At our Meet and Mingle meeting on 18th February we heard from two guest speakers in Steve Mars and Dawn Stephens, both of whom are U3A Benalla members.
Steve is a new arrival to Benalla having recently shifted from Tasmania. His relocation is in part due to his family’s connection with the North East, including when his father worked for Benalla Council and his inquisitive pursuit of building architecture.
Steve explained he was a Town Planner for 30 years, a martial arts instructor and a stroke survivor. He explained he was on a mission to study history and geography of Benalla, and was seeking help with his research.
One of his projects was a focus on buildings of the 1920’s to 1930’s era and the layout of streets. Steve made the interesting comment that while many of the buildings in the main street had been modernized, if you looked up above the verandahs to the second story much of the early architectural features were still clearly visible.
Steve referred to a number of documents during his talk including his father Stan’s diary and CV that covered the period of 1938 to 1952. Many entries in the diary and CV stimulated Steve’s interests to discover more.
While Steve covered many aspects of his interest he also handed around very impressive sketches of old buildings he had drawn that had be turned into yearly calendars.
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Dawn Stephens presented an interesting overview of the U3A Benalla website. The website is located at https://u3abenalla.weebly.com/ which takes you to the home page
She explained that with our large membership effective communication was most important. The website served as an excellent communication tool that provided a one stop shop for information.
Dawn took the audience through the many dropdown tab menus on the website home page. She showed how the Newsletter linked to the website and U3A Benalla Facebook page and explained that she is learning and working with, Bev Lee who manages the website content and that Heather Wallace, with support from Ruth Jelliff looked after the Newsletter production.
Dawn encouraged U3A Benalla members to become familiar with and use the website to explore the many interesting aspects of what is happening at U3A Benalla.
Steve is a new arrival to Benalla having recently shifted from Tasmania. His relocation is in part due to his family’s connection with the North East, including when his father worked for Benalla Council and his inquisitive pursuit of building architecture.
Steve explained he was a Town Planner for 30 years, a martial arts instructor and a stroke survivor. He explained he was on a mission to study history and geography of Benalla, and was seeking help with his research.
One of his projects was a focus on buildings of the 1920’s to 1930’s era and the layout of streets. Steve made the interesting comment that while many of the buildings in the main street had been modernized, if you looked up above the verandahs to the second story much of the early architectural features were still clearly visible.
Steve referred to a number of documents during his talk including his father Stan’s diary and CV that covered the period of 1938 to 1952. Many entries in the diary and CV stimulated Steve’s interests to discover more.
While Steve covered many aspects of his interest he also handed around very impressive sketches of old buildings he had drawn that had be turned into yearly calendars.
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Dawn Stephens presented an interesting overview of the U3A Benalla website. The website is located at https://u3abenalla.weebly.com/ which takes you to the home page
She explained that with our large membership effective communication was most important. The website served as an excellent communication tool that provided a one stop shop for information.
Dawn took the audience through the many dropdown tab menus on the website home page. She showed how the Newsletter linked to the website and U3A Benalla Facebook page and explained that she is learning and working with, Bev Lee who manages the website content and that Heather Wallace, with support from Ruth Jelliff looked after the Newsletter production.
Dawn encouraged U3A Benalla members to become familiar with and use the website to explore the many interesting aspects of what is happening at U3A Benalla.
Steve Mars and Dawn Stephens
Doug Smith
