The North West Region of U3As

Supporting U3As and their members in the NW of England
Latest News
Diary Of Events
Newsletter No 16
Newsletter No 15
Newsletter No 14
Events at NW U3As
Myerscough Easter School
NW U3As & Networks
Contacts & Committee
Report on Singing Days
Report November Workshop
Minutes of 2011 AGM
Archive Pages
Aims and Principles
Constitution
Shared Learning Projects
NW Survey Report 2011
Report on 2011 Arts and Crafts Day
Report on Carlisle 2011
Report Seminar Oct 2010
Report Energy Day 2010
Minutes of AGM 2010
Reports to AGM 2010
Report 2010 Lecture
Report Myerscough 2010
NW U3A Home Page
Report on NW Conf No 2
Report on NW Conf No 1
Older Newsletters
NW REGION OF U3As Home Page

This website gives News and Information about the NW Region of U3As and its activities.   
 
For latest updates please see 'Latest News'


The North West Region of U3As was set up early in 2009 as a result of an EGM of the Third Age Trust in spring 2008 establishing Regions as an entity. These regions are those that the government uses for regional development authorities and other matters  (i.e. for the NW the Counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside and all Unitary Authorities contiguous with these).  
 
All U3As in the NW are by right members without any payment. Delegate events which are for the purpose of disseminating information are free as they are to support the NW Trustee on the Third Age Trust (the Trust) and to act as a conduit, in both directions, for information between the Trust and individual U3As and local networks.

Another function is to arrange activities open to individual members of NW U3As.  These include Residential Schools, Day Conferences and visits. We also facilitate information exchange. These involve charges to partyicipabts but are designed to be revenue neutral.
The NW Region of U3A's differs from local U3A networks. Local networks such as the Cumberland Network, Lancashire Link, SW Lancs Network, Pennine Link etc concentrate on fostering local collaborations between U3As and organising local meetings. They have geographic boundaries set by themselves and in some cases overlap more than one region. Membership of networks is voluntary and most charge a small membership fee to their constituent U3As. There is no restriction on a U3A being a member of more than one network.
On the other hand the Region is defined by the Trust, all U3As are members and no fee is charged. The cost of providing statutory functions (e.g. an AGM and appropriate notifications) comes from central Trust funds whilst events such as study days, regional residential schools have, overall, to be self financing by making a charge to participating individuals.  Of course it is up to individual U3As to offer such support as they think fit to their own members to participate.