It was a lovely event as always with a few new faces which is nice to see.

The winner of the main game was Val Harris with the wooden spoon winner Derek Holden. Our skittle picker upper was Debbie Dixon, who did a marvellous job.

The winner of the killer game was much contested between Lyn Pengelly, Alan Bluck, and Judith Miles but eventually Alan Bluck managed to get the last skittle down.

The final team game was won by Carole Ward, Sandra Dixon, and Debbie Dixon our skittle picker upper who stepped in to make a team up

Great fun was had by all and hopefully the next event will be in the Easter holidays so keep an eye open.

Carole Ward

Our Annual General Meeting took place on Friday 16th December 2022 and as usual was well attended. Chairman, Bob Reeve opened the proceedings and shared a review of the year including, finances and events. Once again, we have had a very successful year and numbers have returned to pre-Covid levels. We currently have 556 members and offer around 90 groups. 

During the meeting Bob thanks retiring members Jean Stone and Jenny Bass for the support over the last eight years and presented them with a gift. 

A cheque for £3230 was also presented to our Charity of the Year – Lewis Manning Hospice Care. The monies raised came from sponsorship of Mike Andrews who walked 1650 miles over the year raising £1650 as well as form the gardening group plant sale, the pantomime, and general donations. 

The meeting ended with Tea and Cake.

70 members  attend the lunch at the Remedy Oak Golf Club. After a pre-lunch Bucks Fizz we were treated to a excellent lunch which catered for all appetites. The conversation flowed and laughter could be  heard all round the room.  Travelling by coach enabled a very relaxed atmosphere!!

Thanks goes to the events and Social committee for this fabulous day out.

On Saturday 17th December we were expecting our daughter to arrive from Henley-on-Thames and then for her to drive us to Gillingham, North Dorset, to spend the day with our son’s family. The mucky drive down from Henley had made rather a mess of her windscreen so we decided to top up the screen-washer reservoir. She had parked her car just outside our front door, just short of our steps.

She had already walked down to her car; I was about to follow in my size 10s when, not believing my eyes, I froze (literally and metaphorically I may say) before joining her. I couldn’t decide what I almost stepped on at our bottom step. Was it a plastic Christmas decoration or………… no, it moved, the tiniest bird I’d ever seen?

It stood there, shivering and quivering, beak slowly opening and closing in the freezing cold. Our bird book identified our unexpected visitor as a goldcrest. It is even smaller than a wren and in fact is Europe’s smallest bird, weighing the same as a 20p coin. They’re not uncommon and arrive in large numbers from Scandinavia in winter. I think it had perhaps flown into a window or something else solid. It seemed stunned, standing unsteadily.

Unsure quite what to do for the best, we pressed a discarded Amazon cardboard box into use, grabbed an old towel, lined the box, carefully picked up the bird, placed it in the box and took it inside in the warm. After 10 minutes or so it stopped shivering and opening and closing its beak. We decided we couldn’t keep it inside since as a resident of northern climes it ought to be able to cope with the cold having recovered its mojo. We put the box outside in the back garden (too many cats at the front!). Very shortly it stirred, shook itself, pooed on the towel and made a beeline for our moribund clematis. And that was it. Off it went, fully recovered and leaving us feeling very happy that we’d helped such a sweet little creature.

Malcolm Gill

18/12/2022

Click on the image to enlarge

CHAIRMAN BOB REEVE WRITES 

It is a privilege – and a pleasure – for me to be the latest Chairman of Ferndown U3A to stand up on this sort of occasion and say   Well Done – and Thank You.

There have been 12 Fu3a Chairmen so far.  The first of them was Angela Dennett, who we hoped would be able to be with us here today.  Sadly, she is not well, but she has sent this message of congratulation:

I am sorry that I can’t be with you today, but I was so pleased to hear that Ferndown U3A is flourishing.

In 1997 I was a member of Bournemouth U3A, and we were being encouraged to set up new U3As and ‘spread the word’.  My daughter knew the young lady who ran the Ferndown Youth Club, and when she said the premises were only used in the evenings it seemed too good a chance to miss.  So, we stood in the Ferndown pedestrian precinct handing out leaflets offering a new U3A. 

I think there were about 20 people at the first meeting, and they were all very enthusiastic about the idea.  From that first meeting our numbers grew weekly, and many offers came from people willing to join in.  I led a group called ‘Discovering Ancient Egypt’, and my daughter ran a very successful group studying Shakespeare. Very soon we had a debating society, dance groups, bridge, of course, and many more.  I have many happy memories of those early years.

How Ferndown U3A has grown since that time!

Long may you continue to bring pleasure and learning to all third agers.

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Ferndown u3a is acknowledged to be one the most successful U3As in the area.  Why should this be?  I think there are three reasons:

1. CONTINUITY:  Fu3a members make a long-term commitment

Think for a moment about your membership number, which was allocated sequentially according to the date you joined.  108 people  – around 20% of our membership –  have three-digit membership numbers, which shows they joined around 10 years ago.  They are still here.   (I should add that one member’s number has only two digits.  This deserves pride of place – especially as that member only stood down as a Group Leader this year…….)

So you should congratulate yourselves on your longevity……

2. COLLECTIVE ENDEAVOUR – we work together.  The most recent example is the Cascade of Poppies in front of you.  Some 80 members were involved.  Congratulations to Anne Hutton for co-ordinating it all so successfully.  Well Done – and Thank You.

Our Charity of the Year raised over £3000 for the Fletcher Foundation last year…….  I’m anticipating something comparable for Lewis-Manning Hospice Care our current charity ( – so come back here on Friday morning to help us swell the coffers!……..).

3. RESILIENCE.  Over the years there have been real challenges which your support has helped us resolve.  The Covid pandemic is the obvious recent example –  but you stayed with us, and our membership numbers are fast returning to the level we achieved before Covid.

We continue this long tradition of planning the future as well as celebrating the past.  In January we shall start to invite offers to run Groups in 2023-24: and the other day I heard someone mention 2025…….

Richard Tucker’s ‘Memory Lane’ video presentation covered our first 25 years.  There was much there that will have prompted very happy memories, and I want to thank him personally for that.

For this event itself we must thank our Visits and Events group led by Richard, and I especially want to mention its other members, Jo Brearley and Angela Larcombe who co-ordinated the tea, and of course we must include our lovely ‘waitresses’ and others working behind the scenes.  You know who you are.

Finally, I thank you, our current members, for supporting us today.   In doing that, I am remembering all those who have gone before us, and established the firm foundation on which our current success is based.

WELL DONE – AND THANK YOU

BOB REEVE