Janet Blunden - Chair

I Have lived in Brackley since 1994. I retired in 2015 after  having careers in Environmental Health and the Registration Service completing my working life as the Superintendent Registrar for Northamptonshire County Council. I now volunteer for the South Northants Volunteer Bureaus’s car service

I joined Brackley U3A in January 2022 as I had more spare time as  my 4 grandchildren were all at school

I am a member of the following groups- Canasta ,Afternoon Tea & Chat, Walking Rounders in the summer, Line and Traditional Dancing, Pétanque/Bowls,Pickleball,National Trust,Travel and Cinema. I also attend the monthly Coffee Morning and Quiz 

Whilst being on the Committee I have been the Blue Sash Team Co- ordinator as I felt this was an important role ensuring all new members felt welcomed . I am now the Chairman of this web based organisation and look forward to the challenges and fulfilment this role will bring 

Conrad Dower - Vice Chair and Business Secretary.

Born in Yorkshire, I have lived in Derbyshire and Worcestershire before moving to Adstone in Northamptonshire 45 years ago.  Before my retirement, I was trained at Rolls Royce and have worked in the automotive parts industry and for a supermarket group (ASDA) before, finally, working at Argos as Distribution Engineering /Project Manager and have been responsible for 11 of their large ‘sheds’ (Distribution Centres) you may have seen somewhere in the UK.  I am Chairman of my Village Parish and the Village Hall Committee.  I am also an active Member of the Rotary Club of Towcester where I have been President and where I am currently the Treasurer.
I enjoy walking, gardening, ‘not to active’ sports, reading, wine tasting, holidays and following the activities/ development of my 4 teenage grandchildren.
I joined U3A two years ago and I am happy to take an active role in running the organization.

Elaine Yates – Membership Secretary

Elaine moved to Brackley 8 years ago having lived mostly in Hertfordshire where she brought up her 3 children.

Most of her working life was in finance and for the 15 years previous to retiring she worked as a medical secretary.

She is quite active in Brackley U3A, attending several groups including singing, dancing, family history, lace and, of course, the always interesting and entertaining speaker meetings. 

Her parents enjoyed being members of a U3A so Elaine had always intended to join when she retired and she is now enjoying being Membership Secretary of Brackley U3A. 

John  Moore – Speaker Organise

John I was born in Manchester but moved around the UK firstly with my father’s job and then my own career as an Accountant. I ran my own practice in North West London before officially retiring in 2013, though I still manage a small number of clients. I married Sheila in 1999 and after 20 years in Ealing, West London, where I joined U3A, even becoming their Chairman for two years, we both knew we wanted to move away from the congestion of London. We discovered Brackley, following someone’s suggestion, and knew it was the place for us and we moved here in 2019. After joining U3A here Terry asked me to become Speaker Organiser. My interests are table tennis, reading and walking and enjoying watching our grandchildren grow up.

John Underwood – Treasurer

I was born in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. In my working career I lived in Romford and then for 43 years in Banbury. I moved to Brackley 7 years ago. My career was in further education. Initially teaching mathematics and physics, later managing Engineering, Construction, Science and Information Technology at North Oxfordshire Further Education college, Oxford College of Further Education and Daventry Tertiary College.  For a short period, I worked in Oman for the college helping a number of institutions set up NVQs, that was interesting and challenging work. I was also the College representative on the Banbury Chamber of Commerce for a number of years. For many I was involved in examining work where as the chief examiner I wrote A level papers, led teams of examiners and set grade boundaries.

 I joined the Brackley U3A just under 4 years ago and have enjoyed the friendly welcoming approach that makes it special.

My interests are travelling, reading, walking, gardening, listening to live music and riding my motorbike.

Alison Williams - Groups Coordinator

I moved to Brackley in 2019 after 5 years in Somerset, having spent over 30 years in Sunbury On Thames before that. We moved, like a lot of Brackley folk, to be closer to our children and grandchildren.
My career was spent in the pharmaceutical market research industry, spending 23 years with the same company in the role of analysis manager. I joined u3a last year. Having moved to Brackley just before lockdown, I knew it would be a great opportunity to meet new people and wasn’t it just! I’ve joined quite a number of groups, which have all been welcoming, friendly and fun. I’ve learnt how to play canasta, I test the grey cells with the quiz, study Shakespeare, have coffee (and afternoon tea), listen to talks about interesting people from history and am shortly to start Tai Chi. In addition to looking after the grandchildren, my life in retirement is wonderfully busy.

Kathy Hodges - Secretary

Kathy has lived in Hinton in the Hedges for approximately 30 years with her husband Paul. She has two sons, one of whom lives in Brackley with her two very entertaining grandsons, who expect her to be a football forward, a rugby scrum half, Martina Navratilova and a table tennis ace all in one day. The only one she can claim to be moderately proficient at is table tennis as a result of being a member of the lovely U3A Table Tennis group since its inception. She also belongs to the Science and Technology group (despite being a Luddite), and the Walking and Scrabble groups. Kathy is a volunteer driver with the SNVB taking local residents to hospital, GP and other assorted appointments. She has recently become the Minutes Secretary for the very civilised Committee where no-one talks over each other and there is often cake.

Mike Kirkham – Webmaster

Mike was born in Blackpool, moved to Oldham when he was 12 where he later met Helen, his wife, when they were both in the 6th form. He has a degree in Astronomy from UCL and in Telecoms from University of Essex. He started a long career in Telecommunication Software in 1974 in Essex, retiring in 2010 in Oxfordshire. Interests include tinkering with and mending Android phones and Windows PCs, playing badminton, table tennis, canasta and generally frolicking at traditional dance. He enjoys maintaining the U3A website as this keeps his “hand in” as closely as he would like these days. Mike has been Brackley u3a Webmaster since November 2018