Presented by U3A Technology Corner, Helen Smith (U3A Nunawading) - 20th July 2022
Think your passwords are safe? Find out how the ‘bad guys’ get your passwords without you knowing. Explore ways of protecting yourself, even if your passwords have been ‘stolen’. This session will help you appreciate the risks involved with poor passwords and give you some strategies for keeping your account logins safe.
What is hacking and why should you care? Do you really need to worry about your U3APP login or just your bank account? How can you check if your email address has been stolen? Are your passwords following a common pattern? What are the best ways of generating and ‘remembering’ your passwords? These are just some of the questions answered in this riveting session.
As was reported to the last E-Bulletin, the Victorian DHHS and the City of Port Phillip have changed the COVID restrictions, effective as of 11.59pm Friday 22 April 2022. The following requirements will no longer apply for Community Centres:
All staff, vendors and attendees are fully vaccinated.
Electronic QR Code Check-in is completed on arrival.
Covid Marshal is appointed.
The new COVID restrictions mean vaccinations are no longer mandated for Community Centres, like U3APP. Therefore the Committee of Management has decided, unanimously, that the current U3APP policy that requires members to be vaccinated to attend face to face classes or events is no longer necessary. This is in line with both the current Victorian DHHS and CoPP restrictions.
Department of Health and Human Services currently recommends a 4th dose for those over 65 years which they are calling the Winter dose.
The Committee of Management recommend members keep their vaccinations up to date for their own safety but there is no longer the need to send proof of vaccination to U3APP.
Entry to Mary Kehoe Centre and the other U3APP venues no longer requires QR code check-in or a COVID Marshal. U3APP thanks all the office volunteers and face to face tutors for their hard work associated with the COVID Marshal process over recent months.
CHANGES TO THE COVID RESTRICTIONS 11.59PM FRIDAY 22 APRIL 2022
The Victorian DHHS and the City of Port Phillip have changed the COVID restrictions, effective as of 11.59pm Friday 22 April 2022. The following requirements will no longer apply for Community Centres:
All staff, vendors and attendees are fully vaccinated.
Electronic QR Code Check-in is completed on arrival.
Covid Marshal is appointed.
For U3A Port Phillip, this means that:
Members entering a U3APP venue are no longer required to do the QR check-in or have their check-in and vaccination status checked before entering the venue.
There is no requirement for a check-in marshal at the entrance to the venues.
At the Mary Kehoe Centre, the front door no longer needs to be locked.
At the other Community Centres, entry remains through the locked doors.
The requirement for members to be vaccinated in order to attend face to face classes or events is under consideration by the U3APP Community of Management, and remains in effect until further advice.
To maximise the safety of our members, ventilation and contact tracing remain important.
Everyone is asked to increase the ventilation of the rooms by opening the doors and windows during classes. The windows in Room 3 at Mary Kehoe are scheduled to be replaced on 6th June, such that they can be opened.
Any member who is diagnosed with COVID is asked to advise the Health & Safety Office by email on hso@u3app.org.au, to enable contact tracing of inadvertent exposures to COVID in the U3APP venues.
Robyn Walters, of the newly formed Climate Champions group, writes this introduction for their topic of the month, written by David Sonenberg, The Role of Seaweed in Mitigating Climate Change.
"Thanks to our enterprising tutor, Hannah Len, the Climate Change U3APP Class has created a follow-on group called Climate Champions. We connect to continue investigating, sharing ideas and being proactive about Climate awareness. Hannah stimulated us to educate ourselves about topics we had not known about before such as:-
Carbon Capture
Green Hydrogen
Climate aware farming practices
Activities in our area
The role of clouds
The usefulness of kelp.
When we gather, there are lots of questions raised. Maybe you'll have some too."
The Role of Seaweed in Mitigating Climate Change
Seaweed and moo noos (Cattle)
Did you know – methane emissions from livestock make up about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Did you know – that a cow produces on average as much gas emissions as one car.
Did you know – that CSIRO in Australia claims that methane stays in the atmosphere for about nine years, a far shorter period than carbon dioxide, however methane's global warming potential is “86 times higher than carbon dioxide when averaged over 20 years….”.
Did you know – the CSIRO has developed a seaweed product that reduces greenhouse gases produced by cattle and has won a $1M international prize for doing so.
Did you know – that this seaweed product slashes the amount of greenhouse gases cattle ‘burp’ and ‘fart’ (mainly burping) into the atmosphere.
