How it will effect us and what we need to know.
Fit for the future was a term coined by The Third Age Trust as way to bring together ideas and address concerns that will affect the National Movement and how it will be perceived in the future. This page will be updated from time to time to try and keep the membership abreast of the changes being proposed.
Advertising Campaign
| Latest updates from The Third Age TrustTo Chairs, Secretaries and Treasurers |
| Dear Member This is going to be a super April – packed full of new opportunities and exciting developments. We have been working on a series of advertising campaigns including our first radio campaign which you can read about below. There are also more details of the ongoing press and PR work all of which is helping to raise the profile of the u3a movement. April is a busy month and also sees the launch of Friends Extra – a new offering exclusive to those members of the u3a Friends Newsletter community. Friends Extra includes a wide range of new offers and services so please encourage your members to sign up directly to the Friends newsletter so that no one misses these exciting offers. Best wishes Sam Mauger CEO of the Third Age Trust |
| Media News |
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| A new campaign with Boom Radio Our new advertising campaign with Boom Radio begins on Monday 1 April. We feel this is a good fit for our first Trust radio campaign as the station reaches 627,000 adult listeners every week – most of whom are over the age of 55. Our three month radio advertising campaign will consist of three repeated adverts featuring u3a members, shout outs from presenters, and one longer interview with CEO of the Third Age Trust, Sam Mauger – the date of which is still to be confirmed. We will be updating you on the campaign throughout the next three months but we need your help to evaluate its success. We really need u3as to let us know through your monitoring whether you have an uplift in enquiries and members – and what prompted them to get in touch. Thank you so much for your support – by working together we can continue to reach new members and raise the profile of the movement. Please see an evaluation template below which we hope will support your current monitoring activity. It would be wonderful if you would share this information with us at the end of April, and ideally monthly, by emailing communications@u3a.org.uk with your updates. |
| PR Messaging If you have a PR Officer within your u3a, they may want to send out press releases locally to enhance our national messaging. The focus of the national campaign is the positive impact that u3a can have on people’s lives. The member stories emphasise the ways in which u3a can alleviate loneliness, help members take time for themselves in retirement, and continue their interests by starting new groups. For any more information, please email communications@u3a.org.uk |
| Other publicity The Boom Radio advertising campaign is just one of the ways the Third Age Trust is working to meet the resolution of reaching 500,000 u3a members by 2028. We have called this the Resolution 500K campaign. We are exploring different kinds of advertising, with adverts appearing in TimesOnline and MailOnSunday this month. We will also be running a Facebook ad campaign throughout the next three months to complement the advertising on Boom Radio. We will continue to keep you updated about the press and PR we are doing to publicise the u3a movement as part of this campaign. |
| Our u3a Friends Newsletter |
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| A new range of offers for our newsletter community u3a Friends Extra is a wide range of offers exclusively for members of our u3a Friends community. These include discounts on holidays, insurance and more. These offers will be delivered to members through the u3a Friends Newsletter. Please do spread the word and encourage members to sign up on our website. |
| u3a Matters |
| Our new look magazine The members’ magazine will be hitting doorsteps in April with a new look and a new name – u3a matters. Thank you for all of the feedback you have given us which has guided the direction of the magazine, and for the patience and commitment that you have shown whilst the new portal settles in. We are aware from your feedback that we have all got used to shortening the magazine name to TAM. We would love to hear your ideas for referring to the new name in brief. Members have suggested u3am, utam, umag. Let us know what you think by emailing communications@u3a.org.uk. |
| Fundraising |
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| Run for u3a Exciting news – an extra place has become available to run in the Great North Run, the world’s biggest half-marathon event, as part of team u3a. You will be joining four other runners, all of whom will be raising money for the u3a movement. The event is taking place in Newcastle on Sunday 8 September 2024. Please do get in touch if you are interested by emailing fundraising@u3a.org.uk – and do also share this opportunity with members of your u3a. |
| Advice |
| Paying for speakersBased on our Mutual Aid Principle, the intention is to not need to pay for speakers. However, if an external paid speaker is being used the speaker’s fee and any direct expenses should be agreed beforehand (a speaker who is a member of a u3a cannot be paid a fee). As with paid tutors, speakers must pay their own tax and have Public Liability insurance. The HMRC will have issued them with a UTR (Unique Tax Reference) number which a speaker should be able to produce along with a copy of their Public Liability Insurance certificate as evidence. If the Speaker wants to donate their fee to a nominated charity then this needs to be recorded in advance – please see the finance FAQs for how this can be done. |
| Online workshops in AprilThe following workshops will be taking place in April, open to all u3a members: Thursday 11 April – Running your u3a – Information for Trustees Monday 15 April – Growth MattersTuesday 16 April – Equality, Diversity and Inclusion coffee morningWednesday 17 April – Running discussion groups and getting feedbackMonday 22 April – Keeping it Legal Tuesday 23 April – Interest Groups MatterTuesday 30 April – Recruiting Committee Members – Learn & share sessionAll details about these workshops and others can be found in the members’ area of the u3a website. |
| Annual Return In early April, your Secretary or Portal Contact will receive an email asking them to fill out the annual return for your u3a for 2024. As before, this will be an online process via the u3a portal. |
| This is an easy way to share this mailing. Click this link and copy and paste the URL to share on other platforms, including Beacon. |
This link will take you to a letter from the Chair of the TAT
This link will take you to the Fit for the Future proposals
This link will take you to the Q&A seesion
