I thought it was really valuable to share ideas and common practice, and especially to see the various publications. Thank you for all your hard work.
One gentleman said their u3a did a survey asking members what they like and what they don’t. I do hope he can share this survey here. It would be very useful.
A belated thanks for organising this. Very worthwhile. I have come away with several ideas on how to make our own website easier to navigate.
Quite a few references to surveying u3a membership to find out what folk think about u3a and what is needed to attract and retain membership. I would have thought TAT had a role here in commissioning a national survey that could cover both existing and potential members.
The results of the Sheffield u3a survey can be read via a link on the home page of their website.
Hi everyone – I’m from Sheffield u3a and I’m looking for examples of your ‘welcome packs’. I know there was one on display at the event, and I’m wishing I’d taken a photo. Could any of you send me an example of your welcome pack for new members? I’d be very grateful.
Many thanks. shirley@shirleytaylor.com
Ilkley & District do not have a welcome pack as such. Since January over 80% of our members have joined and paid on line and they get an email response with directions on how to register on the website. They are also invited to attend new member meetings which are held every quarter. Those who we do see face to face at drop-ins are given a printed summary of interest groups and six monthly magazine. Select here to see online versions. https://ilkleyu3a.org/Resources/Documents/PDF-Flip/bookshelf-EYE.html
At the meeting on Friday some said that FTPmachine merge is a good way of sending out emails. I have tried it but it appears that it requires MS Office 2013 or above to work. I refuse to pay money to Bill Gates so I use Libre Office. It doesn’t seem to work with Libre Office. Does anyone know a way of making it work?
Hi Douog
You shouldn’t require MS office. Under the Send tab, click EMAIL CONFIG. You will need a Gmail account. Then select GMAIL API. Click the gear wheel and AUTHORISE GMAIL. A browser window will open and you can select the account you want to use. Make sure the ‘I want to use outlook’ box is unchecked.
Hi again – I’m just looking at the notes we were given at the workshop listing all the questions that were sent in ahead of time. One person asked about free sits to obtain images and help with designing. I use CANVA (canva.com). There is a free version, but I subscribe to the Pro version, which gives access to premium content, more images, and design tools. It’s about £100 a year, which is amazing value.
Canva is not difficult to use. I used it recently to create our Su3a new trifold leaflet, plus our pull-up banner, They both worked out really great.
If we had enough people want to know more, I’d be happy to do a tutorial via Zoom.
Thanks for the Canva.com suggestion. I was looking for royalty free images so signed up.
Then I noticed that registered charities get the pro facilities for free. Application accepted after entering our charity registration number and responding to an email sent to our u3a website address for verification. It also looks as if I can have more members signed up as part of “my team” but I need to explore that further.
Over the next week or two I will explore the facilities and perhaps take you up on your offer of a zoom tutorial.
That’s fantastic. Good for you finding the pro facilities are free for charities. Enjoy finding your way around, and we can always arrange a Zoom call so I can show you more.
A very belated ‘thank you’ from me to the organisers of the workshop, and to all the participants for sharing their ideas and raising interesting issues.
I enjoyed talking about Ilkley & District’s social media activities. If anyone needs any help or advice about Facebook or Twitter, please do get in touch with me!
Morning all. I find the workshops really stimulating and I always come away with ideas brought by participants. Thank you to all the participants for the way you interact and contribute. Two more workshops in the pipeline thanks to Angie. I’ll keep the AGM part as short as possible at the next one.
I brought several ideas away from the workshop. I have re-vamped our website (http://www.hessle.org.uk/U3A/index.html) to break up the text into smaller bites and focussed more on engaging non-members with a view to recruiting. I have also started a Facebook page and twitter account and I am posting daily on both of them. I have added a link to the twitter account and changed to Facebook link to the new page instead of the closed group.
Yorkshire and Humber Region u3a 
[…] Communications Workshop 17th March 2023 […]
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Thanks Angie, Pat and Margaret and especially Elaine for a great presentation.
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And of course many thanks to Meeter and Greeter Hazel.