It is claimed that when this product is added to cattle feed, the product, which contains Australian “super seaweed” Asparagopsis, virtually eliminates methane from the animals bodily emissions. Also it is claimed that the potential for the product to reduce the world’s greenhouse gas footprint, if commercialised, was massive.
Watch this space for developments in the cattle industry.
Some other seaweed benefits
We are all familiar with the role forests play when it comes to providing a sustainable source of food, energy and raw materials, and locking away CO2 emissions. But perhaps we are less knowledgeable about the potential of forests of seaweed growing in the oceans.
Did you know – seaweed plays a crucial role in the ocean’s ability to absorb greenhouse gases and is grown around the world.
Did you know – seaweed is better at absorbing CO2 than trees are.
Did you know – seaweed is considered a high valued source of protein for humans and livestock.
A type of seaweed known as kelp, is being developed for its nutritional value and its ability to absorb and knock away huge quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2). Seaweed, in the oceans, helps to de-acidify the water and absorb CO2 more effectively than trees. It also improves water quality by extracting harmful nutrients such as nitrogen from the sea.
Seaweed / Kelp - what’s the difference?
Seaweed is a plant growing in the sea, especially marine algae; unlike land plants, it does not have roots, stems, leaves and flowers; and may be green, brown or red; it grows on the seashore, in salt-marshes, in brackish water or submerged in the ocean.
Kelp is any large, brown, cold water seaweed of the family Laminariaceae, used as a food and in various manufacturing processes, a bed or mass of such seaweeds.
David Sonenberg, Climate Champion
Artwork - Colin Sheppard, local artist - instagram @doitbabyfactory
U3A Port Phillip is run totally by Volunteers. Have you ever wondered what do they do behind the scenes?
In this article, we take you into the amazing world of how your Courses are scheduled.
To schedule a Course, we need two things: a Tutor to present a Course and a place to run the Course, either physical or virtual.
For Courses that run all year, Tutors propose the Course they wish to run in October/November of the preceding year. For Courses that run for a specific period such as one or two Terms, Tutors propose their Course approximately one month in advance.
In their proposals, Tutors also request a place to run their Course, for example:
Online
A City of Port Phillip venue, such as Mary Kehoe Hall, South Melbourne Community Centre Hall 1, Sol Green Community Centre Hall, Middle Park Community Centre Hall
If a Tutor is organising the venue in which the Course will run, the Tutor advises the location such as a private home or a bowling club or a park
For Online Courses, the U3APP IT group purchases the appropriate number of Zoom accounts to enable multiple concurrent Online Courses each day, including suitable gaps between Courses using the same account.
For City of Port Phillip venues, U3APP must apply to CoPP on an annual basis to hire specific rooms for specific dates over the financial year July to June. In 2021, applications for room hire are submitted during a 2 week time period at the start of May. After the application period closes, CoPP evaluates the applications, determines the successful applicants and advises the results in June. Due to the reduction of venues available for hire and capacity limits imposed by COVID requirements, CoPP cannot guarantee that requested days, times and venues will be available.
Once we know the Courses which Tutors wish to give and the venues we can use, then the Course Coordination team, in particular Ann Gibson, can start scheduling. Face to face Courses requirements, such as a particular venue, a particular day and time, a particular room size, are matched against the specific rooms available. COVID requirements impose additional restrictions on scheduling face to face Courses, such as longer gaps between Courses in the same room and staggered start times between courses in different rooms in the same venue. To achieve a workable Course Schedule requires cooperative consultations and a team effort between the Tutors and Course Coordination. In practice, the fluidity of available face to face rooms caused by COVID restrictions has necessitated continuous consultations since October 2020.
How to Withdraw from a Course
On-line:
Login to the U3APP website.
Go to “Your Courses and Events” in the Membership menu.
Beside the appropriate course name, click on Cancel.
If the course is full:
this will generate an email* to the Enrolment team so that they can offer your place to the first person on the waitlist.
IMPORTANT – press SEND, which sends the email to our Enrolment team, with a copy to yourself.
OR if the course isn’t full, you will simply be removed from the course list.
PLEASE NOTE that if you withdraw from a FULL course, your name will not be removed from the course list until the Cancel email is read and processed by our volunteer Enrolment team. This may take up to 2 days.
Via the Office: notify the office in person, or by email or phone.
