The January MeetingLast revised 22 April 2008.After a week of rain, unusual for Maldon, the U3A met for the first meeting of the year, initially for an Extra-Ordinary Meeting.
The Chairman said that the meeting was convened as they wished to put it to the Meeting to change the Constituion such that Members should pay their Subscription by May or deem that they did not wish to continue their Membership. This would give new potential Members the chance to join without having to wait 4 months.
The CommitteeAfter a Vote, the Motion was carried.
Then followed a short break to enable Members to sign up for the many events on offer.
PC 44, alias Policewomen Maureen Scollan appeared in the uniforn typical of the 1890s and presented a thought provoking talk entitled "Paragon or Prude - Women in the Police Force".
PC 44 - Maureen ScollanShe took the audience through the Police Force from about 1840 to nearly today.
In particular she said how the Lady Policewomen came into being and gave many amusing & interesting stories.
After a lively Question & Answer session the meeting left to find yet another storm had just passed.
The February Monthly Meeting
Again the weather played tricks on the meeting by wreathing Maldon in cold fog which made driving quite tricky, however a large audience arrived early.
Beryl acted for The Chairman who had to "do a hospital run".
She drew the audience's attention to the slip of paper in the Newsletter regarding the possible Ballot for places at the 10th Anniversity Meeting on 10th July. Having filled in the slip, please put it in the Scotts Oats Box at the front.After the break for Members to put their names down for the many activities possible, Pat Fancourt introduced Brian Curtois.
Brian stood on the platform and said "that I have just looked at my records & found I had been to Maldon U3A 4 years ago - who remembered me?"
A few did.He said he would refer to points he had made previously and bring them up todate & introduce new stories.
Over the 30 years or so he had been a Reporter he had covered many stories starting with a report about an Election Result where the Vote was very close - after 4 recounts victory was declared with a margin of 3 Votes. He reported this to the BBC & the Daily Mail where it was treated as an "Exclusive" - he was a Reporter!
He covered many famous events including the bombing of the Torre Canyon in Cornwall, Michael Hesletine and the Westland Affair in Parliment, bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton to name just a few.
Brian Curtois - Notice the Scotts Oat Box for the Attendance Slips!After a lively Question & Answer session the meeting left to find that the fog had lifted & sun had replaced it.
March Monthly Meeting
The Chairman welcomed the large number of Members and then invited the Group Leaders to make any announcements. He then introduced John Bowen, Member of the Computer Group to present the Maldon U3A Web Site.
Seated at John Robson's laptop computer, John explained that a he had recently aquired a 3 T Mobile Dongle which had been used to access the Internet from the West Maldon Community Centre where the idea had been formed to show the Monthly Meeting the Maldon U3A's Web Site. This was to show those people without Internet Access what was typically on it & to encourage those with access to use it (more?).
John Bowen demonstrating the Web Site
Photo by John RobsonHe went though the Home page pointing out the main features and then highlighted to those Activity Groups in blue. Clicking on the Marinetime Link he showed photographs of Maldom & barges, Trafalgar Dinner & the trip to Stockholm. Gardening was next visited with Mave's Garden & the goat farm at Mundon, followed by Witches & Gools.
The Links & Contacts Page was the last to be shown with "How to Contact Maldon U3A" clickable link highlighted. This automactically opens Outlook Express (or equivalent) and prepares the page to send the E-Mail.
Questions from the floor included "How do I get a mention on the Web" - Answer, "put the pictures in JPG form with a write-up in Word on a CD & give it to a Committee Member".
After the break Pat Fancourt introduced the Guest Speaker - Howard Bodger who will talk on Talking Books for the Blind.
Howard said that pictures of blinded soldiers returning from Farance in WW1 started the drive to enable them to listen to books being read to them. In 1935 Talking Books for the Blind used the tape medium but only after a few years were dominated by yet another war.
Howard Bodger presenting Talking Books for the Blind
Photo by John Bowen
Now speech is compressed such that one complete book can be recorded onto one CD. A special CD Player is used with a Pause button which when pressed again, picks up the book where it last left off - a great bonus over the normal CD player.
Many famous personalities give their time freely to record a book. To illustrate this, Howard played a number of examples and invited the audience to detect who they were - including Ralph Harris and Sir John Guilgood. Michael Palin even recorded his latest book before it was released in the shop in paper form. On a recording, Sir John Mills said how much he appreciated the Talking Books.
Howard playing a CD on the special CD PlayerDuring Question Time many Members said they were disappointed that so many radio programmes now used music to accompany speech, making it difficult to comprehend & hoped that Talking Books for the Blind would not do this. Howard agreed & said that as far as he was aware they were not - maybe for children though to add effect.
Talking Books for the Blind display
Pat thanked Howard for an interesting & informative talk.
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