In the Autumn of 2008, we were delighted to learn that we had been awarded an Awards For All grant to fund a project to buy audio/visual and computer equipment for use by members of our Monks Brook U3A. We are extremely grateful for the award of the grant, which has enabled us to improve communication between our U3A members as well as helping local charity groups for the elderly or disabled.
During the year since then, we have progressed our project, learning how to make best use of the equipment. The bulk of the items were purchased and in use very early on in the project and have enabled us to greatly enhance our interaction with the members of our specialist groups as well as at our monthly meetings, where the projector and sound system are used to display upcoming events for the month as well as reinforcing the voice of invited speakers so that everyone in the hall, about 120 or so, can hear the proceedings properly.
The equipment is also used by U3A members in a number of our various sub groups such as Art Appreciation, History of Movies, Bird recognition, Health Affairs, to name but a few, for video and slide presentations; it has also been used for giving talks to other charity groups in the area, e.g. the Romsey Stroke Club.
The computer equipment is used for teaching a growing number of people the intricacies of Microsoft operating systems and the Office suite.We have a number of "experts" who gather small groups to explain and demonstrate computer usage, from initial hands on, progressing to more advanced work with particular office and other image and sound editing applications.
We have developed a reservation system on our U3A web site to allow equipment booking by all group members trained in the use of particular items. All in all, the project has proved a challenge as well as providing an enormous amount of satisfaction that the items we chose have proved suitable!