On the 31st of October the Forum welcomed its guest speaker Leslie Newnham, one of the founders of Wetherby U3A.
She started with a brief history of the organisation which is based on one of the same name started in Toulouse, France. This was witnessed by three English friends who thought that, with some changes it would work well in this country.
Where the French version involved professionals lecturing to retired members the British variation involves only the retired volunteers.
Leslie had been a U3A member before moving into the Wetherby area where she found that the nearest branch was in Harrogate. Having met Mary Bentham the two ladies established the Wetherby branch which now has around 1,300 members. It supports 106 groups whose activities cover a wide variety of subjects including cycling, walking, singing, playing the ukulele and folk dancing.
Many members of the Forum are also members of U3A but this did not deter them from taking part in a lively discussion and those not already members showed a great deal of interest.
Chairman Mike Earle thanked Leslie for a very helpful presentation.