Committee Present
President: Val Dromgoole (VD) Vice President: Peter Allin (PA) Deputy Secretary: Jacqui Rogerson (JPD) Deputy Treasurer: Sally Rush (SR) Communications Officer: Ian Rogerson (IR) Groups Coordinator: David Whybrow (DW) Deputy Membership Secretary: Julie Robson (JR)
Location: Parador, Jávea Arenal
1: Welcome & Apologies
VD welcomed everyone to the meeting, saying that all the executive-committee were present except for Treasurer (Mike Cox ) and Membership Secretary (Stan Staines), who sent their apologies.
2: Approval of April 2019 General Meeting Minutes
Last month’s General Meeting minutes were agreed and signed.
3: Announcements
VD presented much-loved member Betty Guinness with Honorary Membership together with a special gold membership card and some beautiful homemade chocolates in recognition of her 100th birthday . Betty stood up and replied that she felt ‘very honoured’. She went on to say: “Having lived for 16 years on my own, the U3A has meant so much to me. The many events and activities have kept me going. I am always meeting people who stop and say hello to me and when you live on your own it means so much. Thank you for just being you.” A big round of applause for Betty followed.
VD informed members that Carole Drinkwater (author) was launching her new book ‘The House on the Edge of the Cliff’ on June 7at 5pm in Pedreguer with wine and tapas at for €15. Tickets available from Humpty Dumpty.
VD showed the audience collection tins which were available for members to donate small change for our nominated charity of the year, Help of Denia and Marina Alta.
4: President’s Report – No report was given.
5: Vice-President’s Report
PA said that the Discount List has continued to be updated. Latest addition was a new hair & beauty salon opened in the Plaza, offering Javea U3A members a 10% discount.
He confirmed that the Parador Hotel would not now close in October 2019 and was likely to remain open until at least April 2020. This means that the Christmas Extravaganza could go ahead if we were able to find a new director or team to run the event.
6: Treasurer’s Report
Deputy Treasurer (SR) reported that the U3A had a healthy bank balance of €40,609. This figure also includes monies held for Travel, Spanish Culture & Cuisine and special events. SR finished with the customary Treasurer’s jokes, much to the amusement of the audience!
7: Communications Officer’s Report
IR reported that it had been a busy month on the communications front and he had covered a number of events, with reports and photos appearing on the website, the U3A Facebook page and in the local press. He promised that, with the ongoing development of the website and database, there would be improvements in the way he delivered his email bulletins. IR said he could not finish without mentioning the B-word …. No, not Brexit, but the Ball the following day! He hoped those attending would have a great time and said he would be there, armed with his camera, taking photos of members in their finery to publish in the usual places.
8: Groups Coordinator’s Report
Groups Coordinator (DW) stated that the U3A now had 61 groups plus four new groups in the pipeline: Photography, Motorcycling, Yoga and Chess, although he added that we still needed leaders for Yoga and Chess. He asked that anyone else who had ideas for new groups to please let him know.
9: Membership Secretary’s Report
Membership Secretary (JR) welcomed 10 new members who had joined on the day and three members who had renewed their membership, which brought the total to 1,307 members.
10: Questions from the floor (AOB) – There were no questions from the floor.
Charo gave a brief account of the RADAR Project, formed by Xabia Ajuntament and local associations, business owners and pharmacies. She outlined its aims as being a network to help senior citizens living alone in Javea. The objective is to help and enable senior citizens to continue to live independently and reduce loneliness, isolation and social exclusion. She asked members to pick up one of the leaflets and urged members to join the project.
11: Guest Speaker Pete Carrigan
The meeting finished with an excellent presentation on “What made the Concorde so special” by former Concorde flight engineer Pete Carrigan. His talk was greeted with enthusiastic applause and sparked some interesting questions from his appreciative audience.
Pete was thanked for his talk by Vice-President (PA) and presented with a gift.
The meeting closed at 12.30pm
