Welcome to Chester u3a

There are two ways to start your membership and pay your membership fee. Currently the membership fee for full membership is £12 for the first and subsequent years.

Method 1: On-line via the Beacon system. This is our preferred method because it gets you straight on to our system and no paper has to be wasted. Click here to open your sign-in page (My Portal) on Beacon. Click here if you want to know a bit more about the Beacon system. There is also a short video (2.5 minutes, click here) which will guide you through the Beacon and payment systems.

Method 2: The second method involves filling in a paper form. The form is available here but would need to be printed out, filled in and handed, with your membership fee, to a committee member at one of the regular Tuesday or Thursday meetings. We are less keen on this method, because someone then has to transcribe your data into Beacon and take your payment into our bank. For those who do not want to attend one of the monthly meetings we do have a postal address, but this still means the membership secretary has to transcribe all your details. The address is Membership Secretary, Chester u3a, PO Box 167, Chester CH1 9FB, but please only use this if you really cannot join on-line.

Associate membership - From June 2025, if you are already a full member of another u3a you will be eligible for Associate Membership at the reduced rate of £8* per year. Associate members will enjoy the same benefits as full members (apart from receipt of the magazine u3a matters which is not included in associate membership). The reduced rate reflects the fact that full membership elsewhere will have ensured that your contribution to the national u3a movement has already been made.

Chester u3a does not give refunds of membership or associate membership fees.

* membership rates may change for future years if agreed by the committee