Exciting news! After months of lockdown, suddenly our world is opening up again and it’s all happening! Silver Grove is now almost packed, and items are ready for delivery to the new Hub on Thursday 10 December.
Induction tours for a limited number of people will be held over the next two weeks. These tours will enable key people to install equipment, set up our office administration area, and ensure all IT and telecom systems are operational. This Quick Start Guide gives lots of helpful information about our new home!
The Hub will then be closed to the public until 6 January 2021, with Summer School beginning on 12 January. Please see separate article for details.
I want to thank you for your response to our survey, which was delivered via Survey Monkey (and via post for just under 100 of our members with no email address). We had almost 900 responses, which was very pleasing particularly as Survey Monkey only allows one response for each email address. As many of our U3A members share an email address, only one response per couple was able to be counted. We are sorry about this limitation, but we couldn’t find a way around it. Nevertheless, it was a valid response rate of over 40%, and we are delighted with the outcome.
Over 85% of you rated U3A Nunawading as “important” or “very important” in your week. While it was clear that many of you had appreciated your Zoom classes, you indicated an eagerness to return to face-to-face classes as soon as it is safe to do so. Around 15% do not expect to return to classes while COVID-19 restrictions are in place. We have budgeted accordingly for a decline in numbers in 2021.
While most members are happy with class times scheduled between 9am – 4pm on weekdays, there was considerable enthusiasm for one-off presentations and for single-term classes. We will consider these options when we have more flexibility over the use of space at the Hub. At present, you will appreciate that our Course Administration Team is working within strict spacing limitations.
Many of you added comments of appreciation for the work of the Committee of Management throughout the lockdown. Thank you for that! It’s always nice to be appreciated.
Warm regards,
Liz Hooper (President)
On behalf of the Committee of Management