Newsletter, Julyt 2009

Newsletter, July 2009

Events

Visit to Little Italy – by Susan Bentley
On 1st June, on a cold Monday morning, our Italian class had a trip to "Little Italy" in Leichhardt, arranged by our wonderful tutor, Jim Tiberi.
Jim had organised a mini-bus for us, and we chugged down there, arriving just in time for coffee, which he had also arranged for us to have, along with lunch, at an Italian cafe called 'La Giara', in The Forum.
The coffee and food were excellent, and we got to practice our (minimal) Italian on the pleasant, but long suffering staff.
Between eating and drinking we meandered around The Forum and Norton Street, and looked at the sights, and being mostly female, the shops.
We became aware of the Italian influence everywhere, especially in the merchandise on offer, and we enjoyed ourselves enormously.
It made us aware, also, of the many interesting places available to us in our own city that we never think to visit. As they say in the classics, "a great time was had by all". Molto grazie, Jim.

Organised Bus Trips
If you would like to organise a bus trip for your Group – like the one to Little Italy – details are available in the Office. It cost about $115 per day for a 20 person bus plus petrol and $30 for a volunteer driver, if you need one.

Photography
In June, our Photography tutor, Petr Malek, taught members of his class how to use Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 at the Penrith Valley Seniors Computing Club. Petr emailed this information for the Newsletter:
I will do 2 more sessions in Photoshop 7 on September 1 and 8 starting at 11am to 12.30pm at the Penrith Valley Seniors Computing Club.
Several members from the photo class will be exhibiting their work at the Annual Friends of Braemar Exhibition in Springwood. Show commences on July 17 until August 2nd 2009. Official opening is on Saturday 18 July 2pm.
Braemar Gallery is situated at 104 Macquarie Rd, Springwood and is open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 4 pm.
Braemar Gallery is always looking for volunteers interested in art to assist with manning of ongoing exhibitions. All are welcome!!

Orchid Show on Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th July at 9am to 5pm on Saturday at 9am to 4pm on Sunday
The Blue Mountains and Penrith Districts Orchid Society will have an Orchid Show at the Girl Guides Hall, Emu Plains, Cnr Great Western Highway and Nepean Streets. There will be plants for sale and advice on growing Orchids.

U3A Holidays from 2pm Friday 9th to 10am Monday 27th July
The Office will be closed but the following classes will be continuing: Ballroom Dancing, Canasta 5, and Yoga.

Winter Solstice Get-together at 1.30 – 3.30 pm on Saturday 18th July
Mark your diaries for Saturday 18th July, 1.30 – 3.30 pm, to celebrate our “Winter Solstice Get-together” to replace the Christmas Party.
The Get-Together will be held at our offices in the Penrith School of Arts, 3 Castlereagh Street, Penrith.
Hot drinks will be available. Bring a plate and a friend. Come and enjoy.
We’ll show Tony Bayes’ excellent Conference Promotion DVD, a truly professional production.

Movie & Supper Night at 7.30pm on Saturday 25 July
John Morehead (Tel: 4721 0518) has a Movie & Supper Night each month in his home at 136 Jamison Road, Penrith. John was a projectionist at the local movie theatre in Penrith and still runs the old 16mm movies.
At 7.30pm on Saturday 25 July, he will be showing “The Man That Shot Liberty Valance” (Col). Starring: John Wayne, James Stewart, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin - plus Newsreel & Cartoon. John only asks for a voluntary donation to cover the cost of the refreshments. U3A members and their guests will be welcome.

The 2009 ASCCA Conference on Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th August
at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. See details on our website or the ASCCA website. On each day, there will be a mixture of keynote presentations, optional workshops, smaller group demonstrations on a range of information communication technology—and exciting uses and explanations of new software and new technology as well as new ways with old software.
Our U3A members are also members of ASCCA and entitled to the discounted membership entry fee.

General Information

Architecture
Unfortunately, due to a family illness, Peter Buckwell will not be giving his course in Architecture in Term 3. We wish him and his family well and hope that he will soon return as a U3A tutor when his family situation improves.

