MAY 2020 U3A MANAWATŪ NEWS · 2020-04-28 · 1 MAY 2020 U3A MANAWATŪ NEWS QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF...

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1 MAY 2020 U3A MANAWATŪ NEWS QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF U3A MANAWATŪ WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS As at the time of going to print, we would like to welcome the following new members: Adriana van Ameslfort (Janneke), Chris Channing, Bob and Margot Greenway, Elizabeth Halford, Susan Lane, Jean Lloyd, John McCartin, Mourne Pearson, Kevin and Margot Petersen, Sally Reed IN THIS ISSUE . . . . . . . . . . . Coronavirus COVID-19 1 From the Chair 2 Upcoming Events 2 Archives 2 Around the Groups 3-4 Zoom 4 Surviving the pandemic... Coronavirus COVID-19 By the time you receive this newsleer we are likely to have moved from almost five weeks at Alert Level 4 to Level 3. We will still be self-isolating! It has been helpful to see, on a day-to-day basis, via the internet and other media, how we and other countries around the world are faring. To those members who usually receive printed newsletters: As this newsleer has had to be printed on a home printer we have made the decision to circulate it by email to all members with an email address. We apologize if this causes you any inconvenience. There were reports of people hoarding toilet rolls Our own government, led by Jacinda Ardern, has used the approach of going hard and going early”. NZs goal, unlike that of some other countries, has been not to just flaen the curve of coronavirus cases, but to eliminate the virus altogether. We seem to be on track to achieve this. It helps that we are a relatively isolated country on the peripheryof the world and have had time to prepare a strategy. New Zealand imposed a national lockdown much earlier in its outbreak than other countries did. Travellers from China were banned in early February, before New Zealand had registered a single case of the virus. And it closed its borders to all non-residents in mid-March, when it had only a handful of cases. Testing and contact tracing has been extensive. And we have been kept informed. What has this self-isolation meant for us at home in our bubbles”? Among other things, we are walking around the neighbourhood, online shopping, reading, watching television, trying out new recipes, gardening and generally geing on to those projects we have been puing off! As you will see on Pages 3 and 4, some U3A groups have managed to keep going in some form or another. Throughout all this, we have been using phone and social media to keep in touch with family and friends. It will be interesting to see, when we finally emerge from all this, how the world has changed. Going hard and going early

Transcript of MAY 2020 U3A MANAWATŪ NEWS · 2020-04-28 · 1 MAY 2020 U3A MANAWATŪ NEWS QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF...

Page 1: MAY 2020 U3A MANAWATŪ NEWS · 2020-04-28 · 1 MAY 2020 U3A MANAWATŪ NEWS QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF U3A MANAWATŪ WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS As at the time of going to print, we would

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MAY 2020

U3A MANAWATŪ NEWS QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF U3A MANAWATŪ

WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS

As at the time of going to print,

we would like to welcome the

following new members: Adriana

van Ameslfort (Janneke), Chris

Channing, Bob and Margot

Greenway, Elizabeth Halford,

Susan Lane, Jean Lloyd, John

McCartin, Mourne Pearson, Kevin

and Margot Petersen, Sally Reed

IN THIS ISSUE . . . . . . . . . . . Coronavirus COVID-19 1

From the Chair 2 Upcoming Events 2

Archives 2 Around the Groups 3-4

Zoom 4

Surviving the pandemic...

Coronavirus COVID-19

By the time you receive this newsletter we are likely

to have moved from almost five weeks at Alert Level

4 to Level 3. We will still be self-isolating!

It has been helpful to see, on a day-to-day basis, via

the internet and other media, how we and other

countries around the world are faring.

To those members who usually receive printed newsletters:

As this newsletter has had to be printed on a home printer we have made the decision to circulate it by

email to all members with an email address. We apologize if this causes you any inconvenience.

There were reports of people hoarding toilet rolls

Our own government, led by Jacinda Ardern, has

used the approach of “going hard and going early”.

NZ’s goal, unlike that of some other countries, has

been not to just flatten the curve of coronavirus cases,

but to eliminate the virus altogether. We seem to be

on track to achieve this. It helps that we are a

relatively isolated country on the “periphery” of the

world and have had time to prepare a strategy.

New Zealand imposed a national lockdown much

earlier in its outbreak than other countries did.

Travellers from China were banned in early

February, before New Zealand had registered a

single case of the virus. And it closed its borders to all

non-residents in mid-March, when it had only a

handful of cases. Testing and contact tracing has been

extensive. And we have been kept informed.

What has this self-isolation meant for us at home in

our “bubbles”? Among other things, we are walking

around the neighbourhood, online shopping,

reading, watching television, trying out new recipes,

gardening and generally getting on to those projects

we have been putting off! As you will see on Pages 3

and 4, some U3A groups have managed to keep going

in some form or another. Throughout all this, we have

been using phone and social media to keep in touch

with family and friends.