How to Enrol
On-line: after bookings have opened
On-line enrolments are preferred as this significantly reduces the amount of back-office work for our volunteers.
Login to the U3APP.org.au website.
Go to the Courses & Enrolling page.
Scroll down to find the course that you are interested in.
Does the course have spaces available?
Click on the course name to go to the booking page.
Click on “Book for this course or event”.
You will receive a confirmation email. Please check your Junk/Spam folders as these automatically-generated emails often finish up there.
OR is the course shown as FULL?
Click on WAITLIST.
Paper Enrolment Form: before bookings open for First Semester
Obtain a paper Enrolment Form either from the Office or by printing an online copy available here.
Complete the paper Enrolment Form and submit it to the Office.
The start date for acceptance of paper Enrolment Forms for first semester is published on the U3APP website and in the e-Bulletin. Enrolment Forms received before this date are treated as though they had been received on the start date (ie there is no advantage to be gained by submitting early). On the start date and thereafter, paper Enrolment Forms are numbered in order of receipt. Paper Enrolment forms are processed by U3APP volunteers on the same day as on-line bookings.
If your enrolment is successful, you will receive a confirmation email. Please check your Junk/Spam folders as these automatically-generated emails often finish up there.
If your enrolment is unsuccessful, you will receive an email telling you that you have been waitlisted.
Via the Office: after bookings have opened
Contact the office in person, or by email or phone.
How to go on the Waitlist
If you are disappointed to find that a course you would like to join is already full, we urge you to waitlist yourself. This helps us know what the demand is for our courses, and whether we need to try to find more tutors for a particular subject. Our enrolment team moves hundreds of members off Waitlists during the year.
You can go on the Waitlist for any course or event which is shown as FULL.
If your computer or device is set up to handle email links, clicking on the WAITLIST button will automatically generate an email for you, and all you have to do is click or tap on the SEND icon.
Here is the normal process, which works for most people:
Login to the U3APP website.
Go to the Courses and Enrolling page.
Click on WAITLIST beside the full course or event you wish to attend. This will generate a waitlist email, which contains the name of the course, your name and membership status.
IMPORTANT – click or tap your SEND icon, which sends the email to the Waitlisting system, with a copy to you.
If your system is not set up to handle email links, and clicking on the WAITLIST button doesn’t create an email automatically, you need to either create the Waitlist email yourself or fix the problem on your device. Click here for instructions.
If you are trying to enrol in a very popular course on enrolment day, and your system doesn’t handle email links, we suggest you follow the instructions above to fix the problem in advance, so you are able to waitlist yourself if you aren’t successful in getting a place.
Enrolment FAQs for 2022
Do I have to be a U3APP member to enrol for 2022 courses?
YES. You must have paid your 2022 membership by midnight on Sunday 12 December 2021 prior to the start of Enrolment Week on Monday 13 December 2021. If you’re not sure of your membership status, go to the U3A Port Phillip website, login, and your status will be displayed at the top of the screen.
Please note that the option to pay membership will be TURNED OFF prior to the commencement of Enrolment Week to ensure that the response time for people enrolling is not impacted by people renewing at the last minute. It will remain OFF until the end of Enrolment Week on Friday 17 December, but by then popular courses will have filled. So MAKE SURE you renew by Sunday 12 December.
When/how can I enrol in a course?
We prefer you to login and enrol on-line via our website, as it saves a lot of manual processing. However we do accept paper enrolment forms. On-line enrolments open Monday 13 December for Monday courses, Tuesday 14 December forTuesday courses, and so on through the week.
Within each day the opening time for enrolment depends on the type of course:
9:00am On-line booking opens for all Exercise courses, with an E as the second character of the course code.
10:00am On-line booking opens for all Language courses, with an L as the second character of the course code.
11:00am On-line booking opens for ALL other courses.
Enrolments stay open for every course until the course fills. Waitlists are on-going – you can add yourself at any time.
For details of how to submit a paper enrolment, click on the question “I would rather put in a paper enrolment. When can I do so?” below. Processing of the paper forms will be done each day during Enrolment Week at the same time as for on-line bookings: first Exercise courses at 9:00, then Language courses at 10:00, then everything else at 11:00.
I can’t login to the U3APP website – what do I do?
If you have any problems logging in, please send an email to webmaster@u3app.org.au and someone will assist.
I’ve been attending a course in 2021 – do I have to enrol again?
