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OLLI
E-News #15-08 of April 18, 2008
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REPORT FROM
PHOENIX, PART I
From the executive director
 By Thom Clement,
Executive Director
THE
2008 NATIONAL OLLI CONFERENCE WAS HELD APRIL 2-4 outside
of Phoenix, Arizona. The Osher Foundation provided funding for travel
and registration for two persons from each of the 119 institutes that
are part of the network that receives funding and resources from the
Bernard Osher Foundation. Our president, Pat Carroll, and I represented
OLLI at Mason.
Being a relative newcomer to the lifelong
learning scene, I had heard that our particular institute was one of
the best, and that perception was reinforced as we interacted with
dozens of representatives from other OLLI’s. However, we learned a lot
from the presentations as well as from the informal networking
opportunities.
I made two distinct observations:
- Members of all of the institutes are
bound by a passion for
opportunities to be actively engaged in learning and social
interactions, and
- There is tremendous variation among the
institutes in the
following categories:
- How
"membership" is defined
- The fees and
payment options used
- The number
and duration of terms each year
- The number of
classes and activities provided during each term
- The quality
of the overall program (i.e., speakers and instructors, curriculum)
- Payment (or
other renumeration) of instructors and speakers
- The types of
facilities in which classes and activities are held
- The
relationship with the host university
In coming weeks, I will elaborate on each of
these categories in my articles for OLLI
E-News.
I hope that you can attend one of the "Meet
the Candidates" forums: Apr 29 in Reston and May 2 at Tallwood (Annual
Membership Meeting). I also hope to see you at our Silent Auction and
cookout/picnic at Tallwood on May 2!
HAVE YOU NOTICED THE BOARD CANDIDATES
DISPLAY?
Meet your Board
candidates
Shown in
random order. To see
larger photos and read candidate biographies,
click the candidates page on
our Web site.
POSTERS WITH PHOTOS AND BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES
of faces that are becoming
familiar are on display
at the Reston and Tallwood sites. Meet the candidates in person on Tue,
Apr 29, 1:00 - 2:00 at the Lake Anne Church and on Fri, May 2, at the
Annual Membership Meeting at Tallwood, 10:00. You may also review their
statements on the candidates page on
our Web site at any time during this election season.
 THE SILENT AUCTION AND
FRIENDS OF OLLI
The purpose of the auction
By Bob Lawshe, Board member
THE FIRST EVER OLLI SILENT AUCTION,
WHOSE PURPOSE IS to
benefit Friends of OLLI, is drawing ever closer, and member donation
offerings are coming in. Two recent events highlight the importance of
Friends of OLLI to the OLLI membership.
- Last week
OLLI awarded four scholarships to deserving Mason students in such
diverse
disciplines as Music, Philosophy, Economics, and Environmental Science.
These scholarships are one of the major ways we are able to demonstrate
our appreciation for all Mason does for us and to thank those
University departments that take time to support us in the classroom.
At the same
time we get to help some truly deserving and wonderful undergraduate
and graduate students pursue their educational dreams.
- Recently, the
Board took a deep breath and voted to support an ambitious upgrade of
our aging audiovisual systems. Most members are bound to appreciate the
audiovisual upgrade because it will further enhance the OLLI classroom
learning experience.
The scholarships and audiovisual upgrade are
funded entirely from Friends of OLLI funds, and these funds come from
our members. We hope everyone will take time to make a donation, or
several, to the Silent Auction and then come out on May 2 to bid on
some wonderful items. It’s a great way to make a real
contribution to OLLI and Mason AND get something really nifty in the
process.
Thank you for your support of this important
effort.
Back to top
 EYE ON RESTON
OLLI Reston needs your help!
ARE YOU INTERESTED IN SEEING OLLI
RESTON GROW? Are you willing to help your fellow OLLI
Reston members? We all value our OLLI membership, so let's pass the
word. Talk to your friends and neighbors about what OLLI has to offer.
We have an 18-month objective of a net gain of 60 new members
from the Reston area. Nothing is more effective then word of mouth, so
let's spread the news.
OLLI Reston also needs volunteer help!
Volunteers are needed in the following areas:
- Resource
groups,
- Course
development,
- Membership,
and
- Facility
improvement.
If
you have ideas and want to become involved or are just a hard worker
interested in seeing OLLI Reston prosper then call Debbie Halverson,
Sheila Gold or Al Roe –
and thanks for your help!
AT
LAST THURSDAY'S TEACHER APPRECIATION RECEPTION, OLLI awarded
scholarships to four Mason students. Funding for
these scholarships comes from our members via their donations to the
Friends of OLLI.