It will be interesting to see, when we finally emerge

from all this, how the world has changed.

Going hard and going early

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FROM THE CHAIR

Graham Slater

Greetings.

I hope you are all safe and

well in your bubbles. This is

an extraordinary event and I hope, not a repeated

one. It has been a tough time for us all and I hope we

see the end of it in the not too distant future.

I feel privileged to live in a country which consists of

a series of islands in a remote corner of the planet.

Also, to have leadership which seems to be leading

us in a sensible direction through this very difficult

time.

Easter was a particularly difficult time to be in

lockdown. Missing contact with families and

especially grandchildren really focused the issue for

me.

Our U3A activities have been in lockdown due to

restrictions placed on us. We also suspended our

seminar series and the 20th birthday celebrations,

both of which we will restart once we get clear of

this.

I am aware of a number of U3A learning groups who

have managed to maintain some creative methods of

contact and activities. Email has been a saviour. We

are in some ways fortunate to face this crisis at a

time when communication technologies are at such

an accessible level. Imagine, if we were all still on

dial-up internet connections, what difficulties we

would be facing.

I am aware that not everyone has the same level of

IT available to them, but I am thankful we are not

facing this during an era when radio and telephones

were in their infancy, such as the 1918 Flu pandemic.

Online shopping, films and TV On Demand, Skype

and Zoom have all made this a little easier.

I look forward to getting through this so we can

recommence group activities. I did not realise quite

how much I looked forward to our activities.

There is little doubt that this won’t be over quickly.

We need to drop back through the lower levels of

lockdown before life will return to “normal”.

The world that comes through this crisis will be

different to the one that went into it. Part of the

recovery will involve trying to reinstate some of

what we had before. We will get through this so stay

strong, well and in your bubble at home.

I would like to take this opportunity to remember a

long time U3A member and recent committee

member, Cherry Gordon, who passed away on 16th

Cherry Gordon

Photograph by Michael Lawrence

UPCOMING EVENTS

Both the 20th Anniversary Celebration and the

Autumn Seminar Series have been postponed until

further notice.

February. Cherry worked tirelessly for U3A as she

did wherever she was involved. Her input will be

sadly missed.

Your committee will endeavour to keep you up to

date on the future as soon as we know anything

more.

(14th April)

ARCHIVES

Further to Chris Phillips’ work on the electronic

archives, hardcopy archives have now been set up.

We have three 2005 newsletters missing from our

collection, i.e. issues 2/05, 3/05 and 5/05. If you have

any of these please would you get in touch with

Rosemary Krsinich (contact details on page 4).

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AROUND THE GROUPS...

Although some groups have gone into abeyance until

further notice, others are continuing as follows:

Brian Finch: This month’s online session of the Art

Appreciation 1 group involved members choosing

from three art museum websites (The Getty, Musée

d’Orsay and Te Papa) and taking a virtual tour to

choose a piece or pieces of art to discuss. We used

email to exchange choices and comments. About half

the group contributed to the lively and stimulating

comments and responses. As a positive but

unintended consequence we have two potential

future session offerings sparked by interest in a

theme and an artist. It looks likely that we’ll run

some variation of this activity for our May meeting.

Anne Cameron: Art Appreciation 2 is on hold at the

moment but I did forward to the group a link to a

range of websites which give virtual tours or curator

led talks round some of the great art galleries

overseas and our own Te Papa. A member also sent

me a link to a very funny website where people are

asked to recreate famous paintings with stuff they

find at home. Very funny and clever. I am hoping the

website approach will catch on as humour at the

moment is important!

Alan Martin: The Biography group is maintaining

contact by members continuing to read biographies

and submitting their reviews to the group for

discussion and comment.

Carol Phillips: Book Group 1 had its first meeting by

email on 14th April. We are reading to the monthly

theme where we are able. We are each providing

written reviews and comments which are shared and

commented on by other group members.

Merle Smillie: Book Group 2 would have been

reading a favourite magazine for April and I would

suggest there would have been more than one read

in the current state of affairs we find ourselves in.

We are keeping in touch with each other. What

better opportunity than the lockdown to do lots of

reading. I suggested to our group we have a post

lockdown meeting (what we did in the lockdown) to

let off steam.

Graham Slater: The NZ History group has received

an article about the 1918 flu epidemic to read and

hopefully interact with. To date I have had feedback

from numerous members and have also received a

number of other articles expanding the topic. These I

have subsequently recirculated to the rest of the

group. The discussion is ongoing and I hope to

provide a new topic each month while we are in

lockdown.

Michael Lawrence: As of mid-April, the Apple iPad

interest group has had two Zoom meetings, the first

with five members plus myself. Most of the meeting

was setting up and getting used to using Zoom. At

the second meeting there were more people than we

normally have for face-to-face meetings (see screen

shot on Page 4)! Everyone has now got used to

setting up their own devices so we should be able to

get into real business in future. While we are “in jail”

it is likely we will continue with fortnightly meetings

instead of the usual monthly ones.

