See below for the process for starting New Groups:
Process
BU3A Simple Membership Group Management
BU3A Simple Membership Events for Organisers Vs2
BU3A Equality Diversity and Inclusion Policy
Buckingham and District U3A CIO Constitution
Process for starting new Groups or taking over an existing Group:
(1) Contact Group Liaison Officer with your suggestion. Discuss possible venue, numbers, day and time; consider whether Treasurer needs to be contacted if a paid venue.
Make sure to outline how your group fits into our charitable objectives of providing educational activities and opportunities for people, in accordance with our affiliation to the Third Age Trust.
(2) Advertise group at Open Meeting and on web site. Gather names of interested people. When you have enough (4 or 5+) set up a first meeting. The GLO can help with a venue. At the meeting discuss with members how they want the group to develop in future, are they happy with day/time etc.
(3) Read through the GCs handbook and all the relevant policies and procedures from this page. These include Risk Assessment forms. Do ask for further clarification if necessary.
In order to be an official group and thus covered by U3A insurance, everyone in it needs to be a registered member (see next point).
(4) Ask GLO for group to be set up on Simple system for you to access, and the Webmaster for an official group email address to use (this uses webmail). Note that if anyone is not registered as a member you will not be able to add them to your group on the Simple system.
(5) Arrange with Treasurer how you will submit income from meetings.
Any further Questions about Groups should sent to:
Group Liaison Officer
Email
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Risk Assessments – See Forms Below
National U3A guidance on Risk Assessments is that Group coordinators should carry out Risk Assessments/Checklists prior to commencing a group meeting – members are entitled to assume that a U3A activity they are invited to take part in is safe for them to do so.
The best way to ensure this is to undertake a Risk Assessment/Checklist which will allow you to identify and deal with any obvious danger as well as recording the process you have been through. Risk Assessments/Checklists will vary in complexity depending on the activity being assessed.
Please remember you are not expected to be an expert in compiling such documents but it is correct for common sense to be applied to each activity to ensure any obvious dangers are dealt with.
Remember in exceptional circumstances, one possible outcome of undertaking a Risk Assessment/checklist is that the activity does not take place.
It is the responsibility of the Group coordinator to complete the appropriate Risk Assessment and to ensure that members have completed the personal assessment, but they do not need to see them. Should an incident occur it should be reported to the Group Liaison Officer, and a completed copy of the Incident Report form sent to the Secretary for filing in case of a claim arising in future.
U3A Risk Assessment FAQs Sept22-2
E10-Walk-Leader-Risk-Assessment-Checklist
U3A-KMS-FRM-016 Personal Members’ Checklist (Pre-attendance)
BU3A Risk Assessment Venue Form