2026 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The 2026 Annual General Meeting was held at 2pm on Tuesday 29 September 2026 at Richmond Hall. Thank you to all those attending.

This year Fred Simpkins, our Chairman, stood down but remained on the Committee as Speaker Secretary. We thank Fred for the commitment and support of our u3a.

Denise Phipps was elected as our new Chairperson and all the Committee Members agreed to run for another year .

Our Committee:

• Denise Phipps elected as Chairperson
• Maria Pearman re-elected as Vice-Chair
• Christine Tebbutt re-elected as Secretary
• Rina Munro re-elected as Treasurer
• Ian Phipps re-elected as Buddy
• Bob Munson re-elected as Membership Secretary
• Sheila Radford re-elected as Membership Assistant
• Suzanne Worland re-elected as Social Secretary
• Sue Quattrucci re-elected Website Coordinator
• Fred Simpkins re-elected as Speaker Secretary

The following roles are outside the Committee and are undertaken by

• Jane Murphy as Newsletter Editor
•  Mike Murphy as Newsletter Production
• Our Webmaster is Ecom UK Ltd.

Dear Friends and Fellow Members

It was an absolute privilege to write to you for the first time as your newly appointed Chairperson of the Benfleet u3a.

I would like to introduce myself, my name is Denise Phipps and I have been a member at this branch of the u3a for over thirteen years and have served on your Committee for six years.  During my time on the Committee I was trip Coordinator with my husband Ian for three years and for the last three years  Ian and I were buddies who welcomed you at the door at our monthly meetings.

The beauty of our u3a is the social connection, fun and friendship and our u3a belongs entirely to the members with our monthly meetings, interest groups and our evening socials, plus every quarter our Newsletter.

Members like you, who spare your time and passion keep our branch thriving.

It gives me great pleasure, on behalf of our branch, to say a big thank you to Fred for all his hard work he has undertaken in the last three years.

I would also like to thank our Committee who have given their dedicated support.

My last thanks go to our tea ladies who do a fantastic job each month serving us our tea and coffee.

When you attend our monthly meetings do not hesitate to come up and say hello,  I am looking forward to meeting you all.

Warmest regards

Denise.

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The Meeting also approved the 2025 AGM Minutes and the 2026 Accounts

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