Our Luncheon group has been running since September 2011 when Pat Williams agreed to take on the role of ‘Leader’. After nearly 2 years, Pat stood down, and was succeeded by Allan Gurney in July 2013.

We continue to be one of the largest groups within Seaham Harbour U3A. There are 61 members on my list who have attended a Lunch Club outing at some time over the last 2 years. Clearly, not everyone can make it to every outing. But numbers of attendees have ranged from 15 to 37 in my time as ‘Leader’.

We are a friendly group of people who enjoy meeting up and getting to know each other better. To aid this interaction, I prefer the venue to seat us at tables of 4/6/or 8 so that people can (if they wish) mingle with members at other tables, rather than on one or two large tables where you can only speak to the people around you. However, this is not always possible.

We meet for lunch at 12 for 12-15pm on the 4th Thursday of each month at various venues, which you will find listed separately. Menus are sent out about a month before the outing, and orders are recorded in advance, and taken to the venue about 5/6 days before the outing.

I am always on the lookout for new venues, and many suggestions are received (not all repeatable!). I try to at least go and see each suggested venue before making a booking. Some are acceptable, others are not for a variety of reasons – lack of parking; lack of disabled entrance; too expensive; uninteresting menu; poor surroundings. But I hope the Seaham harbour U3A will continue to thrive, and that members enjoy and continue to support THEIR Lunch Club – after all, it’s all about the members.

Leader Allan Gurney

24^th April 2015