February to October 2001

Interviewing commenced!

All the U3A groups got off to a very enthusiastic start, the only problem being who should have the minidisc recorder first! Fortunately we were able to provide the larger groups with an additional recorder to ease the strain. The first few interviews were sent in for checking in terms of sound quality and content, and all the groups were greatly re-assured to discover that the interviews were producing exactly the kind of material required.

The first group to finish their interviews were Southampton, who completed 19 interviews. They also gathered a substantial amount of additional information in the form of books and photographs which have been a great help in the preparation of the presentations.

Stamford and Wokingham were also nearing completion, while Melton Mowbray and Basildon were on track to finish their interviews by the end of the year.

The Friends of CHiDE teams, which are distributed around the country, also made steady progress, and it was anticipated that they would complete around 30 interviews early in the New Year.

Meanwhile, the project staff at the University were working hard on the interpretation side of the project. The first set of presentations, based on the material gathered by Southampton U3A went live. Stamford's work on Building Techniques was scheduled to launch in December.