2008 OLLI scholarship winners
(details below).
Photos by Kathie West; collage by the editor.
Min
Son (pianist, also played during the reception)
Undergraduate, working towards B.A. in Music |
Kevin
Hilferty
Undergraduate student, working towards degree in Economics |
Allia
Borowski
Graduate student working towards M.A. in Philosophy |
Haiying
Lin
Graduate student working on Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Policy |
HOW TO EXPRESS YOUR VIEWS ABOUT OLLI
Questions/Comments/Suggestions
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PUBLICLY:
Email
your "Letter
to the Editor" (see recent sample)
or "Letter to
Ms. Ollie Ettakit" (see recent sample)
to the editor. Anonymous
submissions are
acceptable if you provide contact information so we can verify that you
are an OLLI member. Whenever an official response to a letter to
the editor is
clearly appropriate, the editor will obtain and publish the OLLI
response in the same issue so members will have more complete
information and a balanced picture of the matter. |
PRIVATELY:
• Contact any Board member,
committee or
resource group chair, or the executive
director;
• Send an email
to the entire
Board
(email the editor or the office to have your
message forwarded to all members of the Board);
• Submit a
suggestion online
or in the box in the Tallwood social room; or
• Contact the
office by email
or phone (703-503-3384). |
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 ANNEX EXHIBIT
A new collection of poems
By Marvina Munch, Exhibits Coordinator
DURING THE SECOND
HALF of
the spring term and National Poetry Month, OLLI’s poets exhibit a new
collection of poems for our enjoyment. Whether humorous or serious,
each poem is a gem.
CLASS CHANGES
Course #702, "America and the World"
CHANGES IN THE PLANNED SCHEDULE for
course #702, "America and the World," are provided by Coordinator
Carlyn Elder as follows.
- Apr 28:
"Cooking Intelligence for War," Raymond McGovern, Central Intelligence
Agency
- May 5:
"International Security," Karin Von Hipple, Center for Strategic and
International Studies
- May 12:
"Fiscal Wake-Up Tour," Josh Gordon, senior policy analyst at The
Concord Coalition
WALKING/HIKING
GROUP ENJOYS ITS FIRST SPRINGTIME OUTINGS
Eakin Glen Trail and Bull Run Regional Park
 By
Doris Bloch, Walking/Hiking Group Co-Coordinator
The
Walking/Hiking Group among
the bluebells. Photo by Shelly Gersten.
Two outings were
held last week, the first to Eakin Glen Trail, part of the Fairfax
County Connector Trail, on Fri, Apr 11. The group met at the trailhead
on Fairfax Boulevard (Rt. 50) and took a six-mile round-trip hike
followed by a rehydration Happy Hour stop at P.J. Skiddoos. This part
of the trail parallels Accotink Creek for a large portion of the hike
and is paved and level for the most part.
The second event was a Sunday morning visit to
Bull Run Regional Park, Centreville, to view the Virginia Bluebells. We
were lucky enough to encounter the bluebells in the full blooming
stage, and the entire woodland ground was blue. Our weather was a bit
cool and damp, but the sight of the spring flowers was certainly enough
to make the trip worthwhile. Fifteen of us tramped along the Bluebell
Trail, much of which borders Cub Run, for its 1.5 miles and enjoyed a
picnic lunch together in one of the park pavilions.
The next planned weekend outing of the
Walking/Hiking Group will be to the National Arboretum on Sat, May 10,
to view the famous azalea plantings and, of course, to visit other
parts of the Arboretum. More details on this hike will follow but
reserve the date on your calendar if interested. (Don't forget to bring
a camera.)
Note that group members also gather and walk
weekly in the areas near Tallwood for 30 - 45 minutes before classes on
Tuesdays at 8:30 (returning by 9:15) and on Wednesdays between
classes/special events at 1:15 (returning by 1:50). This schedule will
be in effect until the end of spring term. Feel free to "shake a leg"
and join us - no prerequisites, no homework, and no grades ever handed
out.
OLLI MILITARY OUTREACH
An update
 By
Helen Goff, OLLI
Liaison to Mason
Military Outreach Committee
ON APR 2, MASON MILITARY OUTREACH assembled
56 boxes of items that were donated by George Mason University
(including OLLI) at Mason Hall.
Thank-you notes have already started to
arrive. Here is an example:
I
just wanted to let you know that my dad received the care packages you
sent him and he sent a BIG thank you! He said the items you chose were
more than perfect, and if you ever do it again that it was a great box
and everything will be very useful and is more than appreciated. He
made sure to set everything out for all the guys to have their pick at
stuff they wanted/needed. So thanks again, you definitely made his day.