The Broadband for Seniors

Our Committee has decided to investigate the possibility of our U3A taking part in this Australian Government initiative at the Penrith School of Arts. Shown below are some details of this project copied from an NEC pamphlet.
We need numerous Volunteer Tutors. But you do not need to be a “Computer Whiz” to be a Volunteer Tutor. You only need to teach/demonstrate computer operating basics (e.g. turn PC on/off, mouse usage, keyboard operation), internet surfing using Internet Explorer, sending an email using Gmail and, how to write a letter using WordPad.
Gmail is similar to Yahoo and Hotmail and using WordPad is like Microsoft Word. NEC and ASCCA will also provide training for Volunteer Tutors.
Jim Percy, Margot Moyle, Lorraine Brown, Brenda Emerson, Ruth Todd and Alan Lees have volunteered but we need many more volunteer tutors that we can call on when required. So if you can spare as little as an hour per month to help Seniors access the Internet, please contact Alan Lees at alanlees@y7mail.com, phone 4736 5541.

About Broadband for Seniors (copied from an NEC pamphlet) is part of the wider Australian Government initiative “Making Ends Meet - Plan for Older Australians, People with Disabilities and Carers”.
The Australian Government is committing $5 million each year over three years, from 2008-09 to 2010-11, to develop and implement the Broadband for Seniors initiative, providing free access to computers, broadband services and training to older Australians.
The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) selected NEC Australia Pty Ltd and its consortium members: Adult Learning Australia (ALA), the Australian Seniors Computer Clubs Association (ASCCA) and the University of the Third Age Online (U3A Online) to deliver the Broadband for Seniors initiative nationally.
The needs of older Australians wishing to be trained in the use of the Internet will be met by the creation of approximately 2,000 seniors Internet kiosks, hosted by community organisations that support seniors. Kiosk sites will be rolled out using a phased approach and selected locations identified on the basis of demonstrated need and willingness to provide a free service to their local community.

Broadband for Seniors aims to:

Provide older Australians with access to computers and the Internet via free Internet kiosks
Support seniors to gain confidence and build skills in using new technology
Address the issue of older Australians feeling isolated and ‘left behind’ in a technological age
Build community participation and social inclusion amongst older Australians

Who it benefits
According to government figures, only one in five Australians aged over 65 years currently use the Internet. This initiative will create approximately 2,000 Internet kiosks in community centres, and other relevant community clubs and organisations, providing training and access to online resources, dramatically increasing the availability and accessibility of relevant information to seniors.
People aged 55 years and over who are interested in learning new technology, accessing the Web and staying in touch with friends and family, are eligible to use the kiosk services free of charge.
The kiosks will allow people to get relevant information from government, commercial and personal websites, send and receive emails, share photos and to meet with other seniors who are venturing on to the information superhighway for the first time.

The key components delivered to kiosks
A Broadband for Seniors kiosk will consist of a self-install kit of two NEC P6000 series All-in-One PCs with 2GB RAM and high resolution screen, a keyboard and mouse for each PC, two computer tables, two user chairs and one tutor chair, plus a wireless modem for the broadband connection.

The successful kiosk
Key to the success of the kiosk is the ability for the club to provide tutors who can provide the training for students. Training notes and course guides will be provided free of charge and it is expected that as more seniors become comfortable with the computers they, in turn, can take on the role of tutors for other seniors.

Training Volunteer tutors are critical to the kiosk’s success and NEC’s partner ASCCA will be providing easy-to-follow training notes and guides to assist in maximising enjoyment for both volunteer and student alike. For more information, visit NEC.

On Our Website
Check out the new features and the new photos in “U3A Photographs” that include: The Visit to Little Italy, Noel Borland’s Drawing Class and Carmen Ceniza’s Yoga Class.
Please email your class photographs to webmaster@u3anepean.org to be included in our website.

A new look for our web page – from our Webmaster, David Evans

In June we upgraded our web page from the restrictive 10 Mb of free space we've been using to a fully hosted site with lots of exciting new possibilities.

That means we now have the opportunity to publish new articles and features for which we previously had insufficient space and you can look forward to seeing more of these in future.

You will already have noted a few changes in presentation and, over the next few months, I'll be overhauling the entire site, page by page, to streamline both internal and external links. It's also necessary to “future proof” the web page—that is, to make it more readily compatible with coming generations of web browsers. From your point of view that means the site will be even easier to navigate and quicker to load. If the need arises we will also be able to create our own on-line forum where both students and tutors can share their ideas about U3A, the subjects they're studying, their hobbies, or absolutely anything else that takes their fancy—with one or two necessary restrictions. At present there aren't enough people using the site to make it worthwhile doing that, but as the interest grows it's a very real possibility.

