A Message from the President

Following is a transcript of the speech made by incoming president, Jim Tiberi, at our AGM on Thursday, 12.11.09.

From U3A Nepean Blue Mountains on-line Photo Album

Hello everyone, I am both delighted and humbled to be standing here as president of this great association.

My sincere thanks to those of you on the committee who have nominated again and are willing to serve for another 12 months. And a hearty welcome to the new members of the committee; you will find the experience both very interesting and satisfying. Thank you also to you the members, for coming today and for the confidence you have shown in me and in the committee.

We should all thank our outgoing president, Reg Grace for having nurtured the Nepean-Blue Mountains chapter of U3A over the past four years and handing it over in a very healthy state, both financially and in membership numbers. But according to our constitution, Reg has served his maximum term as president and unfortunately needs to step down. He will however, stand on the committee as immediate past president.

Reg has put in a lot of hard work over his four years in office, particularly over the past 12 months, with a lot of time and energy going into the initiating, planning and shortly bringing to fruition the hosting, here in Penrith, next year's U3A State Conference.
Reg, after all the work you put in to make the hosting of the 2010 state conference a reality for our chapter, you can’t just leave it for someone else to finish all the easy bits.
I would like to ask you to accept the role of honorary president, to see the conference through to what I’m sure will be a successful end and to officiate at the conference on our behalf.

Ladies and Gentlemen, next year is going to be an exciting one for our chapter of U3A, with the state conference in March and a couple of other social functions in the very early stages of planning, I need to ask you for your support.
Primarily please try to support in whichever way you can our state conference.
It’s certainly something that you as members of U3A, Nepean–Blue Mountains Chifley chapter and Penrith as a city can take pride in hosting. But it can only be a success with your support.

Thank you to all the people, committee and members, in particular Hedi Roggeveen, Anthony Bayes, Brenda Emerson, Shirley Gould, Tony Sherry, Sheila Innins, Carol Gregory, Marie Stewart, Anne Utteridge, the list goes on, who have done a fantastic job in preparing, printing and distributing Australia wide, invitations and programs for the convention next year.

Ladies and gentlemen, this chapter of U3A, is one of the largest suburban and regional chapters in the state if not the country. We offer approximately 100 courses in venues from Penrith to Blackheath. To organize all this effectively takes a lot of people a lot of time, unfortunately, it’s always the same people putting their hand up to help. If any of you or if you know anyone who can help out in the office even for a couple of hours here and there, please let us know. You don’t have to be an expert at anything.

Though we as U3A Nepean-Blue Mountains Chifley chapter have managed to keep our head above water financially for the past 21 years, as you can see from our treasurer’s report, we cannot afford to remain dormant. You ladies and gentlemen, our members, are our most valuable assets, you are our life blood, without you there would be no U3A. You are our only source of income, you are also our best advertising medium. I bet that each and everyone here knows someone 50+ who has not heard of U3A or what we do, so next time you bump into that person, don’t beat him over the head for being so ignorant, just gently hint that he should look us up—or better still give him a course schedule and an application form.

Members are our reason for being here; with more members come more tutors and more diversity. If I was to ask any of you, “Why are you a member of U3A?” the response will most likely be that “learning new things or keeping the brain ticking over” is the number one benefit.
But we offer much more than that:
It’s the strength, the unity, the culture and influence of our association.
It is our network of people that make U3A a wonderful society in our community.
As an association, we have a common cause and shared values.
Our culture is providing knowledge, learning and friendship for all our members.
We all have unique issues, goals and desires.
And with the blending together of very diverse and willing people, we have on-demand social and learning opportunities.

I know that to many of you I am a stranger, having been with this association for only a little over two years. I hope in the near future I will get to meet most of our members.

We will go now to general business.. are there any questions?
No?
Then thank you to Diane Boyde for her time and for officiating as returning officer.
And thank you to all of you for attending.
So please, at the close of this meeting, don’t go rushing away, stay for a few minutes, relax, have a cup of tea or coffee which is waiting at the back of the room there.
Give me the opportunity to meet you and say hello.
I now declare the meeting closed.
Thank you