took on the task of setting up the group and making it the place to continue to learn, laugh and live. Thanks to all of you who have helped us to reach this great marker.
To make sure this all continues and to help me with taking on the Chair role, I’ve attended some training courses to learn more about the u3a. A recent one covered the founding principles of the u3a, including the Self-help Learning Principle. The principle of this is about promoting the values of life-long learning, by forming interest groups covering as wide a range of topics and activities as possible. Learning is for its own sake, with enjoyment being the prime motive, not qualifications or awards. There is no distinction between the learners and the teachers; they are all u3a members.
This principle was epitomised to me at our recent monthly meeting where Richard Peacock gave a very interesting and stimulating talk on Astronomy. Richard leads the astronomy group which, as he commented, are not all astronomers but a group with interest, fascination and intrigue in astronomy who meet and continue to learn from each other.
Irrespective of how advanced your knowledge may have been on astronomy (and with more of a biology and chemistry background I admit my understanding of the physics and maths side is not so strong) everyone listening to the presentation would have learnt something. It certainly stimulated some interesting discussions around me in the hall and seemed to sum up the principle of learning for its own sake, with fun and enjoyment being the prime motives.
Richard did finish his talk by suggesting it was highly likely there was other alien life out there in the universe somewhere. Applying my own biological sciences background, I assume that if that life was ever to visit earth and land in Australia (and start integrating with the local wildlife) we could end up with a new type of Mars-upial!