Fortnightly News 16/1/2026

Issue 1 of 2026 16 January 2026

DATES TO REMEMBER

From 12 January – Club has reopened for 2026

Monday 26 January – Australia Day Public Holiday, Club will be closed

27-29 March 2026 – our next Big Book Fair

Wishing all our Club members, their families, friends, and loved ones good health and prosperity in 2026.

WELCOME BACK!

Off we go again – another year of enjoyable social interaction and activity at Woden Seniors. Maybe this is the year for you to look at another activity to try; meet some new people? learn a new skill or practice an old one? Or offer to lead a new activity to interest and engage other members? Have a look at the Club activity list which is on our website (www.wodenseniors.org.au) or available in paper form at the front office, to see if there is something you might like to try.

During the break the carpets have been cleaned, the new kitchen flooring has been sealed and the extensive roof guttering and downpipes cleared of leaves. And thanks to a group of volunteers, the garden areas and vege pod have been well cared for and there will be tomatoes to be had before too long.

RUMOURS (a level even lower than lies, dammned lies and statistics)

It has been reported that people have been told recently that the Club has been sold!!

I can absolutely assure you that this is not the case.

To begin with, all the financial members at any given point in time are the owners of the Club premises and contents which cannot be sold or otherwise wound up without the knowledge and agreement of said owners. So not the Committee, not any individual or group of individuals, and not the ACT Government would be able to act without that agreement! In addition, in 2009 the Club was awarded a new 99-year lease of our land – ie until 2108. So please, be assured that the Club has not been sold.

BOOK FAIR DONATIONS

Donations are now being welcomed for our 2026 Big Book Fair. The Fair is our big fund-raiser for the year and wouldn’t it be fantastic to set another new record in takings!! A reminder that we are delighted to accept clean, resaleable books, comics, CDs, DVDs, audio books, jigsaws, and games. We cannot accept encyclopedias, Readers Digest condensed books, magazines, First Aid manuals, cassette tapes, video tapes, vinyl records, computer software and computer games and dirty, tatty, incomplete books. Donations can be left at the Club between 9.30 am and 3.30 pm Monday to Friday.

And don’t forget to encourage your young friends and rellies to invite their friends to check out instagram@bookfair2026.

SENIORS ROCK!!

The Club has received a grant from COTA ACT to assist with the printing of a book which is being prepared under the working title “Seniors Rock!”. This is in conjunction with COTA’s UPSTAGEING Festival which is aimed at showcasing the talents and activities of our demographic. We will be holding two Club “Open Days” during the period of the festival (last week in March) at which we can have members of the public see how talented, active and in fact fabulous our members are… and serendipitously, hear about our Big Book Fair on 27-29 March. COTA are publicising the events including ours which are being held across Canberra as part of the Festival. A great opportunity to showcase our Club to a wider than usual audience.

And so to the book. During 2025 we had a group writing their personal memoirs and as time went along, we realised that our Club is probably full of people who in their lifetimes have seen and done amazing, interesting, funny, brave, clever or unusual things which deserve to be in a book!! Next week, Katherine McCarthy and I will be at the Club on Monday 19, Wednesday 21 and Friday 23 between 12 noon and 2.30pm and would love to meet with anyone who would be interested in contributing anything from a paragraph, a photo, a half-page, a poem, up to a full-blown short story to our publication. We will have our phones with us and if you have something to contribute but not the time or skill to type it up yourself, we can make a voice recording, type it up and give it to you for editing. Handwritten contributions also welcome of course. We will be happy to make more times available to suit anyone who is interested.

Given the timeframe – a short two months – we may not have a book ready for publication by the time the UPSTAGEING Festival comes around. However we can certainly have some items to show which will become part of the whole in due course.

Don’t miss this chance to be famous – even if it’s just in our own back yard.