General Meetings

We hold a General Meeting twice a month. These feature an invited speaker and cover a wide range of topics as you can see from the examples below. They are invariably well attended as our members know that they can look forward to an entertaining, as well as interesting, afternoon.

Members are free to come to any of the meetings. However, because attendances were approaching the capacity of the hall, it would be appreciated if you would ration yourselves to one meeting a month.

Current Programme

Contact	-
Date and Time	-	1st Thursday & 3rd Wednesday, 14:30
Meeting Place	-	Drake Hall, Amersham Community Centre

5 August:	Lt. Col. David R. Gilbert - Tormented Genius: Caravaggio, his life and work. David Gilbert came to speak to us last year. He first worked for ICI and then for over thirty years with Hawker Siddeley becoming Legal Director towards the end of his career. He has recently been researching the painter Caravaggio, the subject of his talk.
18 August:	Mike Beech – Russia Past and Present. Mike worked for over thirty years for Kodak as an internal Management Consultant and worked for short periods in most European countries. This illustrated talk will present some interesting and stimulating aspects of a coach journey through Russia, the largest and possibly the most enigmatic country in the world. It will include architecture, the transport system, and many beautiful buildings including the opulence of the Kremlin and the Hermitage, and see how this contrasts with the poverty in the countryside. The talk will also look at some of the key aspects of Russian history and explore how Russia is slowly emerging from the constraints of 60 years of communism.
2 September:	Dr. Tony Williams - 'That Magic Lantern': Dickens and London. Dr Tony Williams taught English from 1969-1997, including twenty-two years at Chesham High School becoming Head of the Sixth Form for eleven years. After retirement in 1997 he became Joint General Secretary of the International Dickens Fellowship and a trustee of the Charles Dickens Museum in Doughty Street, London. Currently he is a Research Fellow in the School of Humanities at the University of Buckingham, involved in a project to have all of Dickens's journalism online, edited and accessible to all levels of user by 2012, the bicentenary of Dickens's birth.
15 September:	Kenneth Mathews - Victorian Ad-Venture. Kenneth has spent his career in senior positions covering advertising, public relations and corporate communication. As Governor of 'The History of Advertising Trust' he has specialised in the Victorian era. The Victorians were the creative interpreters of the most radical transformation ever seen in the world, before them, industrialisation was confined to a few towns in Britain, after them, the whole world was covered with railways and factories - and the unstoppable rise and spread of technology would continue into the age of Silicon Valley. So how did the Victorians communicate the changes imposed by the Industrial Revolution? The answer is Advertising, and it is the subject of this talk.
7 October:	John Tyler - Natural Signals. John Tyler has spoken to Chiltern U3A on several wildlife subjects. On this occasion he will take us on a tour of the myriad ways in which animals and plants communicate with each other - what they say, and how they say it.
20 October:	Stephen Palmer - The Life and Times of Samuel Pepys. Stephen is a well known member of Chiltern U3A and has presented two other excellent talks in the past. In this talk Stephen will introduce us to Samuel Pepys who was an important figure in Restoration London; he was a cultured man with broad tastes, a rich curiosity and an acute ability to observe and record. All this is recorded in his unique diaries. Stephen will invite us to enter into this life and explore turbulent happenings in a vibrant city.
4 November:	Gordon Casbeard and Tony Brown - Another Touch of Glass. This is a Victorian Magic Lantern Show which looks back on Victorian Times using and original Victorian Magic Lantern and original slides. It is the second time that Gordon and Tony have given Chiltern U3A a presentation and they have promised to show further slides from their large collection. An opportunity to sit back and look at a bygone age.
17 November:	Runnals Davis - Out of the Track of the World: the Waterways of Britain. Runnalls is a Writer, Photographer and Lecturer on the English Canal System. This is an informal and very personal look at the waterways, and more specifically the canals, of England and Wales. It deals with the scenery, waterside features, and the natural history of the canals, as well as with the life and traditions of the boat-people, and holiday and leisure opportunities.