Who's Reading What?
The statistics available from our new web host reveal that less than 200 individual visitors have viewed our site in the past two weeks and, of those, most only visited once. When those figures rise significantly it will be time to think about forums.
The page most frequently viewed so far was the class timetable, and of the individual classes, it was Walking with a Touch of History that top-scored. That doesn't mean that walking is more popular than, say, language study—only that the venue changes week-by-week, so there needs to be a ready reference for people who want to join in.

What our web page can do for you
Whether you're a student or a tutor, you now have the option of submitting as many photographs or as much information as you wish about your group or your subject; we now have space to publish them. If you'd like to do that, please email the copy to webmaster@u3anepean.org We are also able to offer all U3A members—students, tutors and helpers—a U3A email address. If you'd like to create an address that's in keeping with your subject you might like to register something like deutsch@u3anepean.org or yourname@u3anepean.org, or anything-you-like@u3anepean.org and I'll arrange to divert anything with that address to your current email account. If you want such an address, click on the webmaster link and let me know.

Two Exciting Women
Perhaps the most exciting web page development is the emergence of two very talented women who have offered to help with the site. Ruth Todd taught computers at TAFE until 2003 and will bring a lot of experience and technical ability to the task.
Ronda Macgregor has a background in film and television where she spent 35 years as an editor, including heading the Editing Department at the Australian Film & Television School.
Always a historian at heart, she completed her MA in the early 1990's and launched a career as an oral historian. Her latest project, a 90 minute audio documentary for the RTA on the impacts of bypasses on three towns, has been accepted into the 2009 NSW Premier's History Awards. I'm all agog at the possibilities and look forward to both the creative and technical gifts these two have to offer.

Italian conversation
We were glad when Jim Tiberi included an Italian conversation segment additional to his Monday course, Italian Language for Seniors. The Conversation group meets on Wednesdays and has proved lively and stimulating. Plucking up the courage to converse in the language of your choice is always the hard part. We’re really happy to have this opportunity and enjoy the contact with others wishing to practice speaking Jim’s romantic native language.
While Jim has been visiting the country of his birth, Susan Bentley has been in charge of his courses and we all appreciate the effort she has put into the job. Many thanks, Susan.
No doubt Jim will have a lot to tell us about his travels, in Italiano naturalmente.

Byzantium

We are looking for premises in the Leura and Katoomba area to run a new U3A weekly course on Byzantium in Term 4. If you know of any suitable premises or if you are interested in this subject, please contact Graham Engel, telephone 4784 2234, Email graham.engel@bigpond.com

Byzantium – Graham gave this course at the U3A in 2002
The Byzantine Empire was the longest lasting of all western empires: AD 330 until 1453.
The Roman Empire lasted only half this period. The basis of western law was developed here by Justinian; western poetry flowed from Persia to the Sicilian poets to Dante; Christian and Muslim architecture had its inspiration the Hagia Sophia, the largest church in Christendom for more than a thousand years; the art of icons and mosaics reached its zenith.
Written histories of Byzantium have not been part of the western education system for many centuries. The first modern history in English (A Short History of Byzantium) was written by John Julius Norwich in 1988. Norwich described his education in Byzantine history at English public schools and Oxford as a “conspiracy of silence”.
The course will cover the development of the Byzantine Empire centred on Constantinople and the influence of surrounding cultures on Byzantium.

Graham, who has BSc MSc(Hons) PhD, will also give the following course in Term 1 of 2010: The Nuts and Bolts of the Universe

The Nuts and Bolts of the Universe - my favourite constants
Some of us were born in the 1930’s and just missed out on the flapper days. By this time, a fundamental description of the physical laws of the universe had been determined. Most of the scientific giants had met together in the Metropole Hotel in Brussels in 1911. From 1880 to the 1930’s this small group discovered the interconnecting links between light, matter, charge, gravitation and other forces. These links were originally theoretical and introduced as “fiddling factors” to ensure that the equations came to the “expected” answers. Later, the fundamental physical constants were measured or calculated with accuracies better than 1 part in a million. These constants turn up in the most unusual places both in the subatomic and the everyday world. This series of ten lectures will cover the discovery and application of these constants.

Curiosity is required. Only very simple maths is expected.

