A short set of notes to mark the last meeting of the Computer Group before it rises like a phoenix from the ashes as “Digital matters” in September (14th September to be precise). It was great to see some returning faces – David Hughes, Jonathan Guest, Steven Jones and Rob Morris; extend the welcome I should have made to Elaine Millward – attending her second meeting; report that Fred Davies was on the mend and hoped to be with us in the autumn and to accept apologies from Sianed, Don, Margaret and Sue.
But we still managed to have an attendance of 17 which was magnificent and which means we ended the year on a high point in terms of numbers. It was accepted that we would start the year in September with a subscription of £2.50 a meeting but would reduce it through the year if we were building up a surplus. [I’d much prefer to reduce through the year than increase.] My guess is that we are quite close to breaking even this year, but I’ve not done the sums yet. We started last year at £1.50each with a room fee of £15 an hour – but this increased at Christmas to £20 an hour with reducing numbers.
I encouraged members to join the Signal group and I have 4 members to add – Elaine, Rob, Steven and Tony – I should have sent the invites before these notes are published. I must also check that I’ve added members who have joined us through the year to the Thought grazing community – I know I must add Elaine, but there maybe others who might have been overlooked. In which case they’ll have a lot of reading to do to catch up!!!
I also mentioned the Meet the Groups event which will take place on October 10th at URC at 2:00pm. Yvonne and Stella offered to help me with the stall to describe what we do to prospective members who might have to go on a waiting list as I’m limiting the group size to 25 max. I mentioned that I had to write a new description for the group which I’d circulate for comment before submitting our new description to the u3a website.
Finally in the introductory remarks I mentioned to members that I was taking part in the inaugural Debating Society meeting opposing the motion “The Use of Artificial Intelligence will be a bad thing for mankind”. This will take place at URC on 5th September at 2:00pm. I’m looking for a Seconder and hopefully can get support from someone in the group.
I then presented the talk on Smart TVs which sparked some lively discussion, particularly from Ralph who would appear to be very knowledgeable on the subject and who contributed a lot to our understanding of colour and the need to really try and get to the point where we could appreciate that what you wanted to see in your home was the same as what you were being shown in the sale room.
Following that we had a discussion on developments in the ChatGPT/Bard and Artificial Intelligence space since we discussed it earlier in the year.
Have a great summer everyone. I hope to see you in September but if you don’t want to join the new Digital matters group, please let me know. You’ll always be able to access Thought grazing and I’ve no reason to take you off the Signal group.