:)
-- Lindsay |
Doesn’t this just make your day? I know it did
mine!
 OLLI'S SPECIAL
FORCES
A profile of Rosemary McDonald,
Art/Music Resource Group Chair
By Elizabeth Crawford, OLLI
E-News Staff Writer
IN
ADDITION TO THANKING Gloria
Sussman for "The Ongoing Pleasures of Music," we must thank her for
introducing Rosemary McDonald (photo
at right) to OLLI. When Gloria started teaching at OLLI in 2000,
she relied on Rosemary as her driver and assistant. Subsequently,
Rosemary joined OLLI and became an active Reston member.
Rosemary is a former Fairfax County Public
Schools curriculum specialist in elementary language arts. She was a
major author of the FCPS Integrated Language Arts Guide and led the
effort to implement the program in every school in the county. In
addition, she spearheaded a teacher research project whereby teachers
conducted their own research and shared and published their findings.
Rosemary was elected to the Board in the
spring of 2007. Her goal is to use her ability to organize curriculum
and people to enrich the OLLI course offerings. Evidence of this talent
has been her coordination of well-received courses on China, Indonesia,
India, and Pakistan. New to the job of Art/Music Resource Group Chair,
Rosemary is relying on members to share their ideas and contacts in the
art and music worlds.
This job fits in well with one of Rosemary's
great loves--piano. She continues to take lessons and plays piano with
a group. In what is left of her spare time, she enjoys travel, bridge,
and golf.
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
A forum for members to voice their views
on OLLI matters
WE
WILL
PUBLISH your brief letters about OLLI and, if
a response seems appropriate, we will include an OLLI response from the
executive director or the applicable officer or committee
chair in the same issue. Submit your letter via email to the editor or
submit it as a "letter to the editor" via
the online
suggestion box or the suggestion box in the Tallwood Social Room.
To be published in a given Friday's issue, the editor must receive the
letter no later than 7:00 pm on Monday so that any applicable OLLI
response can also be published. Letters can be published
anonymously but you must include your name and email address or phone
number so we can verify that you are an OLLI member.
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Concern about classroom temperature
I read with interest the "falling out" of one of our instructors
attributed by witnesses to overheating in TA-1. We all must agree
that the classrooms all are overheated in the transitional seasons of
spring and autumn. I have personally felt ill in TA-1 and more often
very sleepy due to the heat which must exceed 80 degrees F.
I suggest we bite the bullet and turn on the
air conditioners when the rooms get so warm. At the very least, the
liaison should insist that the door be left open in spite of possible
deterioration of the PowerPoint presentations. Just a thought.
-- Nick Cirillo, OLLI member
Response
from Executive Director Thom Clement--
The OLLI staff will work with
class liaisons to
monitor temperatures in classrooms and take appropriate actions. As
noted in last week's OLLI E-News
article,
there were other factors involved with the speaker who
collapsed in TA-1 on Apr 9.
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 CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Arts and music events at Mason,
Apr 18-27
By Jan Bohall, OLLI
E-News Staff Writer
FOR
TICKETS, call
1-888-945-2468 (phone orders are handled by tickets.com)
or visit the Center for the Arts Box Office, Tue-Sat, 10:00-6:00. More
info on tickets at the CFA tickets page.
GMU Dance Company
Spring
Concert
Fri, Sat, Apr 18, 19, at 8:00
Admission: $10 seniors/students, $15 other adults
Harris Theater |
Virginia
Opera
Lucia di Lammermoor
Donizetti based this, said to be one of his most passionate operas, on
Sir Walter Scott’s novel, The Bride
of Lammermoor. Two noble Scots families have feuded for many
years and have sworn to exterminate each other. The bel canto masterpiece contains two
of opera’s most famous scenes, Lucia’s Mad Scene and the Sextet. The
exciting new soprano, Manon Strauss Evrard, returns to sing the title
role. The Sunday afternoon
performance is an OLLI Special Event.
Fri, Apr 18, at 8:00
Sun, Apr 20, at 2:00
Admission: Fri, $86, $72, $44
Sun, $94, $78, $48
Cheese Tasting: Fri, Apr 18, at 6:30 in the Concert Hall Lobby
Pre-performance artistic discussion at 7:15 on Fri and at 1:15 on Sun,
in the Grand Tier III Lobby.
