How to create a volunteering culture at your u3a

u3a is a member-led organisation, with members contributing to their local u3as in a range of ways, from serving coffees at a monthly meeting to leading groups or standing on the u3a committee. For Volunteers' Week, three u3as share tips for encouraging volunteering at your u3a.

Try role sharing on your committee

Teamwork is a key part of Waltham Abbey u3a's ethos with committee members supporting each other across roles. Chair Amanda talks about the committee's approach and the benefit of working in this way.

I encourage our committee to work as a team rather than stick rigidly to their chosen role. We find that people who are happy to just do one thing can, but those who want to try something else, or step in during holidays or sickness can do this too. This means that we can cope without any panic or stress falling on one person. The committee always pull together as one when needed.

Another thing that we have tried is shadowing of committee roles. We still do this when people request it. The advantage of shadowing means that prospective committee members can get a good feel for the role and begin to understand u3a as well. It means that members get to know each other and get used to working together and sharing ideas.

Our committee are fairly new, with many of them joining in the last year. We work really well as a team. During the last year, we also started using Beacon and SiteWorks. I'm pleased to say that our new committee have embraced it all, probably as they were all learning together.

I also encourage our Groups to work together when possible. At our December monthly meeting, which coincided with our 10th anniversary, I wanted to showcase and celebrate our groups. So our sewing group, dolls house group, card making/craft group all had items on show for members to look at. Our line dancers danced, our singers sang, our German group sang in german and the singing group supported them. Our country dancing group engaged with the members and did some seated dancing - and everybody joined in! Members also served teas, coffees and cake. The cake was a huge sponge iced cake to serve 100 people and was made by one of our members.

Another thing we do is work very much in and with the community. This spreads the u3a word and gets people used to joining in and sharing and working with the community.

I am just starting my fourth year as chair and it has taken a while to get the ethos of teamwork embedded, but we are making headway now.

Make volunteers feel part of a team

As Coordinator Liason Secretary of Rotherham u3a, member Mandy supports interest group leaders. She shares the ways she has worked to increase their engagement with u3a. 

I became Coordinator Liaison secretary a few months ago with a view to improving retention of interest group leaders and promoting inclusivity.  I believe that by supporting our group leaders and making them feel part of the team running Rotherham u3a we will thrive.

The first thing I did was visit lots of groups to see for myself how they run and to make some face to face connections. This was invaluable. The second thing I did was opening up the agenda of their meetings specifically  to them! Previously it was a speech by the Chair and a brief update from members of the committee about finance, membership and our website.  This still exists but is not the main part of the meeting anymore.

To promote involvement, I ask two of the group leaders to proofread and critique the minutes before they are sent out. When the minutes go out I also invite their contributions for Agenda items at the next meeting.

Currently these meetings have been the source for finding helpers with roles throughout our u3as, particularly as assistants to committee members. We encourage spreading the workload so that everyone only takes on as much or as little as they wish.

Following a Strategy meeting our committee recently decided that, rather than putting all the onus on committee members and group leaders, we would be wise to get the membership more involved. I believe that there are hidden talents in Rotherham u3a that we need to seek out. We need to consider how to capture those members with other useful skills, knowledge and experience from  our membership.

Moving forward, working parties will be set up for supporting fundraising, and arranging open days and the Christmas party. I am currently writing a role description for " Assistant Helpers" for Publicity, Website and Newsletter Communications.

Create groups for ad-hoc help with your u3a

RUG (really useful groups) or STAR (Special Tasks and Resources) groups enable members to contribute to the u3a without the long term commitment - and takes some responsibilities off the committee's shoulders. Harborough Welland u3a Chair Louise talks about how their STARs group works

‘By the members, for the members’ is the strapline for Harborough Welland u3a. With almost 1200 members we rely on a whole range of volunteers, including group leaders who run over 80 interest groups.

Our STARs (Special Tasks and Resources) are invaluable for ensuring the smooth running of our bimonthly general meetings, which take the form of a speaker meeting and of a get-together where members can talk together over coffee, and new members can find out more about what we do. The STARs coordinator will contact volunteers to ensure we have teams in place to meet and greet, make refreshments, and set up and tidy up chairs and tables. Five volunteers are needed at each meeting.

The role of STARs coordinator first began three years ago when we formed Harborough Welland u3a, dissolving the 2 existing u3as in Market Harborough and setting up a new one. Sharon who has been doing the role successfully for 2 years has just handed over the role at the recent AGM. Her role involved contacting volunteers on her lists, noting their preferences for activities and days available. When it gets to holiday time, it can be a bit of a struggle. Before the general meeting, she would stop en route at the shops to ensure (importantly) that there were ample supplies of milk and biscuits. Volunteering relies on the goodwill of the members but helping out with the refreshments is an excellent chance to mix with people. 

Other key voluntary roles for Harborough Welland u3a include someone to provide audio visual support for monthly meetings, monthly newsletter editors, website editor, publicity liaison, new groups facilitator, trips coordinator, marketing support, speaker coordinator, beacon administrators and admin for social media. We are working to build up a team of members who are keen to help out in lots of ways. It doesn’t have to be every week or month, but when they are free - whether that's for a one off special event or several things throughout the year.

We'd love to hear about how volunteering works at your u3a. Have you tried something different to get more members to come forward? Get in touch by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.