Meetings at QMC

If you are not a member of our u3a and would like to join, please click here.  We normally hold a meeting each month which all members are welcome to attend. Information is disseminated as necessary by the chair, committee or group leaders and an external speaker is introduced. There is time after the speaker has finished for refreshments, with a chance to catch up with old friends and make new ones. We also hold our Annual General Meeting in July, our Meet and Greet afternoon in August and (see Events page for details).

​

Monthly meetings are held on the second Wednesday of each month, from 13:30 to 15:30, at Queen Mary's College, Cliddesden Road, Basingstoke, RG21 3HF. Click here for maps and directions.  Members should aim to arrive at the College between 13:00 and 13:30.

​

Suggestions for speakers are always welcome - please use the Contact us form to send us your ideas.

​

You are welcome to bring a friend or neighbour to our monthly meeting too, so that they can find out more about us and feel encouraged to become a member. If you do bring somebody along, please make sure their name and email are recorded separately by members on our reception tables.

 

Forthcoming Meetings at QMC

• April 12th 2023 Blue Lamp Trust Bobby Scheme. This meeting will take place at Central Studio.  Please aim to arrive between 1:30 and 1:50 pm.This is a local charitable trust,which works in partnership with Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary and Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service to provide FREE security and fire safety checks of vulnerable people’s properties. These checks are conducted by a team of uniformed, trained and police vetted fitters.  Services include the fitting of door chains, additional door and window locks, spy holes, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms as well as giving advice on fire safety and advice regarding scams and cold callers.

​

• Change of scene in May and June! Although our April and July meetings will be held at QMC as usual, we’ve been informed that college exams mean QMC is unable to accommodate us in May and June.   Following comparatively short notice, however, the Committee is delighted to have found a suitably large and well-equipped alternative venue.  Albeit out of town, it is considerably nearer to Basingstoke than the venue we used in Hook and we hope it will not inconvenience you.  

• The new venue, Sherfield Village Hall, RG27 0EZ, has gone out of its way to accommodate us and so please give it a try and enjoy the different surroundings.  Some of you will know it already, as members of Basingstoke Arts Society, Bramley and Romans Flower Club or from its Sunday markets.   

• There is ample parking in the village and the N0. 14 bus from the Bus Station arrives in the village at 13.40 in good time for the start of the talk.  Details about how to get to the Hall by car or bus will be sent to members before the May meeting, along with information on parking.

• Wednesday, 10 May - 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒆𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎 - 𝒂 𝒈𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚! This meeting will take place at Sherfield Village Hall, RG27 0EZ.  The talk is scheduled to begin at 2.00pm.  Please aim to arrive at the hall between 1:30 and 1:50 pm. This is a tale of mystery and intrigue, taken from the speaker's grandmother’s recently discovered 1902 journal, when she was just twenty years old and working in service as a dressmaker in a large manor house in Kent. What the speaker discovered in her journal was an amazing series of events, which may or may not be true.  The talk usually ends in a few gasps.

• Wednesday, 12 July - Annual General Meeting plus external speaker. We are back at Central Studio, QMC, for this meeting.  The meeting will begin at 2.00pm.  Please aim to arrive between 1:30 and 1:50 pm. An excellent speaker, who previously entertained us as Henry VIII and Winston Churchill, will this time be a first class passenger on the ship that couldn’t sink – the Titanic…  It promises to be another memorable event!

• Wednesday 9th August - Meet & Greet.  It will be held in Queen Mary's Hall from 14:00 to 16:00. Here existing members and potential new members come along to learn more about our groups, enrol and join groups. As the students are on holiday, it should be easier to find a parking space.

​

​Previous monthly meetings at QMC

• For January, February and March 2022, we held online meetings on Zoom,  with fascinating talks on the British Museum, the Chelsea Flower Show and the making of the film War Horse.

• In April and May 2022, we returned to QMC for face-to-face meetings and refreshments at Queen Mary's Hall, with talks entitled Keep Calm I'm an air traffic controller and You the jury.

• In July, one of our members gave a talk entitled My Shirley Valentine Experience, followed  by our Annual General Meeting and refreshments.

• In October, we had great fun, taxing our brains in a team quiz event, with teams arranged on the day.

• In November, an external speaker talked about the history and mystery of hypnosis. We were very relieved that nobody got hypnotised during his talk!

• In December, Tony provided a small choir, who were absolutely brilliant.  They sang five short choir-only carols and Tony then led the audience in Away in a Manger and O Come All Ye Faithful. Seasonal refreshments were available before and after the meeting, to welcome in the festive period together.

• In February 2023, the presenter talked about her great aunt, who was a woman of high social status, a wife of a British official, born in 1898. This was her account of her life in Burma and the story of a civilian trek in 1942 involving thousands of people who had to face for the first time in their lives, an arduous hike across some of the world's most treacherous terrain, dealing with monsoon climatic rivers, jungles and dangerous wild animals. 

• 8th March 2023 Basingstoke Foodbank - Generosity and Need. We had planned to look behind the scenes of an extraordinary organisation and to hear about the remarkable generosity of the people of Basingstoke, but also the heartbreaking stories of local residents, who struggle to make ends meet. However, we had to postpone this due to a heavy snowfall.

​