The thing is, I am loving u3a – every session I have been to has been really enjoyable, and in some cases has sparked a piece of self-imposed home work. Some of which I have done, others I am working on, and one piece of long term (months to a year) of work, it’s not really work – I do something when I think about it.
But, I have been looking at the amount of time over the u3a 4-weekly cycle I am committing to activities (Monday to Friday, and not counting weekends. The way I have done it is by splitting each day into two blocks, morning (AM) and afternoon (PM). So, over a four week period there a 4*5*2 blocks or 40 blocks in total. Now, if 40 blocks = 100% of time, then 1 block = 2.5%.
Next, 8 blocks are taken by u3a 8*2.5% = 20%, so 20% or 1/5 of my time is taken up by u3a. Is that too much (bearing in mind that I haven’t added in homework time to that)?
Now, in addition u3a, I am also a member of The Mens Shed. Now, I commit Monday & Friday mornings to the shed (except for the 4th Monday, which is u3a (AM & PM). I therefor commit 7 blocks to The Shed = 7*2.5% = 17.5%.
All of this means that over the course of a 4 week period, I can account for 37.5% of my time being taken up by some activities. Is that too much?
I should qualify this a little bit, a block of u3a time = 1.5 hours, plus say 30 minutes travelling time, or two hours – not a whole morning, but a goodly chunk of it.
These figures will get “worse” as there are potentially two groups that are to be set up, so I’ll be over 40% of my time occupied, and over 50% (as it is now) if you include the shed. Is this too much?
Spread out as it is, u3a doesn’t feel as though it is. The shed is flexible, I don’t have to stay all morning, and sometimes I will be helping. It just doesn’t feel like it’s too much, what do you think?
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