The Plymouth U3A Newsletter for August 2020 is now available in the Members Area.
See: Members Area (requires a password for access)
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Category: Plymouth U3A News Page 1 of 2
A Rough Beginners Guide to Using Zoom
For members of Plymouth U3A
Richard Keoghoe and Brian Mathieson have very kindly created a video demonstrating how to use Zoom. It is a very basic introduction on how to download Zoom, how to set up Zoom, and how to join a meeting on Zoom, using your ipad, iphone or PC.
Should anyone experience any specific difficulty working with Zoom once they have watched this video, then see note in Members Area.
Keeping active from your own home
During this time of isolation, a lot of us are unable to get out and about and are not able to keep as active as we would like to. Perhaps the time has come to consider looking at the options available which provide guidance and advice on keeping active in your own home. The Plymouth U3A Committee invite their members to take the opportunity to do this by referring to the following websites.
At nhs.uk you’ll find lots of different exercise videos by putting ‘fitness studio’ into the search box and clicking search. There’s a wake up workout, belly dancing, couch to 5k and beginners aerobics. Also strength and resistance classes with no equipment needed, Pilates and yoga with specific options for those with back or knee problems, arthritis and osteoporosis, and a seated yoga workout. Why not give it a try?
Alternatively, try a simple ballet exercise class aimed at the over 50’s, balletbasedmovement.com with Susan Jacobson who demonstrates simple moves with her Mother Elizabeth who is in her mid 70’s.
Sportengland.org has advice and video classes for all age groups and for less able people. Tips and guidance on how to keep/get active in and around your home with a section for older people.
We’ll get back to a fitter, leaner U3A in no time!
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our dear friend and colleague Janice Cawthorn.
Janice has been a member of our U3A for 10 years and a committee member for 2 years – taking on the role of speaker co-ordinator to ensure we had a varied array of speakers at the monthly General Meetings. Her love of literature, travel, cinema, performing arts and music was always in evidence and readily shared with anyone and everyone.
In her working life, Janice was a Tax Inspector in the Inland Revenue Plymouth Tax Office situated in Pearl Assurance House Royal Parade. As you all may know Janice was afflicted with a very rare condition, this was made worse as result of an operation that was meant to improve things, however there were complications and so resulted in things being made worse.
She was a fervent supporter of causes and would often put pen to paper to support them. Janice also had a great talent for languages and could converse in several different ones – including Russian. I know those in attendance of the Marina Litvinenko interview in Feb 2019 would recall how we all sat in wonder as Janice conversed with Marina in fluent Russian, when offering Marina our thanks.
We can all only admire the tenacity, selfless attitude and relentless independence of someone who, despite of adversities that would have driven others to seclusion continued to be a very active, vibrant and lovely person to know and work alongside.
She will be very sadly missed by us all.
Please see the Coronavirus page for the latest information from Plymouth U3A
Committee Nomination and Voting Guidlines
Committee nomination form and voting guidelines have been added to the members area of the Website. Nominations close at end of General Meeting, 11th May. Voting for the new committee takes place in June.
See: Members Area (requires a password for access)
Plymouth U3A will be hosting an Annual Open Day on Monday 29th June 2020 in the Plymouth Guildhall.
The opening times will be 11:00am to 3:00pm (there will be an hour allocated either side of these times for set up/clearing away).
It is our intention to extend an invitation to all other local U3A’s to join us on the day.
Further updates on this day will be posted nearer the time. The usual monthly general meeting will still take place on Monday 8th June.
On Monday 10th June we had a fascinating General Meeting at the Crowne Plaza when 2 excellent speakers from the Devon and Cornwall police described the dangers of using the internet and how we can minimise these.
After the event the speakers emailed:
Just a big thank you for inviting us to speak to your group today. We appreciate there was a lot of information to put across to the audience and even so, we weren’t even beginning to scratch the surface. It was great to see so many people in attendance, all I hope will take some tips away help prevent becoming victims of cybercrime in the future.
Here are some useful links for you to share with your U3A for further advice and guidance:
Take Five to Stop Fraud – general advice on financial fraud:
https://takefive-stopfraud.org.uk/
Get Safe Online (personal and business advice)
https://www.getsafeonline.org/
The Metropolitan Police’s ‘Little Book of Cyber Scams’ – we are in the process of producing a similar D&C document: https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/central/advice/fraud/met/little-book-of-cyber-scams-2.0.pdf
Have I been Pwned – check to see if your email account has been compromised in a data breach:
https://haveibeenpwned.com/
General advice and guidance from the National Cyber Security Centre:
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/section/advice-guidance/all-topics