YES. All courses are filled on a first-come-first-served basis. No preference is given to people who have been attending the course in the past. You need to enrol in the course during or after Enrolment Week (13-17 December).
I’m already on a Waitlist for a course I want to join. Do I have to do anything?
YES. All courses are filled on a first-come-first-served basis. Waitlists are cleared at the end of the year and no preference is given to people who have been on a Waitlist. You need to enrol in the course during or after Enrolment Week (13-17 December). If the course fills before you enrol, then you need to waitlist yourself again for 2022.
Am I more likely to get into a course if I enrol on-line?
We try and make the enrolment process as fair as possible. Paper enrolments are numbered in order of receipt and keyed by volunteers at the same time as on-line enrolments are opened. If you have a low-numbered paper enrolment, you will probably get a place in the courses you want. If you have a higher numbered paper enrolment, you are more likely to miss out on a popular course.
I would rather put in a paper enrolment. When can I do so?
Completed forms will be accepted in person by the Office Managers in the week before Enrolment Week, ie from Monday 6 December to Friday 10 December between 9:30am and 3:30pm.
Forms can also be delivered by post or in person into the mailbox at the Mary Kehoe Centre at any time on or after 6 December until 10 December.
The mailbox will not be cleared before Monday 6 December so there is no advantage to delivering a form early. The mailbox will be cleared daily during the week. The latest time for submission of paper forms is 3:30pm Friday 10 December.
Are 2022 courses being held face-to-face or on-line?
Some tutors have decided that they prefer to run their courses online using Zoom. These courses are indicated in the Course Guides as ZOOM.
If you can’t or don’t want to attend courses via ZOOM, then you should NOT enrol in any of the courses so marked.
Many of the courses which ran on ZOOM in 2021, together with courses that did not run in 2021, will return to Face-to-Face (F2F) delivery in 2022. These show the physical location for the course in the Course Guide, and are also listed on the Face-to-Face courses page.
How do I maximise my chances of getting into a popular course?
Here are some hints:
Check that you can login to the website well before Enrolment Week starting on Monday 13 December – send an email to webmaster@u3app.org.au if you have a problem.
Check that you are showing as a Member or Life Member. If you think you have renewed but you are still showing as a Free Subscriber or Unfinancial Member, send an email to webmaster@u3app.org.au. If you intend to enrol in a F2F course, your status must be Vaccinated Member or Vaccinated Life Member.
If you haven’t used the on-line enrolment system before or recently, practise booking into the Dummy classes on the Courses and Enrolling page that are set up for this purpose (first courses on Monday).
During Enrolment Week, login to the website well before enrolment bookings open at 9:00am each day, so you are all ready to go.
If you want to enrol in more than one course on the same day, book the one that you think is most likely to fill first, then the next most popular, and so on.
What if I miss out on the course I want to do?
Unfortunately, some of our courses are very popular and they may fill before you try to enrol. When this happens, the entry in the Courses and Enrolling page will change so that you can’t click on it to enrol. Instead the word WAITLIST will appear beside it. If you missed out, please click on the word WAITLIST. This will create an email message which you must SEND to put yourself on the Waitlist. Waitlists are processed in order of receipt of these emails.
Is it worth bothering to put myself on the Waitlist for a class that is full?
YES and YES. For two reasons:
Over time, most people on a Waitlist get into the course. Often people who start a course find they can’t or don’t want to continue within the first week or so of the course, so you may not have to wait long.
If the Course Coordinators know that there is a big demand for a course, they may be able to find another tutor to run a similar course, or persuade a tutor to run a second session, or to repeat the course. If that happens, people on the Waitlist for the course will be given preference for places on the additional course.
I enrolled in one of the Dummy courses – should my name appear in the list of attendees?
You need to refresh the page before your name will appear. To ‘refresh’ your screen:
on your Apple Mac machine – press the Command and the R key at the same time
on your Windows machine – press the Ctrl and the R key at the same time
in most browsers, tap or click on a little circle with an arrow at the top of the screen
I enrolled in a Dummy course – should I receive a confirmation email?
Yes, you should. If you can’t find it, please check your spam or junk mail folder carefully. Many of our members have found that U3APP emails go into these folders, especially if they have a Gmail account. To find out how to stop this from happening for a Gmail account, click here.
Please note that during Enrolment Week, you will not receive a confirmation email immediately for each course. Instead you will receive one email within 24 hours which will list all the courses in which you have enrolled successfully.
