Fife u3a – then called “University of the Third Age Fife Branch” - was set up in September 1994 and by the end of 1994 it had approximately 20 members. Groups in the early days included Bridge and Local History with Embroidery, German and Art Appreciation appearing soon after. The Book stall also generated an income from those early days. St Peters Church, Kirkcaldy was the venue for main meetings.
Over the first few months Fife u3a grew rapidly to about 60 members and by 1999 various buildings were being used for group meetings and the Parkway Hotel was used for monthly meetings.
In May 2005 Fife u3a adopted a new constitution and registered as a charity with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and with HMRC. The membership grew (approx.130 by March 2014).
The 25th anniversary in 2019 was marked with a Civic Reception in Kirkcaldy in April and an afternoon tea for members at the Victoria Hotel in June.
We survived the covid years (2020 – 21) with monthly newsletters, offers of zoom meetings, and, when it was permitted, informal gatherings in the open air and then slowly, hesitantly and carefully resumed in-person meetings.
We have groups meeting in Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline, our monthly meetings in St Bryce Kirk (renamed the St Bryce Centre in 2025), outings and walks which take us into all of Fife and the Lothians, travel group holidays in the UK and overseas and a healthy membership of over 220. (March 2025).
A few recollections from U3A Fife’s very first Chairman and Secretary:
We contacted Edinburgh U3A and they sent a speaker to explain to interested people what U3A was about and how to start a Kirkcaldy branch.
There were then enough willing people for us to form a Steering Committee and go ahead.
At the beginning the emphasis was very strongly on forming groups to study various shared interests. Group leaders came from those who wanted to study a subject but the idea was that individual members would take turns studying and leading the monthly (usually) meeting. It was thought groups might meet in the leaders’ homes but it was more typical to meet in a particular venue, eg a room in the Volunteer Centre. Irene Thomas led a Vegetarian Cooking group in her own home. Members brought the ingredients, the dish was prepared and cooked then eaten as lunch. Irene’s husband acted as chief taster.
(The) very successful reading group had an air of mystery as no one knew the name of the book of the month until the box sent from the local library was opened at the meeting. Our Geography Quiz team won a tight Scottish final against Edinburgh U3A. Our chairman attended meetings in Perth and was very envious of their success in forming groups –e.g. they had two levels of Latin(!)
David and Elspeth Grisenthwaite
(Extract from the summer 2019 anniversary edition of the newsletter.)