u3a

Forest Town & District

Welcome to Forest Town and District U3A




We have our Monthly General meeting on the 1st Friday of the month in the concert room of the Forest Town Arena.

The meeting is open is to all members and visitors, see the General News page for details.

Visitors are welcome, we like to see new potential members to our u3a.

If this is your first time at one of our meetings speak to one of the Greeters at the door and sign in as a visitor at the reception table, visitors are allowed to attend two meetings before deciding to join us.

We usually have a guest speaker at the meeting or are entertained by our own activity groups.

The Events  page will show you a list of our speakers for the forthcoming months and the subject they will be covering, talks are very wide-ranging and are informative and often amusing.

Throughout the year we have days out, holidays and extra meetings all arranged by our social team and Group leaders. The Easter Bonnet parade, Summer Ball and Hallowe’en party are always very popular.

You can make enquiries and book your place and pay for these trips at one of the tables at the monthly General meeting. Some of our Activity Groups have tables in the room and this is a good opportunity to talk to the group leader.

You can find us on Facebook at Forest Town u3a Group

Members on the recent Rhubarb trip, more photos on the Photographs page.

Family History Group


Membership renewal.

It is not too late to renew your membership, you have until the 8th. of May to renew.  After that date your details will be removed from our membership database.
You can always re-join at a later date by completing a membership application form.

The annual fee for Individual membership is £20. Associate membership, for those who are already members of another u3a, is £16.
There is a Renewal Form to complete before you can pay your subscription, a copy of the form is attached to the March 2026 Newsletter.
If you are unable to complete the attached form copies will be available at the General Meeting for you to collect and fill in.
Ways to pay:
Contactless Payment with your Bank Debit Card.
Cheque, payable to Forest Town & District u3a.
Bank Transfer, Sort code: 30-90-89 Account number: 53978960. (Business account).
Please put your membership number in the reference box to identify your payment.

The fees are £20.00 for full membership and £16.00 for associate membership. (For associate membership please provide proof of membership of another u3a)

You can pay by Bank transfer:

Bank transfer to 30-90-89 53978960 (Business account). To identify your payment please include your Name and Membership Number in the Reference Box on Online Banking.

Or by Contactless Payment with your Bank Debit Card at the General meeting.

Gift Aid - As a registered charity Forest Town u3a can reclaim 25p Gift Aid for every £1 of your subscription from the tax you pay for the current tax year. To enable us to do this members will need to sign a Charity Gift Aid Declaration Form. Forms will be available at the General Meetings or you can download one here: Gift Aid Declaration form.


Newsletters

The colourful and informative April 2026 edition of the newsletter is now available to read on the Newsletters page,

Notts County Council bulletins and all previous newsletters are also available.

To read the Newsletters and other .pdf documents on this website you will need Adobe Reader or Adobe Reader DC. There is a download link to the Adobe website and guidance on the Computer and IT Group pages.


Forest Town U3A has over 20 groups that you are welcome to join, if you have a skill, interest or hobby that you would like to share please think about starting your own group, it doesn't necessarily have to be one person, two or more people can share the running of a group.

The u3a ‒ what does it mean to you?

The original University of the Third Age (u3a) was started in 1973 by Professor Pierre Vellas from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Toulouse University, France, his more academic version with connections to local university continues to be the model in much of continental Europe.

In the UK however the original French concept was significantly modified into a Self-help organisation originally focussing on people of retirement age and recognising that they have something to contribute, the emphasis has been on sharing, without formal educational links, many English speaking countries have followed the UK pattern.

Today there are some 1035 separate u3as in the UK, with almost 400,000 members between them. Each one is independent but affiliated to the Third Age Trust, the aim is to encourage people who are no longer in full employment to engage in educational and cultural activities and to find and help such people use their skills to learn and teach others.

‘The Third Age’ is defined as a time in your life (not necessarily chronological) where you have the opportunity to undertake learning for its own sake, this means that in today's u3a movement there is no minimum age, rather a focus on people who are no longer in full time employment or raising a family.

Help in running a group is available, contact our Groups co-ordinator Marilyn Redfern by clicking on this link: Groups Co-ordinator to find out more.

I know it's great to have lots of holidays and day trips and events going on but we need to get back to the roots of the u3a movement and keep our groups alive.

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