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Welcome to West Oxford U3A
The West Oxford branch of
the U3A, (the University of the Third Age), was created
in 1995. The U3A exists for a group of people to get
together to do things with everyone taking equal responsibility.
We meet on the 2nd and
4th Mondays except for July, August and December. Our year begins in September and ends in June, with the AGM being held
at the second meeting in May. Once the
membership fee is paid there is no further charge, although visitors make a
donation. Membership of West Oxford U3A does not cover membership of
Oxford U3A or Headington U3A.
The meetings take place at Dean Court Community Centre, Pinnocks Way,
Botley. The proceedings start at 2.15 pm and (fairly short)
notices are given before or after a talk as set out on your
programme. Tea and biscuits are always served after the talk. Please stay and use this time to
get to know new people and meet friends.
What’s happening? Recent & Upcoming
events. We
started 2026 with a great meeting on 12th January. Despite the cold
and miserable weather, a large audience had come to hear a presentation from Yvonne
Crane of Guide Dogs. Yvonne gave a very informative
talk about the charity and what being one of their dog breeders entails, as
well as some very amusing anecdotes about her own career. She was accompanied
by her husband Terry and her two “Mum-dogs”, Velvet and Flo. They demonstrated a
remarkable degree of discipline and obedience, but when they were given some
“free time”, they showed that they could be both friendly and boisterous; quite
adorable.
Velvet
and Flo: Posing nicely with Yvonne and some members of the audience
At the
following meeting, on 26th January, we received an excellent talk
from renowned Arts lecturer Alice Foster. The subject was double portraiture,
and Alice had called her presentation “Mixed Doubles”. She had selected a number of paintings from
different periods, schools and artists, and brought the whole subject to life with
her expert descriptions and insightful explanations.
Alice
Foster with the delightful painting of Caterina and her Nurse, by Dutch
painter Frans Hals Our
next meeting is on Monday 9th February, when Dr Anna Beer will tell
us about The Life and Work of Fanny Mendelssohn.
Special Interest Groups
Walking Group member Alex
writes: “For our last walk of 2025, which started at Hythe Bridge Street,
we were taken on a tour around the new buildings in the Observatory Quarter and
shown the wild-flower flowerbeds and alleyways that a Jericho
gardening group has planted. We then walked up the canal to the
Plough at Wolvercote for lunch, together with other members of the group, who
had not been able to do the full walk, but had joined us along the
way. It was rather damp, but we had a very pleasant final walk with
lots to look at, including a beautiful kingfisher skimming along the
canal on our return journey.”
December Walk:
damp but well worth it
The
Churches & Pubs Group will start its 2026 programme with a visit to St
Andrew’s Church, Sandford-on-Thames on 6th February.
Contact
person: Lis Froggatt l.froggatt66@outlook.com
The Lunch Group will hold its first meeting on 2nd February at The
Longwall Beefeater, Cowley.
Contact person: Beverley Birmingham beverleyu3a@gmail.com
A list of the Special
Interest Groups (SIGs) is on your programme and they are open to anyone who would like to
join. Just contact the person referred to as arranging the
meetings. If there is a group you would like to start then, if you
think the Committee can give you some help, please ask. For information about each SIG, please see the Groups section.
Newsletter The
membership fee
entitles you to the West Oxford U3A Newsletter which is sent out three
times per year, by email or (for those without an email connection) by
post. The
Newsletter is also published on this website under the 'News' section.
It is full of information about forthcoming events, both those
arranged
by this branch and also those organised by Thames Valley
Network. Please
be certain to look at the notice board at the back of the meeting room
for additional
details of outings and study days and also on www.u3atvnetwork.org.uk as
well as this website.
u3a National A membership
subscription is paid annually to the National U3A office. You
are entitled to attend the Summer Schools and other events. Details and costs
are on the National U3A website.
Queries Do raise any queries when
attending the meetings or contact the appropriate person in the 'Contact Us'
section. To join
West Oxford U3A or to renew your membership:
The
current annual subscription is £20 and subscriptions are due in September
each year.
We
recommend that you use our online membership facility
which can be
found in the Membership section.
However,
you may prefer to complete a paper membership application form which can be
obtained by email or post or will be available at meetings. If you do not
have a form please contact the membership secretary listed in the 'Contact
Us' section. Each
year new members are invited to a 'welcome lunch', which
gives them a chance to meet each other, the leaders of the Special
Interest Groups, and other volunteers.
Gift Aid on Membership Subscriptions Maximising our net income,
for the benefit of members, is a consideration in everything we do.
One way a member can help us
achieve this is by Gift Aiding their membership subscription. This enables
WOu3a to reclaim the tax portion of the payment (25p for every £1 donated) from
HMRC. To be eligible for Gift Aid, the member must:
· be a UK tax payer; and
· have paid an amount of tax
(income and/or capital gains) in the current tax year which is not less than
the Gift Aid claimed on this and any other such donations across all Charities. The
relevant declaration and consent box is included in the online
Application Form which can be found in the Membership Section.
To send
an email to West Oxford U3A - please select the appropriate contact from the
'Contact Us' section on this website.
More information about how the U3A started, its benefits and services,
and other useful links can be found in the 'Links' section on this website.
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