I tried to put myself on the Waitlist for the Dummy full course and it did not create an email as it is supposed to. What do I do?
This can happen if there is a setting on your computer that isn’t correct. To find out how to fix it click here.
Is there a limit to the number of courses I can enrol in?
Because of high demand there are restrictions for some courses. (E) Exercise courses, (L) Language courses and (A) Art courses are limited to 2 of each type of course per member.
Apart from these limits, you can enrol in as many courses as you have time and energy for.
If you clicked on WAITLIST and it did not generate an email, read on...
If you are trying to Waitlist yourself for a course, and your device doesn’t create an email automatically when you click on the word WAITLIST, you may either (a) create the Waitlist email manually or (b) fix the problem on your device permanently.
(a) Create the Waitlist email manually
Please follow the instructions below.
Open your normal email, then create a new email message as follows:
To: waitlist@u3app.org.au CC: your email address bcc: u3appwaitlist@gmail.com Subject: WAITLIST coursecode coursename yourname
Important: Please include your phone or mobile number in the body of the email, and then SEND. ———————————-
Here is an example of a subject line, requesting waitlisting for the Course 5C02 Current Affairs.
WAITLIST 5C02 Current Affairs Helen Vorrath
The critical bits are the word WAITLIST at the beginning IN CAPITALS, followed immediately by the Course Code. It helps if you put the course name as well, as it verifies that you’ve put in the correct code. Putting your name in means that if someone calls you to tell you that you now have a place in the course, they know who they will be talking to.
NOTE that everytime you wish to WAITLIST, you will have to repeat the above steps for the appropriate course.
When you click on a link on a webpage, it may take you to a new page, a new window, or it may generate an email, using something called the MAILTO: protocol.
We use this email option on the U3APP website to generate emails relating to Course Management: waitlisting, cancelling or apologising. Some U3APP members have found this doesn’t work for them, because their MAILTO: protocol is set wrongly on their device
The steps in (b) above will fix the MAILTO: protocol for the device.
Who is U3A?
The University of the Third Age is an international movement whose aims are the education and stimulation of mainly retired members of the community—those in their third ‘age’ of life. It is commonly referred to as U3A.
There is no universally accepted model for the U3A. Its original conception in France as an extramural university activity was significantly modified in the United Kingdom where it was recognized that most people of retirement age have something to contribute and the emphasis has been on sharing, without formal links to traditional universities.
Many English-speaking countries have followed this geragogic model, whereas continental European countries have mostly followed the French model.
A British U3A website says about “The Third Age” membership eligibility: “U3A membership is not related to a specific age but to a period in one’s life (the third age) after the second age of full-time employment and parental responsibility.
Anybody in their third age can join U3A and this includes people who are working part-time. There is no lower age for membership.”
(from Wikipedia)
While membership of U3A doesn’t technically have an age restriction, the organisation was set up, and is predominantly run, for the benefit of those in their third age of life, usually retired or semi-retired, but still with an active interest in learning, teaching, new experiences and meeting like-minded people of a similar age, with many new and long lasting friendships formed from these meetings.
While we are delighted to receive new membership enquiries, we feel those of a younger demographic would perhaps not reap the benefits of the courses we have on offer, especially since they are intended for and run by and targeted to members of this older demographic.
When are we open?
Office hours:
9:30 am to 3:30 pm Monday – Friday (Excluding public and school holidays)
Class times:
Classes start as early as 9:15am and as late as 5:00pm. Some of our online classes may go into the evening. Classes range in length from 1 – 3 hours – the average is about 1.5 hours. Times are set according to the availability of rooms and the preferences of the volunteer tutor.
Keep calm and Zoom on
Many of you may have seen the rather sensational headline in the Guardian saying “Zoom is malware”.
Let’s look carefully at the real risk to U3APP and its members in using Zoom, and what we are doing to protect ourselves. Click on the arrow to see the answers to the questions below.
Can hackers or trolls “bomb” (break into) a U3APP meeting?
Links to U3A meetings are posted on the website in a “members-only” area, so not easily accessible to hackers and trolls.
All meetings are set up with a passcode to prevent hackers from getting in by trying a random meeting number. The link to the course meeting on the Online Courses Link page has the meeting number and passcode built-in, so you should NOT forward that to anyone other than a U3APP member.
Is what is transmitted in the Zoom meeting secure?