Japanese for Beginners
My Japanese for Beginners Course is open to anyone still interested on Mondays from 10.30 - 12.00 in Leura.
Beryl McAdam, 4784 1877, bcmcad@tadaust.org.au

Our U3A Constitution – (now on our website) – Statement of Objectives.
The Chapter will:
A Provide an opportunity for persons in their Third Age to individually and mutually take part in and contribute to the expansion of their knowledge in fields and/or disciplines of their choice,
B Contribute to the growth of intellectual and cultural interests among the citizens of the region,
C Conduct classes, workshops and social events to further these objects,
D Work harmoniously with other organisations having similar aims.
If you belong to a similar organisation as our U3A, we will be happy to promote their events in our Newsletters.
If similar organisations (e.g. Probus Clubs etc) have spare seats on their bus trips, they may be happy to offer them to our members and we can offer spare seats on our bus trips to them.

Walking with a Touch of History in July
Details of all Walks for Terms 2 and 3 are shown elsewhere on our website.
U3A Members can join any Walking Group but Walks A and B are for “Medium walkers” and Walks C are for “Gentle walkers”.

Committee News

2010 Conference
I was very pleased to receive a telephone call, at home, from Toni McLennan, Public Affairs, Department of Health and Ageing Canberra last week confirming that Noeline Brown will be available to attend our Conference. I was thrilled, of course, as was everyone else on the Sub Committee, that we have received this confirmation.
Judith Dunn, our very interesting speaker on early Australian History, has also confirmed her attendance.
—Brenda Emerson

Email Newsletter
The closing date for submissions to the monthly Email Newsletter is one week before the end of each month. However, if you miss the date, your submission will go in the following month’s newsletter – if I remember. Submissions should be sent to the Office – Attention Curriculum Convener or preferably emailed to alanlees@y7mail.com

Next Committee Meeting
The next Committee Meeting will be held at the Penrith School of Arts at 1.30pm on Tuesday 14 July, 2009.

Disclaimer – Articles contributed to this Newsletter and published as a service to members; do not necessarily reflect the opinion or policy of this association. Articles are intended as opinions and items of debate only and should not be acted on without expert advice

I have received so many jokes this month about Fitness, Politics & Health, Mental Acumen & Financ,; and Saying Good Bye to Mother.

GET FIT (BUT BE CAREFUL)
Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side. With a 2Kg potato bag in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides, hold them there as long as you can.
Try to reach a full minute, and then relax.
Each day you will find that you hold this position for just a bit longer. After a couple of weeks, move up to 5Kg potato bags.
Then try 10Kg, 20Kg, 30Kg. Eventually you will get to 100Kg potato bag in each hand!!
Hold your arms straight for more than a full minute.
After you feel confident at that level, Put a potato in each bag.

POLITICS AND HEALTH
In 2007, some said “America get a Black President! – Yeah, and Pigs might fly too!”
Well, America got a Black President - and Yeah, Swine Flu too.

MENTAL ACUMEN AND FINANCE
Last year I replaced all the windows in my house with that expensive double-pane energy efficient kind, and today, I got a call from the contractor who installed them. He was complaining that the work had been completed a whole year ago and I still hadn't paid for them.
Hellloooo ... just because I'm blonde doesn't mean that I am automatically stupid.
So, I told him just what his fast talking sales guy had told me last year, that in ONE YEAR these windows would pay for themselves!
Helllooooo? It's been a year, I told him!
There was only silence at the other end of the line, so I finally just hung up.
He never called back.
I bet he felt like an idiot.

SAYING GOODBYE TO MOTHER
You don't have to own a cat to appreciate this one! You don't even have to like 'em!
We were dressed and ready to go out for the New Years Eve Party. We turned on a night light, turned the answering machine on, covered our pet parakeet and put the cat in the backyard. We phoned the local cab company and requested a taxi. The taxi arrived and we opened the front door to leave the house. The cat we put out in the back yard, scoots back into the front door.
We didn't want the cat shut in the house because she always tries to eat the bird. My wife goes out to the taxi, while I went inside to get the cat. The cat runs upstairs, with me in hot pursuit. Waiting in the cab, my wife doesn't want the driver to know that the house will be empty for the night. So, she explains to the taxi driver that I will be out soon, 'He's just going upstairs to say Goodbye to my mother.'
A few minutes later, I get into the cab. 'Sorry I took so long,' I said, as we drove away. 'That stupid bitch was hiding under the bed. I had to poke her with a coat hanger to get her to come out! She tried to take off, so I grabbed her by the neck. Then, I had to wrap her in a blanket to keep her from scratching me. But it worked! I hauled her fat ass downstairs and threw her out into the back yard!
The cab driver hit a parked car.

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