Newsletter - February 2024

Greetings from the President:

Welcome to 2024, the Year of the Dragon! In Chinese culture, the Dragon holds a significant place as an

auspicious and extraordinary creature, unparalleled in talent and excellence. It symbolises power, nobility, honour, luck, and success. 2024 is forecast to bring about opportunities, changes, and challenges. Let’s hope we all get some of that! I hope you have had an enjoyable holiday period and if you’re anything like me, you’ll be ready and waiting for ‘things’ to get going again…

Our Christmas Luncheon/AGM at The Chateau late November was yet another good one and a big thank you to Catering Manager Steph Coster for her planning and organization. The meal was excellent, the venue superb and the participants…..wonderful! It was great to have such a good turnout. Thank you all for your ongoing support.

The committee has already met and the programme is looking great. The meeting dates for the year are

listed below with specific detail about the first series so please mark your calendars now so we see as

much of you as we can. Also, if you have any queries or suggestions, please communicate via

u3agodley@gmail.com and we’ll do our best to make it the best Monday morning outing for everyone.

U3A Godley Committee 2024

The following members were elected to the committee at the 2023 AGM with a big welcome to Deb

Rowley as our new Treasurer . Please use the U3AGodley email address (above) if you wish to contact

any committee member and your message will be forwarded to the appropriate person.

President Helen Vear

Vice President Dick Clayton

Secretary Margaret Harper

Treasurer Deb Rowley

Course Planning Pam Craig (co-ordinator)

Membership Jill Halliburton

Interest groups Pam Craig (co-ordinator)

Catering Steph Coster (assisted by Adrienne Buchanan)

Hospitality Pam Austin (assisted by Lorraine Williams)

AV Oversight Pam Hurst

Newsletter Helen Vear

Non-committee responsibilities:

Website Manager Michelle Blackmore

Places of Interest Richard Pickering

AV Team Eric Scott, Iain Chinnery, Brian Coghlan, John Dodgshun and Pam Hurst

Programme Team David Morrell, Chris Connor, Helen Vear, Pamela Butler, Prue Taylor, Dick

Clayton, Richard McElrea, Warwick Mottram, Katherine Baird and Trish Holden

Thank you to all who give their time and skills freely. As you can see a lot of people are part of our success, and this is one of the reasons we have such an excellent group. Thank you all.

Programme and Dates for 2024:

Series 1 The Arts in NZ Feb 12, 19, 26, March 4 and 11

Series 2 Early Canterbury History April 8, 15, 22, 29 and May 6

Series 3 Media Matters May 27, June10, 17, 24 and July 1

Series 4 Hotspots July 22, 29. August 5, 12 and 19

Series 5 Entrepreneurship Sept 9, 16, 23, 30 and October 7

Pot Pouri To be confirmed Nov 4, 11, 18 and Christmas Lunch/AGM Nov 25.

Series One - The Arts:

12 February

Dame Gaylene Preston - Internationally celebrated NZ filmmaker, writer, producer and director

Adventures in Screenland

Gaylene will read and discuss her latest autobiography Gaylene’s Take

19 February

Gavin Bishop - One of New Zealand’s most awarded authors and Illustrators of picture books and writing

My World in Picture Books

Gavin will look at how his family stories and his environment appear in his work in lots of different ways

26 February

Jodi Wright - Director of large scale cultural and literary NZ events

Establishing Festivals

Jodi will talk about the wide-ranging festivals she has organized, from the World Buskers Festival to WORD to Jazz and Blues and more….

4 March

Ali Harper - Award winning entertainer, singer and musician.

Surviving and thriving in the Arts!

Ali will entertain us in a variety of ways

11 March

Susannah Lees-Jeffries - Director of Marketing and Development at The Royal NZ Ballet.

Susannah comes from a background of senior development roles at Wigmore Hall, The Royal Opera House Covent Garden and The Royal Ballet. Susannah will talk to us about the New Zealand Ballet

We welcome you to our first session of the year with a morning tea starting at 9.45am, but for the rest of year morning teas will be on the last session of each series

Subscriptions

These remain at $60 per person and are payable by 31 March. New members are welcome to attend a couple of meetings first but we then ask that prospective members pay their subscriptions before attending further meetings. Online payments are preferable (bank account 03 0830 0467355 000 with your name in the reference field please), but to those for whom this is not possible, please put the cash in an envelope with your name clearly on the outside and hand it personally to either the Treasurer or the President. Please do not post cash.

Condolences:

Our thoughts are with Lyn Foulds who lost her husband Graham towards the end of last year. We wish Lyn well and hope memories of happier times will help her through her immediate sadness.

Website Assistant

We are still looking for someone to help with the website – if you think you could help, please contact the Secretary Margaret Harper or the President Helen Vear.