I have also produced a two-page iPad email

newsletter which has been circulated to U3A and

SeniorNet iPad group members. The next one will

have the U3A logo!

Alan Cameron: The Philosophy group continues on

every second and fourth Friday of the month but this

time by Zoom. The majority of the group have

mastered this technique and Anne says that “by the

sound of the laughter, it seems to be going well”.

Rosemary Krsinich: In view of the nature of the Plant-

based Pot-luck Lunch group, which involves close

proximity, and the sharing of food and utensils, we

suspended group meetings early on. Members are

emailing any interesting recipes or food ideas they

come across to the group.

Graham Slater: The Silver Screens Selections group

has received an article which I compiled informing

the group of the basic ideas involved in "reading a

film”. I have suggested they read it then watch a film

(any film) and try to apply the concepts in the article

to what they saw. I have had a couple of feedback

emails and one providing a good criticism of the film

the member watched. I was intending to set the

group up with YouTube and have them all watch the

same film but that proved to be a more difficult

option.

Pauline Wellwood: I have been keeping in touch with

my Sketching group by email and with phone calls.

They are all well but sketching is not happening with

everyone. Maybe by week 3 there might be a bit more

motivation. Before the lockdown however we did

manage to get lots of our paintings and sketches on a

USB stick and Graham Slater has very kindly said he

will try and produce a PowerPoint for the 20th

Anniversary of U3A, whenever that may be?

Continued over page ...

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U3A MANAWATŪ CONTACT DETAILS

Mail: PO Box 9076, Palmerston North 4441. Email: [email protected]. Website: www.u3amanawatu.org.nz

Committee

Chairperson: Graham Slater 353 0586 [email protected]

Secretary/Newsletter: Rosemary Krsinich 326 9598 [email protected]

Treasurer: Ron Paddock 357 5857 [email protected]

Membership (including changes to address/email): Larry Haist 280 4471 [email protected]

Learning Groups: Graham Slater 353 0586 [email protected], Chris Phillips 358 1991 [email protected]

Seminars: Stuart Birks 021 204 7903 [email protected]

Website: Chris Phillips 358 1991 [email protected], Rosemary Krsinich 326 9598 [email protected]

Social Events: Janet Black 356 6251 [email protected], Merle Smillie 357 0778 [email protected]

Technical Equipment: Graham Slater 353 0586 [email protected]

Enquiries: Chris Phillips 358 1991 [email protected]

Promotion: Merle Smillie 357 0778 [email protected]

Other: Stu Schwartz 359 4423 [email protected]

Other contributors

Social Events: Bev Charlton 356 0094 Promotional Displays: Jill Gibson 354 0994

Contributions to this quarterly newsletter are very welcome!

Please contact the Editor (Rosemary at 326 9598 or [email protected])

Apple iPad group members at a recent Zoom meeting

Terry Knight: The Travel group has been put on hold

until the end of the Coronavirus threat. As a group

that meets in various people’s homes this makes it

very difficult to continue even at lower levels of the

lockdown. The only online activity we have is

sending each other jokes. I do not think it would be

possible to effectively do any more than that online.

Carol Phillips: Write Your Memoirs members have

been sharing writing by email, and this has worked

so well that we’re meeting every fortnight instead of

every month! We still have a theme which some

continue to write about, but it’s mainly about

keeping our writing going, sharing whatever we’ve

written, giving feedback, and keeping in touch with

one another.

Arne Evans: Members of the Write Our Memoirs

Too group are continuing to write a memoir on an

agreed topic every month. Instead of reading them

out, though, we are emailing them to everyone else

in the group. Comments in response are optional ...

if requested by the sender.

NEW GROUP: Write Your Travel Stories

Have you ever considered writing down your travel

stories? We use photos, maps and tourist brochures

to jog the memory. If you would like to join with

others to share stories and experiences contact me at

353 7742. We plan to meet on the 2nd Monday of the

month at 11 am but we can be flexible to suit the

group. Jacque Aldridge

Several of our group coordinators are

making use of Zoom to keep their

groups going. Use of Zoom assumes

members have the internet and a

camera and microphone, although most modern

computers would have these built in. It also requires

that members can install Zoom and navigate its

facilities.

Our umbrella organization, U3A New Zealand, is

promoting the use of Zoom for U3A meetings during

the lockdown. See http://www.u3a.nz/home.htm and http://www.u3a.nz/meetings.htm.

The UK U3A website is also promoting something

similar https://www.u3a.org.uk/keeping-in-touch-links.

There is a screen shot of one of our Apple iPad

group’s Zoom meetings in progress below.

PLANT-BASED POT-LUCK LUNCH GROUP

By the time things get back to normal, we will have

room for one more person in our group which meets

from 12-2 pm on the 4th Tuesday of the month.

Please contact me on 326 9598. Rosemary Krsinich