GROUP LEADER’S PACK

(March 2018)

GROUP LEADER’S GUIDELINES

1. What is the Group Leader’s (GL) Role?

2. Starting a New Group?

3. How do I keep a record of my Member’s attendances to Group Meetings?

4. What is the” Administration” page?

5. Events Calendar; Group Information A–Z; Group Reports; Latest News; Events/Changes

6. Who are the Committee?

7. Who are the other Group Leaders?

8. E mailing Group Members (Data Protection)

9. Reminding members of upcoming meetings

10. What if a Group Member is becoming disruptive?

11. How do I deal with Enrolment of New Members and the Renewal of existing Members?

12. What do I do about Publicity?

13. What does the Web Master do?

1. Group Leader’s Role

1.1 To co-ordinate the Group and its activities and agree with the members their aims and
objectives for the group.

1.2 To plan Group meetings, the timings, venue and directions of how to get there. These should
be set out in the Events Calendar, Group Web Page or News & Notices page.

1.3 To be aware of members’ special needs, e.g. the hard of hearing/disabled.

1.4 To follow the other guidelines in this Document.

2. Starting a New Group

2.1 Inform and discuss with the President or Vice President (Pr or VP) your desire to start a new
Group, together with details of the proposed group’s aims and objectives. This should include a
description of your experience and skills in the subject matter (there is no need to be in an
expert, just an enthusiastic amateur will do). Initial contact should be made on;
u3a4us@gmail.com

2.2 Propose dates, times and intervals of group meetings for approval by the Pr or VP, who will
ensure that these encroach as little as possible (if at all) with any other existing group activity,
dates or times.

2.3 Once you have agreed the form of wording with the PR or VP the Web Master (WM) will then
send a message to all the membership advertising the group activity.

2.4 Once you have established the group at the first meeting the names of the members attending
should be noted and sent to the Registration Secretary (RS) for record purposes. Also
confirmation of the location, date and times of the proposed meetings should be sent to the
WM. You should next prepare a draft “Script” to be added to the Web Site advertising your
group activity (your group web page). You can add photographs at any time to enhance your
own site.

2.5 If a person who is not a member attends one of your group meetings with the view of joining,
then they can join there and then, or be given “a free go” to see if the activity is for them.
However, if your proposed new member attends your group meeting a second time, then they
will have to join if they wish continue with us.

3. Members’ Attendances

3.1 A “Register of Attendees” should be kept by the Group Leader (GL). You should let the RS
know as soon as possible whenever you have a new member joining your group meetings, so
this can be entered onto the Database. This Register can be downloaded from the
“Administration” part of the Web Site

4. Administration Page

4.1 This is found amongst the headings on the Web Site. This contains access to the Database, the
Expenses Form, Group Register of Attendees and the Group Leaders Pack.
5. Events Calendar; Web Group Page; Latest News (updates); Goup Reports

5.1 All these can be found on the Home page of the Web Site.

6. The Committee

6.1 These are the people listed on sheet one of the “Members Database” in the “Administration”
page on the Web Site. These show their respective names, designations and contact details.

7. Group Leaders

7.1 These are the people listed on sheet one of the “Members Database” in the “Administration”
page on the Web Site. These show their respective names, designations, and contact details.

8. E mailing Group Members

8.1 Data Protection, especially members’ personal data is extremely important

When sending e mails to members ensure at all times that their e mail addresses do not appear
on the e mail, i.e. send the e mail to yourself with group members getting a “Blind Copy” of
your e mail, (bcc in address line).

Always check, before you send the e mail, that you have used “bcc” for the
recipients addresses

9. Reminding Group Members

9.1 If your group meets just once a month or every four weeks it is a good idea to send an e mail
reminder to your group members of your next meeting.

10. Disruptive Group Member

10.1 In the event of any member of your group (or any other group) acting in such a way as to
interfere with the running of your group it must be reported to the Pr or VP to deal with
straight away as per Article 10 of the Constitution of the U3A.

11. New Members and Renewal

11.1 Our Constitution states that after a period of two months has elapsed without the payment of
the requisite fees, a member’s membership will end. As our membership year starts on 1st
January, this means that members have until the end of February to renew.

11.2 FEES: Renewals: €6 Euros

New Members: €6 Euros until end of August then €4 Euros for the rest of the year.

11.3 You should have some New and Renewal Members forms at each meeting. When you receive a
form you sign the receipt on behalf of our Association (tear off the bottom) and hand it to the
new/existing member. You should PRINT your name in the red coloured {for office use}
section of the main form and if available sign the Members card for this year. The main part of
the form must then be sent to the RS who will issue a members card if required
11.4 You should now make arrangements for the fees to be given to the Treasurer. You can also pay
them directly into the Association’s bank account at any branch of Unicaja, quoting account:

“Asociacion U3A El Morche, Cuenta de abono ES35-2103 0233 11-0030014698”

You should email the Treasurer and RS with details of the payment.

12 Publicity

12.1 Responsibility for publicity e.g. press releases; public relations; marketing; advertising etc. is
managed by the Press Officer (PO). All requests must therefore be referred to the PO.

13. Web Master

13.1 The WM maintains the Web Site by adding and amending contents as per Group Leader’s
instructions. This includes the Events Calendar; Latest News and Updates; Group Reports etc.
The WM uploads the material given. It is the responsibility of the Group Leaders to keep these
pages up to date. The WM does not edit the material so please be sure your information is
correct.

13.2 To sum up, a Group Leader can have up to four entries on the Web Site:-

1. Group web page which is an overview of your group, some pictures, audio or video

2. Events calendar, which shows the date, time and place of your meeting

3. News page, which shows any information and notices you wish published

4. Report page, which shows any group meeting reports that you have written.

13.3 Each Group Leader can, if they wish, have a separate group e mail account specific to their
group, in order to keep group communications separate from their personal e mails. You can
use this specific e mail address to send e mails to your group to ensure personal data is
protected. If you require a group specific e mail address, this can be obtained from the WM.

13.4 Please send all material for the WM to U3A4us@gmail.com

2018 Edition