One of the gratifying things for UMRA in the difficult past year was that our special interest groups flourished. Attendance for Armchair Traveler programs soared. The Book Club spun off a second club because of the demand. The Photo Club and the Finance & Legal Issues Group held well-attended meetings. A new Family History Interest Group instantly became one our most popular groups. A small group of UMRA members formed a Zoom Team and stepped up to put on our monthly Zoom programs. And our brand-new Hiking Club had to clone its first planned hike to accommodate all the people who wanted to participate.  

All these developments demonstrate the potential to customize UMRA to make it come alive for you. The members of the Program and Social Activities committees do our best to come up with an annual slate of programs to appeal to wide swaths of our 700+ diverse members. But we’re not set up to take deep dives into a given subject or take on niche interests. We can’t, but you can!

We can help

If you’d like to find others to join you in pursuing a subject or talking about a particular need or problem, and if you’re willing to organize and run a group or an event, UMRA can help by giving give it our backing and promoting your plans to the membership.  

So, think about something you might like to do with other UMRA members to have fun, learn, or support each other. Fun things like birdwatching, pickleball, or a restaurant club; educational things like a meeting series that looks at the untold history of Minnesota, or social equity issues; or support groups like a caregivers group or an over-80 group.

If you have an idea you’d like to discuss, please email [email protected] to let me know.

—Ron Matross, UMRA president-elect and Program Committee chair