Hello everyone.  

I am delighted to present my first Chairs Report after such a fantastic year for Ashbourne u3a in 2025/ 26. During the year we have an unprecedented 150+ new members join us. This is absolutely amazing and due in no small part to the work of the Committee, ensuring we run efficiently and effectively but particularly to the leaders of the 55 groups that we now have. This is a great mix of established and new activities and a real strength of our organisation. 
During the year we have been delighted to welcome new groups including Travel, Quiz, Spanish, Woodcraft, Bridge, Petanque Friday, Bridge for Improvers, Kurling Monday, Padel and Kurling Wednesday. Wow! I hope you’ll enjoy seeing pictures of activities from most of the groups on the PowerPoint that is running during the meeting, this was produced at the end of 2025 and since then we’ve added several more groups. 
What is remarkable is that this hasn’t been as a result of a big publicity drive it’s been because of YOUR enjoyment of what you are doing. You go out and tell your friends what a great range of things are available and we back this up with a really successful social media presence particularly on Facebook. The number of ‘likes’ that we get for our reports and particularly the images of ‘real’ happy, smiling people is amazing and our very, very best advert. This is seen by countless numbers of people in the local community including your families, friends and neighbours. 
The ‘New Members Drop In’ each month has also been a great success enabling anyone who is interested to find out more about what we do. With record turnouts of 18 in January and 21 in February this bodes well for the future.
Because it’s been a year of considerable growth we are now in a very secure financial position which will lead to great news about subscriptions. Sue Edmonds will present this information later in the meeting. 
I could make this a much longer report by waxing lyrical about the advantages of joining u3a but clearly I’d be speaking here to the converted. I must admit I’ve loved (almost) every minute of being part of Ashbourne u3a for the last 8 years and particularly this last 12 months. My personal highlights include the first venture by the Travel Group. This took a fair amount of work to get off the ground but Harrogate you were fantastic. I also really enjoy being your Publicity lead and going round the groups taking lots of pictures of people laughing. The warmth of your greetings is lovely and illustrates how you welcome new members. For those groups I can’t get to do please keep sending your photos and a bit of info in and we’ll happily upload them for you. 
At this point I would like to say a big thank you to Alan Keizer who is stepping down after 4 years as Secretary to the Committee and Mavis Lund who has been the goddess of IT. Thank you both for all your unstinting support to Ashbourne u3a, we hope you continue to enjoy your association with us. (Presentations to both). 
Finally a HUGE thank you to you ALL for being the fabulously appreciative and supportive group of people that you are. But special thanks must go to the Committee. I feel incredibly lucky that whilst we have very disparate skills and experiences we work very well together. Though challenges keep ALL of us on our toes it’s important that we are standing tall and proud, and I most certainly am. 
Thank you everyone it’s been an honour to be your Chair this year.

Cheers Sue Hall