Your u3a is led by a committee of volunteers - they've all agreed to get involved in making decisions and taking on special jobs. u3a Oliva relies on the volunteers who give their time and skills to lead the organisation, and makes sure that our 550+ members can get the most of their membership. The committee represent your views, and it's important that they reflect our membership - and bring in a range of experience and expertise.
As part of our constitution, each year we ask for volunteers to agreed to get involved by taking on one of these important roles. The existing postholders can also be nominated again, if they choose to. And then, as part of our Annual General Meeting (AGM) in May, all the members vote for who they want to support for these jobs.
We must have a committee to be able to run u3a Oliva - that means the four key roles (president, vice president, secretary and treasurer), and at least two other (officially called 'ordinary') roles. But we'd ideally have a full committee of eight people. Sometimes extra people are invited to join the committee to help in other ways.
For five of the roles, the existing postholders have offered to stand again for another year. They are Angela Town (president), Julie Hayward (vice president), Belinda Allan (secretary), Carol-Ann Nonino (groups co-ordinator), Sandra Dunderdale (support officer). Graham Martin (treasurer) has already served for three years (the normal limit) but has agreed to stand again if another volunteer doesn't come forward.
The roles on offer
There are eight key jobs on the committee - president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, groups co-ordinator, support officer, publicity officer and travel & events officer. These last two roles are currently unfilled.
But you can nominate or be nominated for any of these jobs, regardless of whether a current committee member has decided to stand again, If there is more than one volunteer for a role, then the members will decide which person is asked to do that role.
The u3a committee meet around 9-10 times a year to review how the u3a in Oliva is working, discuss any challenges and plan for the future. They get updates about our groups, trips, website and finances too. Committee members may take away specific things to do, and report back to the next meeting. But being a committee member doesn't necessarily need to be a huge time commitment - around a few hours a month.
And even if you don't want to volunteer to join the committee, there are loads of ways you can help out - email Angela, u3a President to talk this through.
Making your decision
You can nominate yourself, or any other member of u3a Oliva for any of these posts (as long as they agree!). Or you can choose to support the existing committee members who have offered to stand again.
If you're interested and want to find out more, or better understand the roles on offer, then you can get in touch with Angela (president) or Belinda (secretary) to talk things through.
If you are nominated, then we'll ask you to provide some information we can share with members to help them make a choice, That's a short statement from you saying why you think you'd be suitable for the post and a photo that we can post online. That helps your fellow members make their decisions.
The closing date for nominations is 18:00 on Friday 2nd May. That gives us time to get everything ready for the Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 20th May. Only current paid-up members are eligible to nominate or be nominated.
The easiest way to have your say is by completing our form online. You can choose to support committee members who've offered to stand again or suggest new people for any of the jobs
You can also complete a paper version of the form if you prefer - download the paper form here. You'll need to get it back to the secretary by the deadline - perhaps by:
- taking it to our next coffee morning on April 24th
- or popping to meet Angela / Belinda at the back of the Indoor Market on May 2nd at 11:00 (the last day for nominations)
- or giving it to current committee member, in enough time for them to get it to the secretary by the deadline
Next steps & questions
Once all the nominations have been collected, we'll ask members to make the decision (for example where more than one person is nominated). Then we'll make the final decision at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday 20th May.
If you have any questions about the nomination process, then please get in touch with Belinda, Secretary - secretary@u3aoliva.org