Zoom are working flat out to improve security (wouldn’t you if your product was receiving bad publicity?) and now provides end to end encryption. But most of what will be transmitted in U3APP classes would not be of interest to anyone else, anyway. We aren’t running Board Meetings for a multi-million dollar company. Keep your Zoom software up to date, for security reasons. Zoom audio and video are both encrypted.
Is it a risk to my personal privacy using Zoom?
It is probably no riskier than using Facebook or Google, both of whom capture data about you and what you are doing.
Why did we choose Zoom instead of Microsoft Teams?
In choosing apps for U3APP, we consider the following in order of priority:
fitness for purpose
ease of use
lifetime cost
security
Microsoft Teams is designed for use by closed, fixed teams working in collaboration within a company, where all users have access to the same software and hardware. You need a Microsoft Office 365 licence to use Teams, which many of our members don’t have, and don’t want (it has a cost). Microsoft Teams operates differently on different devices, which makes it harder for a community like U3APP to use. So while it has better security than Zoom, it doesn’t satisfy our other, more important priorities.
Zoom, on the other hand, works well, is easy to use on a variety of devices, has no cost for our members and is affordable for U3APP.
Security is not a high priority for U3APP because we are not transmitting confidential information that could be of interest or use to others. We are however taking all reasonable steps to ensure that there is no casual access to any of our sessions – they are “members only”.
Is there anything I should do to protect my privacy?
If you are concerned, then keep to the usual sensible rules for being “in public”:
make sure that you look OK (don’t Zoom in your PJs)
make sure that there is nothing very personal or private on view behind you
don’t say anything that you would be embarrassed about if someone overheard you in a cafe
Finally, it’s your choice and your decision to balance the risks of social isolation against any risks that might come with Zoom.
Note that in April 2020, Zoom issued A Message to Our Users to explain their immediate response to any issues of harassment or security and stressed that’s why it’s important to update your version of Zoom whenever prompted to do so. You can view Zoom’s compliance and certifications on their website.
Any other concerns you think this popup should address? Please email webmaster@u3app.org.au
Online Payment
Should you have concerns about security on the internet when paying by credit card or debit card, here is how we handle online payments.
To accept any kind of payment via a website, we have to use something called a “payment gateway”. Originally we set up the U3APP site using PayPal as our payment gateway, but we found that it was very awkward and error-prone for members who didn’t have a PayPal account (and many of our members didn’t, and didn’t want one).
We switched to an alternative gateway called Stripe. It has security which is as good as PayPal, but has a much simpler form for members to fill in, and lower costs for a not-for-profit organisation.
If you Google “is stripe more secure than paypal” you will find dozens of articles, all of which confirm that the Stripe security meets Payment Card Industry compliance standards, and is as good as PayPal. In fact, Stripe is probably better from a privacy point of view – because PayPal uses an account rather than just asking for credit card details, which means it is collecting your purchasing history each time you use it.
We used to use bank transfers eons ago. The problem is that it is a manual process, and an awkward one at that, which is not instantaneous and, like all manual processes, is subject to error. It relies on
The member putting some kind of ID in the comment field of the bank transfer
The treasurer looking at the bank statement and identifying all the membership payments
IT then going into s2Member and manually updating the membership status for the right person based on whatever has been put in the comment field.
All this can take days, during which time you can’t enrol in a course.
With over 800 members to look after, life is much easier for the volunteers who run U3A Port Phillip if everyone can use the same systems. However, if this doesn’t convince you that using your credit card or debit card to pay your U3APP membership is perfectly safe, please download a paper form and follow the instructions on the form.
Fix Email not Generating
U3APP uses the automatic generation of emails for several functions, such as WAITLIST and CANCEL (for full courses). Should an email not be automatically generated, you can fix the problem as follows:
• logon to u3app.org.au • click on Courses & Enrolling and then Courses by Category • find any course which is full • copy the whole entry, from the course code to the word WAITLIST, for example 5B10 Friday Movie, David Robinson, 12:00-4:00, Weekly from 31 Jan 2020 to Fri 4 Dec 2020, Mary Kehoe Centre, Room 3, FULL (31 places) WAITLIST • paste the whole entry into an email • send the email to yourself • NOTE that the above steps can be done on any Windows or MAC device, but the following step must be done on the device which doesn’t generate the email • when you receive the email on your device, click on the WAITLIST link in the email. The waitlist email will be displayed. Do not press SEND in the waitlist email.
