West End Learning Unlimited Never stop learning...

A Message from Julie Chahal, WELU Co-chair.

Everyone who was on the Wait List in early 2020, and everyone who has been added to the Wait List since then, remains on the Wait List.

For the Fall 2023 series, all those on the Wait List have been invited. Our attendance for the Spring Series was of the order of 80 members each week (normal attendance being about 150), along with our usual catering for refreshments.

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WELCOME to the new version of our website.

Please read this section CAREFULLY to obtain the maximum benefit from the new website

While most of the pages here will be familiar for their content, you will find the navigation is quite different. You can select the various pages from the menu along the top line, or the repeated menu at the bottom of the page.

Some of the top menu items will show you what is called a "drop-down" menu, with more options when you "mouse-over" them, to allow you to select the sub-menu items.

As you will see, there are blue oval buttons which, when you double-click on one of them, will open a new page and take you to an external page or website; or, if you are within the Secure Area, will provide new material. The latter is available only to current WELU members, and those on the Waiting List.

Since this is a NEW website, with enhanced security measures (to protect both visitors, and confidential information belonging to presenters and/or the Executive), EVERYONE will have to sign-on the first time this particular section is used.

The procedure requires you to complete a simple form (found at the bottom of the page with the picture of the baby), requesting your full name and e-mail address. In addition, there is what is known as a CAPTCHA, a box into which you type the characters that are already displayed there. This is to prove that you are a real live person, and not a "robot". So just copy the characters exactly as you see them, capitals and lower case.

N.B. If you do NOT have an email address registered with WELU you will need to register with the credentials of your Contact, ie. your spouse.

When completed, you will receive an acknowledgement thanking you, and providing you with your user name and password. Keep these safely.

A little later, you should receive a confirmation e-mail of acceptance.

You are then free to access the secure area, and need only your user name and password for your viewing sessions from then on.

As a result of the survey of attendees during the Fall series in 2019, we made some improvements to the material we had in the secure area: namely the presenter's gifts, the financials section, as well as a more uniform listing of past presentations. There are in excess of 130 presentations to date (April 2023), well worth revisiting.

Mission

"To present to mature adults of West-end Ottawa, daytime lectures which provide intellectual stimulation and a better understanding of the world we live in and its history."

Introduction

West End Learning Unlimited (WELU) is an organization dedicated to providing seniors with a stimulating learning environment.
WELU is the brainchild of David Farquharson and Wilf Pilsworth. They started it in 2001 because they saw a need and an interest. Today a group of dedicated volunteers continues to run WELU as a not-for-profit organization.
The organizing committee has been able to attract speakers who willingly give up their time free of charge. These two factors enable the fees to be kept down to an easily affordable level.

Each year about 18 lectures are presented in three separately themed series. Each lecture session comprises a one-hour talk followed by a refreshment break, and ending with half an hour of questions.

Topics

The following list illustrates the wide variety of subjects covered by the programme.

• Medicine (4 series); Health Care Beyond Drugs; Hearing; The Brain
• Contemporary Moral Issues
• Art (Canadian; Visual Arts; Art History; Art in Everyday Life)
• Science (Physics; Astronomy; Archaeology; Space and Time; Entomology; Meteorology; Energy Alternatives; Predicting the Future)
• Religion (Religions of the World; Women in Religion)
• Music
• Environmental Issues (Nature and the Environment; Geo-Heritage; Ecology; Oceans Ecosystems; The Arctic; Canadian Rivers; National Parks)
• Law and Justice (2 series)
• Political Science (The New Africa; The Middle East in Turmoil; International Aid; Canadian Political Issues)
• Aviation (2 series)
• Genealogy
• Countries of the World (Ambassador Series; Germany; Scotland; Afghanistan)
• Horticulture
• Finance - Personal and Public
• Urban Planning
• Journalism
• The Food Industry
• Architecture
• Aboriginal Culture