Curriculum Updates

The Gateway News - an occasional newsletter for members of U3A Hawthorn
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CHOIR CONCERT

A Royal Progress

The Queen's Jubilee

2.30pm, Saturday 18th June, 2022
St John’s Anglican Church
552 Burke Road, Camberwell

"Your Gateway to learning"

Phone:
9821 0282

Email:
mail@u3ahawthorn.org.au

Office Hours
9.30am - 4:00pm

closed on Monday 13 June
Queens Birthday public holiday

Upcoming State Election

As members would be aware there was some controversy regarding a non-profit organisation, namely Guide Dogs Victoria, in the lead up to the Federal elections last month, where it was perceived that they had breached the requirement for registered charities to remain non-political. The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) specifies on its website that "promoting or opposing a political party or candidate for political office" will disqualify an organisation from being a registered charity.

U3A Hawthorn is an Incorporated Association and registered with ACNC as a charity. That status is critical to our operation as a non-profit and to the consequent taxation status.

Whilst we have drawn members attention to our Code of Conduct and our Expectation of Members documents, the Committee of Management has determined that a specific policy needs to be put in place with regards to our interaction with political candidates in the campaign phase before an election.

We fully understand the importance of classes whose focus is current affairs and associated political issues. However we are concerned that having candidates attend classes as a guest speaker during an election campaign may give rise to media coverage, initiated by such candidates, of their attendance and hence the perception that U3A Hawthorn is supporting or endorsing the candidate.

The Committee has been provided with a submission on the issue from one class and met with tutors of other current affairs classes, on how best to deal with the issue. At its June Meeting the Management Committee passed a resolution that;

"from 1 October to 26 November 2022, the date of the Victorian State election, no guest speakers who are political candidates or politicians standing for that election (or representatives of their parties/political groups) may be invited to present to a class at U3A Hawthorn. Outside of this period the existing requirement remains, that tutors/convenors ensure a balance of views is presented, including inviting politicians representing different political parties/groups.

Review of this policy and adherence to it will be undertaken to determine how it might apply to future elections.

In addition to the above, anyone seeking to use the logo of U3A Hawthorn, or have it displayed as part of a photo displayed or shared on public media, including the internet, must seek prior approval of the Committee of Management. Such requests can be made by email to secretary@u3ahawthorn.org.au

Car Parking Reminder

The car park off Sinclair Avenue is a public car park and the majority of the parking bays have restrictions of 3 hours.

This is regarded as essential to prevent commuters (both train and bicycle) filling the car park all day. In submissions to Boroondara Council we have been able to secure a small number of 4 hour bays for the use of tutors and office volunteers. Our suggestion, that we provide identification of our members and thus waive parking restrictions for them, was firmly rejected.

Members are reminded that parking officers do monitor use of the car park. Recently a number of members were fined for parking over the 3 hour limit.

U3A Hawthorn is not in a position to reimburse members who are fined for not observing the parking restrictions.

Members are also urged not to occupy parking bays marked with 4 hour parking as these are essential for tutors who have 'back-to-back' classes.

If you anticipate you will be longer that 3 hours you have the option of parking in Sinclair Avenue on the park side where there are no restrictions. Note, however, that the residential side is permit parking only. You may also park adjacent to the South Camberwell Tennis Club on the east side of Burke Road where no restrictions apply. Access to U3A Hawthorn is via the underpass beneath Burke Road along the Gardiners Creek shared walking/riding path.

All members are asked to ensure that air-conditioners and fans are turned off and windows closed and locked at the end of the day. It is not just the responsibility of tutors/convenors - we ask that anyone who turns on air-conditioners, equipment etc or opens windows is also responsible for turning them off, closing etc. This is important for the security of the building as well as keeping costs down, especially at this time of increasing energy costs.

The Health Series was introduced several years ago and has provided excellent external speakers on a diverse range of health related topics. However we have found this year that the number of members enrolling in these sessions has declined and it is unfair to ask professional people in the very hard pressed health sector to come to talk to only a small group of people. Therefore the series has been suspended and sessions which had been advertised have been cancelled. This decision will be reviewed later in the year and your feedback would be welcomed. Thank you to Helen Pickering who has worked very hard to co-ordinate this series and invite the excellent external presenters.

Make sure you CHECKOUT your enrolments

A number of people do not complete all the steps required to enrol in a course, stopping after they have clicked "Add to Cart" and so find they are not enrolled.

To enrol in a course, go to the bottom of the course description and select ADD TO CART. You then need to go to the CHECKOUT menu item and click on the CHECKOUT icon as shown;

You can then go to MY ENROLMENTS and confirm that you are enrolled by seeing that the course is listed.

Does anyone have these U3A Hawthorn Great Courses DVDs?

U3A Hawthorn purchased The Great Courses: The History of British India and The Story of Medieval England - courses delivered by Vin Underwood in 2018 and 2019.

The DVDs were then available for loan, but they have disappeared. Does anyone have them? If so please return them to Reception.

New and upcoming courses with vacancies
June - November 2022

For more information and to enrol in courses please log into the Membership System
or call at Reception. New courses/presentations are added as they are organised.

Download a complete listing by clicking here
(larger print size)

The Derek Readman Lecture Series

Julian Gardner AM

Human rights and cognitive disabilities
Tuesday, 9 August 2022, 2pm, Hall

Julian Gardner as been involved for several decades with human rights and social justice. Most recently, he was a member of the State government’s Expert Advisory Panel on the drafting of the historic Voluntary Assisted Dying Act and then chaired the committee that implemented that Act. He is now Chair of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board.