THE IU3A STORY

Our Newsletter Islington U3A produces a newsletter three to four times a year. All our previous newsletters are archived below, so you can go back and see what was happening at that time. Just click on the one you want to look at: Winter 2018-19 Summer 2018 Winter 2017-18 Summer 2017 Winter 2016-17 Summer 2016 Spring 2016 Winter 2015 Autumn 2015 Spring 2015 Winter 2014-15 Summer 2014 Spring 2014 Winter 2013-14 Launch (October 2013)

Islington U3A is still quite new: it began in October 2013 in response to demand for a local U3A. Now over 5 years old, we have over 650 members, 65 interest groups and an exciting future programme — see what's on

Our programme of monthly meetings has attracted excellent speakers from across the spectrum, and our summer parties and quiz nights have been enjoyed by many members. The page is organised by iU3A year (October to September) with more recent years first.

2017-18
This was our fifth year. Our membership continues to grow. We started 'Outings' during this year. The concept is to offer a trip, an iutung, to places generally outside of London to all the membership. An Outings Coordinator role was developed and this lead to several Outings being held during this year. There were quite a few changes on the Executive Coommittee (EC) at the end of this year with several founding members leaving the EC. However all positions were filled with new members, bringing new blood to the EC. The chairs report for this year can be read here.

2016-17
This was our fourth year. Our membership peaked at 600 during the year. The chairs report for this year can be read here.

2015-16
Our third year and another successful year. We continued to attract excellent speakers for our monthly meetings programme which drew large audiences.  The number and types of groups have grown to support the interests of the growing membership. Their variety is only possible because of the members who give their time to coordinate them. There are many other members who volunteer to support the general organisation of iU3A and the delivery of our social events. We continue to enjoy ourselves and members also contribute to various Shared Learning projects and volunteer as subjects for academic research studies and to help local charities. In June we organised several events to raise money for Islington Giving, which funds projects to ameliorate the impact of poverty and isolation in Islington. Our donations this year totalled over £2000.

The Chair's report as presented at the AGM is here.

2014-15
Our second year saw continued growth in membership, and the introduction of new events such as the January Quiz Night. We also introduced regular coffee mornings for members to meet locally. Our support for our adopted charity, Islington Giving, began to progress beyond just an energetic few walking the borough boundary with more members becoming involved in other ways, for example making craft items for sale.

Our programme of monthly meetings continued with excellent speakers and increasing audiences. We are really very fortunate in the speakers we are able to attract and their talks are well worth a revisit — see here

Our year is recorded briefly in pictures here and our Chair's report as presented at the 2015 AGM is here


2013-14
Islington U3A got off to a great start with queues in the street to attend our Inaugural Meeting. Our monthly meetings also got off to a great start with the well-known commentator David Aaronovich treating us to an entertaining preview of the parties' positioning for the then forthcoming general election. Subsequent meetings ranged widely, from how the 'two Islingtons' of wealth and poverty can be brought together, through the science of laughter, to how Valdimir Putin sought to exploit Angela Merkel's fear of dogs. You can see notes and pictures from all the meetings here

Other activities included our first boundary walk for Islington Giving, our first visit to the Park Theatre and our first birthday, which Clive Anderson helped us to celebrate. The year in pictures is here and the Chair's AGM report is here