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I thought it was really valuable to share ideas and common practice, and especially to see the various publications. Thank you for all your hard work.
One gentleman said their u3a did a survey asking members what they like and what they don’t. I do hope he can share this survey here. It would be very useful.
LikeLike
A belated thanks for organising this. Very worthwhile. I have come away with several ideas on how to make our own website easier to navigate.
Quite a few references to surveying u3a membership to find out what folk think about u3a and what is needed to attract and retain membership. I would have thought TAT had a role here in commissioning a national survey that could cover both existing and potential members.
The results of the Sheffield u3a survey can be read via a link on the home page of their website.
LikeLike
Hi everyone – I’m from Sheffield u3a and I’m looking for examples of your ‘welcome packs’. I know there was one on display at the event, and I’m wishing I’d taken a photo. Could any of you send me an example of your welcome pack for new members? I’d be very grateful.
Many thanks.
shirley@shirleytaylor.com
LikeLike
Ilkley & District do not have a welcome pack as such. Since January over 80% of our members have joined and paid on line and they get an email response with directions on how to register on the website. They are also invited to attend new member meetings which are held every quarter. Those who we do see face to face at drop-ins are given a printed summary of interest groups and six monthly magazine. Select here to see online versions. https://ilkleyu3a.org/Resources/Documents/PDF-Flip/bookshelf-EYE.html
LikeLike
At the meeting on Friday some said that FTPmachine merge is a good way of sending out emails. I have tried it but it appears that it requires MS Office 2013 or above to work. I refuse to pay money to Bill Gates so I use Libre Office. It doesn’t seem to work with Libre Office. Does anyone know a way of making it work?
LikeLike
Hi Douog
You shouldn’t require MS office. Under the Send tab, click EMAIL CONFIG. You will need a Gmail account. Then select GMAIL API. Click the gear wheel and AUTHORISE GMAIL. A browser window will open and you can select the account you want to use. Make sure the ‘I want to use outlook’ box is unchecked.
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Thanks for the advice. I’ll try it tomorrow and let you know if I cracked it.
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Hi again – I’m just looking at the notes we were given at the workshop listing all the questions that were sent in ahead of time. One person asked about free sits to obtain images and help with designing. I use CANVA (canva.com). There is a free version, but I subscribe to the Pro version, which gives access to premium content, more images, and design tools. It’s about £100 a year, which is amazing value.
Canva is not difficult to use. I used it recently to create our Su3a new trifold leaflet, plus our pull-up banner, They both worked out really great.
If we had enough people want to know more, I’d be happy to do a tutorial via Zoom.
LikeLike
Thanks for the Canva.com suggestion. I was looking for royalty free images so signed up.
Then I noticed that registered charities get the pro facilities for free. Application accepted after entering our charity registration number and responding to an email sent to our u3a website address for verification. It also looks as if I can have more members signed up as part of “my team” but I need to explore that further.
Over the next week or two I will explore the facilities and perhaps take you up on your offer of a zoom tutorial.
LikeLike
Hi John
That’s fantastic. Good for you finding the pro facilities are free for charities. Enjoy finding your way around, and we can always arrange a Zoom call so I can show you more.
Shirley
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A very belated ‘thank you’ from me to the organisers of the workshop, and to all the participants for sharing their ideas and raising interesting issues.
I enjoyed talking about Ilkley & District’s social media activities. If anyone needs any help or advice about Facebook or Twitter, please do get in touch with me!
LikeLike
Morning all. I find the workshops really stimulating and I always come away with ideas brought by participants. Thank you to all the participants for the way you interact and contribute. Two more workshops in the pipeline thanks to Angie. I’ll keep the AGM part as short as possible at the next one.
LikeLike
I brought several ideas away from the workshop. I have re-vamped our website (http://www.hessle.org.uk/U3A/index.html) to break up the text into smaller bites and focussed more on engaging non-members with a view to recruiting. I have also started a Facebook page and twitter account and I am posting daily on both of them. I have added a link to the twitter account and changed to Facebook link to the new page instead of the closed group.
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I’ve followed you on Facebook and Twitter. Great stuff!
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