Group Leaders Bulletin December 2025
IGO Fair
The IGO fair will be held on the 11th and 12th of February. Thanks to group leaders who have offered sessions – all the slots are now filled. Alison has sent out details.
Each session will be available via the u3a Online Learning Events page and will be booked by Eventbrite, but the title will have a different colour to mark the session as different from our usual events. Your group members will not have to book via Eventbrite, but can be sent the Zoom link to the session, which they are also free to share with friends and family.
Alison will arrange a meeting in December to give you more details and to discuss your requirements, e.g. limits to numbers etc, but please feel free to email us with any questions before then.
Getting started with Padlet
Alison has produced a Start Guide to Padlet. You may want to add the starter guide document to your Padlet to help members who are new to working with Padlets.
Also, please read carefully the guidance for group leaders document, which is attached – it contains important information regarding the permissions you give to members.
Feedback about running IGO groups
Every group runs in its own way, and group leaders develop a range of skills and techniques to help run their groups smoothly. If you have any tips which would be helpful to other group leaders, please let us know, and we will pass them on.
Positive member feedback for video
It has been suggested that we put together a short video which we could play at the IGO fair. If you have had positive feedback from your members, can you pass this on to us.
Waiting lists on Beacon
When an IGO member visits the Members Portal and looks at a particular group entry, they will be offered one of two options depending on whether or not the numbers in the group have reached the maximum specified by the group leader. These are:
- Click this link to apply to join the XXXX group, or
- Note that the XX group is full, and you will be added to a waiting list. Click this link to apply the join the XX group.
Beacon does not send an acknowledgement to the member when they apply to join a group, though their status will be shown on the Members Portal. In either case, the members will be listed on Beacon as “Waiting” unless/until they are admitted to the group by you.
If the group has vacancies, you should admit them to the group in Beacon:
and ideally, send them an email letting them know that they are now group members.
If the group is full, then they will remain on the waiting list until a vacancy occurs, and you admit them – they are not automatically added to the group.
Some groups have members listed as waiting even though the group has vacancies. Please can you ensure that you admit members to the group on Beacon when you do have vacancies.
You can change the maximum number allowed in your group on Beacon at any time on the Details page of your group.
Waiting status on group web-pages
Information about whether or not groups have waiting lists has to be collected from Beacon and entered manually on the group webpages. We do this two or three times a week, so the webpage information may not always be up-to-date.
Groups which have vacancies are listed first, and groups with waiting lists after that, so prospective members can see which groups are available to them.
Updating group pages on Beacon and on the website
You should update the information on the Beacon details page yourself.
If you want to change your group's webpage entry, you should submit the Group Description Form.
Calendars
I would like to clarify what each of the calendars I present here is about, why I send them out and what you might need to do about them.
Beacon calendar
The Beacon calendar for December 2025 is generated by Beacon from the information which has been entered into the Beacon group page under the Schedule tab. This information has to be entered manually by the group leader or someone else with admin access to Beacon. I have done this in the past, but don’t do it any more, unless I am asked by a group leader to do so. You will find information about how to do this here.
This calendar can be viewed on the Members Portal by all IGO members, and it is helpful to them (and therefore to you) in checking when their group meetings are happening. It is up to you as a group leader to decide whether or not to add information to the calendar. If you have done so, it is a good idea to check your group calendar from time to time to ensure that it is correct. If you spot errors in another group’s calendar, let me know, and I will attempt to get it rectified.
December IGO Zoom calendar
This calendar shows all the meetings which have been booked on an IGO Zoom account in December. It is helpful to yourself and to me if you check that your meeting(s) is/are listed here with the correct date, time and Meeting ID. If you find an error, let me know ASAP, and I will correct it.
I have not cancelled meetings on and around Christmas day, but you don’t need to hold them!! An entry in the Beacon calendar (above) would be helpful to members if December meetings are cancelled.
Generic Zoom calendar
The Generic Zoom calendar shows which slots are booked to each of our Zoom accounts. These are listed by 1st Monday, 3rd Tuesday etc.
This calendar should not concern you unless:
- You want to change the time or day of your group meetings, and need to check when there are free slots, or
- You do not currently use an IGO Zoom account and want to see if there is a free slot at the right time.
Note that I add 30 minutes to the length of each meeting in this calendar as I try to allow 15 minutes grace for meetings to end and up to 15 minutes early entry.
Note also that Zoom accounts 2 and 3 allow two meetings to run at the same time!
If you do go through this calendar and find errors or omissions, please let me know.
Thank you
To all our group leaders for your sterling work.
Wishing you all a merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!
From Catherine, on behalf of the IGO team interestgroupsonline@u3a.
You can contact anyone on the team using this email