President's Report May 2025
At the beginning of my first year in office, the Association had no Honorary Secretary and no Social Convenor; a team of Steering Committee members volunteered to organise the social calendar and this proved to be very successful: the responsibilities of the Secretary were shared out among others and although this was far from ideal it did allow the Steering Committee and the Association to function effectively. I greatly appreciated the support from those who stepped up to the mark in 2024 / 2025
Moving forward we are now in the happy position of having secured the nomination for Secretary of a very capable individual and of having the continued support of an experienced Social Events Team
Jean Love quickly settled in as Honorary Treasurer and we are grateful to Elsa Foley for easing the transition. Looking after the finances of a large organisation carries a great deal of responsibility and Jean fulfils her remit with true professionalism.
Lesley King tendered her resignation in early January and retired on 13th March as she wished to spend time with her daughter (and also now her granddaughter) A very enjoyable lunch at The Italian Kitchen was an opportunity to thank Lesley for her significant and valuable contribution to the 3Ls. We have been very fortunate to have had such a pleasant and efficient Administrative Assistant for whom no task was too onerous and she has already been back to assist with the induction of her successor.
The recruitment of new personnel within the University is a long process and meant that the 3LS Office was closed for 9 weeks. Josh Longton emerged as the successful candidate and we are delighted to welcome him into post.
Thank you to Lynda Scott and to Bob Hume for earnestly fulfilling all the commitments of interview panellists. Lynda had originally booked a room for 2 hours but in fact it took 2 days to initially sift through the 85 applications
We continue to enjoy strong and positive links with CLL and are indebted to all the office staff who have assisted in a variety of ways during the year. I would like to give a particular mention for Lynda Scott who has been especially supportive to me personally. Thank you to the Ambassadors whose support at CLL Meet and Greet activities was much appreciated by CLL and ourselves; such contributions serve to strengthen the cooperation between CLL and 3Ls and are of great benefit to both.
At the Strathclyde University Diamond Jubilee series of lectures CLL and 3LS banners were on display and the opportunity was taken to advertise both.
Holding a Freshers’ Week was a new initiative for 2024. On Tuesday 21st Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd October, volunteers manned the social area on level 2, met incoming and / outgoing members of CLL classes in the foyer and were given access to classes where our Association and its many activities could be actively promoted. All tutors were accommodating thanks to prior warning given to them by Lynda. Ambassadors were welcomed into classes where they were afforded the opportunity to advertise and to endeavour to recruit new members. Thanks to Winnie for drafting a crib sheet for reference, to Lesley and Diane for preparing the A5 leaflets for distribution, to clubs for putting current information on the notice board and. of course, to all those who participated as Ambassadors on these days or when they seized the opportunity during one of their own classes. Information gained form this exercise was very revealing e.g. only a few of those attending the classes were already members of 3Ls or indeed knew very much about it …food for thought and scope for improvement in that department in 2025 / 2026.
Clubs are the lifeblood of this Association and the importance of their continued success cannot be overemphasised. The majority of Clubs now meet face to face with the exception of the French Book Club and the History Club which operate a dual system.
Clubs were previously restricted wrt admitting new members because of a capacity limit of 50 in GH742; this was brought in by CLL for Health and Safety reasons in the immediate post-covid era but since the upper limit of 70 was reinstated many clubs have been able to welcome new members. This in turn lead to increased revenue and opportunities to continue to help those in need.
Neither the 3LS Association itself nor its constituent clubs are intended to be profit making in their outlook. It is gratifying to note that many clubs who were in surplus for this last year have followed in true 3Ls tradition and supported worthy causes eg an enterprising raffle by the Spanish Club raised £500 which was received with delight by Children’s Health Scotland, Architecture and Design Club made a valuable contribution to the Beatson Hospice and the Italian Club elected to donate £500 to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Hardship Fund to support students who are studying for the Bachelor in Vocal Performance degree.
In 2025 and much to the delight of our members, some clubs have embarked on external visits e.g The French Club travelled to the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, the Book Club delved into the archives of the Andersonian Library, The Architecture and Design Club visited Sikh Gurdwara Singh Sabha in Finnieston, the Walking Group explored Cessnock / Partick while at the Conservatoire the Theatre Group were entertained at the musical comedy, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”.
Thank you to all the organisers. Your input has been commendable. Such outings enrich the busy Club calendar programmes and highlight the wide variety of experience to be gained from 3LS membership.
The cost of large coach hire has increased dramatically over the past few years so the group decided to experiment and focus on smaller events some of which involved members making their own travel arrangements.
The outing to the Glengoyne Distillery near Killearn was managed by Carl Bow and again we are very fortunate to have such a dedicated organiser.
The Oran Mor experience in December was a resounding success and Bob Hume is to be congratulated for coordinating the pantomime and the lunch.
The team were delighted when Fiona Campbell joined us later in the session and we all benefited from Jean’s sage financial advice.
The first open 3LS outing of 2025 was a visit to Paisley Abbey. Our group of 25 dined at Il Pescatore, a seafood restaurant specialising in Italian cuisine. We then walked the short distance across to the iconic building where our groups were led through the magnificent interior by three excellent and enthusiastic volunteer guides. Members made their own travel arrangements.
More than 90 members registered their interest in the new Theatre Group which was established to revive interest in the fine arts. This seemed to be very popular and tickets for all outings to the Conservatoire were snapped up within days. The proposed visit to Pitlochry Theatre will be in the autumn.
I hope to conduct a survey of members to find out what other areas of interest they have so that we could be better enabled to provide new experiences.
Only a small number of members attended the presentation by Christine Donald, Lady Eileen McDonald and Dr Huyam Abudii on The Nepal Schools Project but the speakers stressed that it was the quality not quantity of members in the audience which was important. Those present proved that to be the case and a huge, enthusiastic and supportive reception was given to our excellent speakers. Their services to education in Nepal are exceptional.
As you will have noted from recent emails, some changes have been made wrt accommodation available to CLL within the Graeme Hills building; there may be alternative venues for classes in certain instances and the changes will impact upon 3LS Clubs and the membership as a whole: we had all become very accustomed to having the level 2 Social area with kitchen and Library at our disposal. Notice boards are being relocated and the kitchen is now on level 3.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to everyone for their contributions to the successful running of our Association and for the personal support given to me in my first year as President. To those who are stepping down from Club Committees or from the Steering Committee, I hope that you have enjoyed your time as part of the management of the Association and that you will continue to participate within the 3LS for very many years to come.
Dorothy Sim
3Ls President
May 2025
Jim Alexander
We heard with sadness of the recent death of Jim Alexander, who was elected as the first President of the 3Ls in 1989. We owe a debt of gratitude to Jim for his vision and enthusiasm in setting up our Association, with the support of Lesley Hart, the then Head of what was the Institute for Senior Studies, now the Centre for Lifelong Learning. Much of what we enjoy today in the 3Ls stems from their work. At our 30th Anniversary celebrations in 2019, Jim was presented with Honorary Membership of the 3Ls Students' Association.
Our TellsMore Winter 2019 newsletter gathered together a range of reflections on the Association and is reproduced here in tribute to Jim Alexander.