The Group

u3a Women’s Discussion Group has been ‘discussing’ for ten years topics ranging from Churchill’s quotation of 1946, ‘We are applying to the present, the habits of the past’, local places to visit for an interesting day out, gender issues and sharing our favourite poems. Among others we have had Jenny from Morrisons to talk to us about cheese and a healer to share her experiences. 

We meet every fortnight during the u3a term to discuss a topic chosen by one of the group and often augmented by others.  I have to be honest, despite a title, every topic seems to take on a life of its own and can wander far and wide!  

We do have a few ground rules, the main one being that we respect each other’s opinions and differences, what would a discussion group be without those?  We don’t discuss one another’s contribution outside the group and we don’t discuss domestic matters unless they serve to illustrate a point.

We start our meetings with a blow on the golden whistle ‘to focus our minds’, share u3a notices and always end with coffee in The Hub cafe.  For the last two Rustic Fayres we have, in the main, set up and manned the u3a stand and recruited not just members but also leaders!

The Leader

During my first week in Verwood there was a shop window of all Verwood societies held at the Memorial Hall. What a welcome from everyone, but it was the u3a, still in it’s infancy, that took my interest.
Whilst living in Devon I belonged to the National Women’s Register and was looking for something similar. Sadly there was nothing locally, so I decided to start a group under the u3a banner and so the Women’s Discussion Group was born nine years ago.
We started meeting in one another’s homes but soon outgrew even the largest of rooms. We’ve met in several venues in Verwood as we’ve grown in number, continuing to enjoy the camaraderie, support and sharing in common and not so common experiences of our members.
I think we have achieved the aim of ‘Friendship with a focus’ and I am sure we are all the richer for it, I certainly am!