NEXT SPEAKERS MEETING  - Customs & Excise - A Case Study Wednesday 4 August 2021 via Zoom Malcolm Nelson worked for 40 years for HM Custom and Excise on every aspect of catching smugglers. Mainly based at Heathrow, he also spent time at London Port, Dover, and major airports throughout the EU. He is credited with seizing the largest quantity of drugs by weight ever found in a single suitcase. His entertaining talk takes the audience through a most complicated offence from interception in the Green Channel to Crown Court. You the audience are the jury and if you find the accused guilty, you are the judge!! For those who may be interested in following up Malcolm’s talk, his book “Forty Years Catching Smugglers” is described as “sometimes sad, sometimes hilarious but always supremely interesting. It lifts the lid on some of the secrets of an occupation that has always held an air of mystery and it answers many of those questions that passengers have asked themselves over the years ‘Just how do they decide who to stop?’ Mary Brenchley-Hole will be contacting members prior to the meeting to invite them to apply for a Zoom place.

GROUPS UPDATE by Paula Dove  10 July 2021 As lockdown eases some groups are starting to meet face-to-face again - some indoors and some outdoors.  Others plan to continue to meet over Zoom for the next few months at least. A few are waiting until all restrictions are lifted due to the impossibility of meeting with social distancing in place. Obviously groups will only meet in person if members and the group convenors feel safe in doing so. At the time of writing we have thirty-five groups are meeting regularly - some groups have only two or three members, others have over forty! You can see the range and information about the groups on the website. I am delighted that we have another Art Appreciation group starting up and now that places have been allocated to those on the waiting list we still have a couple of places left. Let me know if you are interested. Groups keen for more members to join them are Poetry Writing, Badminton and Painting and Drawing. There is still space for one or two more people in the Chess for Beginners course starting in the autumn. Two groups, Local Trips and Galleries Visits, have been merged to form a new Social, Arts and Cultural Group.  A few more people could be fitted in and members willing to help organise trips would be particularly welcome. The Sunday Lunches Group is being divided into three groups meeting on different Sundays. Each group has around ten members currently. There may as a result be space for one or two additional members in the near future, if anyone is interested. For any queries please email me or the contact on the webpage. Paula Dove, Groups Coordinator    Groupsco@woodleyu3a.org.uk