This should permanently fix the problem on your device, so from now you will be able to o click on WAITLIST on any Courses & Enrolling page and the waitlist email will be generated o click on CANCEL on any of your courses or events which is full, on the Your Courses & Events page, and the cancel email will be generated
How to make an Apology for a Course
On-line:
The NEW way to make an apology online is to use the “APOLOGIES” button, which contains all the instructions on how to make an apology. Firstly, logon to the U3APP website.
You can find the “APOLOGIES” button in several places:
In “Member Welcome” which you see when you first logon
In “Your Courses and Events” in the Membership menu
In “Courses by Category” in the Courses & Enrolling menu
In “Courses by Day of Week” in the Courses & Enrolling menu
You can also select “Apologies” in the Courses & Enrolling menu
Via the Office: notify the office in person, or by email or phone.
During a class: advise the tutor AT THE END OF THE CLASS who will mark your apologies on the course roll.
How to remove yourself from the Waitlist
If you are on the waitlist for a course, and you no longer want a place in that course:
Send an email to the Enrolment team asking to be removed from the waitlist.
Make sure you include the course code and course name in your email.
Why you should join U3A Port Phillip
If you’re retired or semi-retired and live in or around the City of Port Phillip, you can join the University of the Third Age, Port Phillip (U3APP). Our regular classes provide all kinds of opportunities to learn new skills, keep fit, and broaden your knowledge. Our very low annual membership fee gives you access to all our classes, and to a range of one-off events.
U3A Port Phillip is also a very friendly and supportive community, providing opportunities for you to make new friends, and to give back to the community by becoming a volunteer.
What courses does U3APP offer?
All our courses are taught or presented by volunteers. This means the range of courses is partly dictated by the availability of people to teach, as well as by the demands of our membership.
Our courses include
Languages: courses in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Chinese Mandarin.
Exercise: courses include Yoga, Feldenkrais, Strength and Interval Training
Health: Meditation and other courses about staying well mentally and physically
Art: Life Drawing, Colouring, Watercolours
Books and Writing: Book Groups and Writers Groups
Music: Choir and several ensemble groups
Films: several film groups
Computer skills
Lectures and Talks: Science, Philosophy, History, Literature, etc
Once you become a financial member of U3APP, you can enrol in as many courses as you wish for no extra charge (except for occasional charges for course notes, special venue hire, the cost of excursions etc). There are some limits set from time to time on the number of courses of the same type for popular courses such as languages and exercise courses – details are in our Enrolment Policies. There are no academic entry requirements nor any assessments or examinations.
We are always looking for new tutors and new ideas for courses. So if you have an interest or passion you’d like to share with others, please get in touch with our Course Coordination team.
Where will you find U3APP?
The heart of U3APP is at the Mary Kehoe Community Centre, 224 Danks Street Albert Park. In this spacious Edwardian house, we have our Office, three classrooms and a Hall which are in more or less constant use by our members during the day.
From time to time we also use other community spaces within the City of Port Phillip:
South Melbourne Community Centre
Sol Green
Cora Graves
Middle Park Library
Our “Out and About” excursions can take you to a range of places in and around Melbourne, from the Royal Botanical Gardens to Bendigo Art Gallery.
Our Course Program and Calendar of Events provide the information you need about where courses are held, with Google maps to help you find venues that may not be familiar to you.
How does U3APP function?
U3APP is a not for profit organisation, entirely staffed by volunteers.
It’s your U3A, and we are always ready to welcome volunteers to help U3APP manage, expand and improve its courses and events (see Volunteers and Tutors). Indeed we expect that every member will contribute as a volunteer at some time.
In any one year, about a quarter of our membership is involved in some volunteer capacity. This shows how rewarding our volunteers find the task of keeping U3APP running and making it as efficient, successful and friendly as possible.
See the Governance page for details of who manages U3APP, and how.
U3APP is strongly supported by the City of Port Phillip, who own, manage and maintain the venues we use for our courses and events.
We receive some grant funding from local, state and federal governments, administered via U3A Network Victoria.
U3APP also benefits from the use of discounts on computer hardware and software that are available to not-for-profit organisations. This includes a range of discounts obtained via Connecting Up, and discounted use of AppSheet which we use for electronic class rolls.
How to see who is attending your course
Logon to the U3APP website.
Go to Your Courses & Events in the Membership menu.
Click on the name of the course you are interested in.
The list of attendees appears at the bottom of the screen.