Concert Hall |
GMU
Chamber Ensembles
Sun, Apr 20, at 3:00
Admission: Free, no tickets required
Harris Theater
Faculty Artist Series
Music
Department
Anna
Balakerskaia and Friends
Sun, Apr 20, at 7:00
Admission: Free, no tickets required
Harris Theater
GMU University Chorale
Tue, Apr 22, at 8:00
Admission: Free, no tickets required
Harris Theater
GMU Chamber Ensembles
Wed, Apr 23, at 8:00
Admission: Free, no tickets required
Harris Theater
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Fairfax Symphony Orchestra
Masterworks
5
William
Hudson, conductor
Maestro Hudson conducts two popular symphonic renditions, one of
Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, and one of excerpts
from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suites 1 and 2. He concludes with
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.
Sat, Apr 26, at 8:00
Admission: $55, $45, $35, $25
Concert Hall
Come early for a free, pre-concert lecture at 7:00.
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GMU Players #3
Measure
for Measure
by
William Shakespeare
Directed
by Rick Davis, artistic director of the CFA/Theater of the
First Amendment, this play brings Shakespeare’s most sustained
investigation of
the role of law and justice applied to a wide variety of human
circumstances. Stay for a post-performance discussion with the director
and members of the Players. The
Saturday afternoon performance is an OLLI Special Event.
Thu, Fri, Sat, Apr 24-26, at 8:00
Sat, Apr 26, at 2:00
Thu, Fri, Sat, May 1-3, at 8:00
Sat, Sun, May 3-4, at 2:00
Admission: $8 seniors/students, $12 other adults
Theater Space (From Level 2 of
Parking Deck take the bridge, enter the first door on the left and
follow hallway through the gray doors and down stairs.)
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MASON HIGHLIGHTS
Other Mason events
 By Barbara Kyriakakis, OLLI
E-News Staff Writer
- Über
Student
Film Festival – Sat, Apr 19, 6:00 and 9:00. JC Cinema. $1.00 with
ID.
- Faculty
Recital
– Jesse Guessford, composition. Free. Sun, Apr 20, 8:00, JC Cinema.
- Botanical
Tours of
Fairfax Campus - Join Environmental Science and Policy Professor
Andrea Weeks for a botanical walking tour. Meet at 12:05 in 15 Krug
Hall for a 45-50 minute walk around campus. Tours limited to 20 people,
so arrive early! Mon, Apr 21 and Tue, Apr 22.
- Vision Speaker Series – "The
Dawn of the Age of Personalized Therapy: Proteomic Technologies and
Strategies for Implementation," presented by Emanuel Petricoin and
Lance Liotta, Co-Directors, Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine.
Free but tickets
required. Mon, Apr 21, 8:00 in the Concert Hall.
- Sustainability Film Festival -
Featuring Radiant City, Kilowatt Ours, Fighting Goliath: The Texas Energy Wars
and Mountaintop Mining with
Bill Moyer. These films will provide an opportunity to participate in
facilitated discussions about energy and urban development issues. Tue,
Apr 22, 10:00 to 3:00, JC Cinema.
- Mason
Life Spring
Performance – The Lion and
the Mouse (pdf
flyer), Tue, Apr 22, Sub II Ballroom; open to Mason community and
general public from 2:00 to 3:00.
- Climate
Leadership
at Mason – Mason's Forum on Climate Change. Free. Wed, Apr, 23,
2:00 to 5:00, Sub II Ballroom.
- Panel
Presentation
– "The Plural West: Italy and the United States in the 21st Century,"
featuring Ambassador Paolo Janni and Ambassador Luigi V. Ferraris.
Sponsored by Religious Studies, Modern and Classical Languages, and the
Center for Global Education. Wed, Apr 23, 4:30, 163 Research I.
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COMING
ATTRACTIONS
Non-class events at OLLI for the next two
weeks
The following
list covering the
next two weeks is extracted for your
convenience from the master calendar maintained by the office (see the Forecast
of Non-Class Events for more details and to view the
actual OLLI online calendar used by the office). Note: Board,
committee, resource-group and 'membership-type' meetings/events below
are highlighted
in bold. OLLI members are
welcome at all Board, committee and resource-group meetings (except
during executive sessions).
Friday
Apr 18 9:30am Drama Club -
TA-3
10am Italian Club - TA-Annex
10am Recorder Group - TA-2
10am
Board of
Directors Meeting - TA-1
1pm 957-Spec
Event-Henriques on Washington - TA-1
1:30pm Homer, Etc. Book
Club - TA-Annex
Sunday
Apr 20 2pm 958-Spec Event Lucia Di Lammermoor
- Mason Center for the Arts
Monday
Apr 21 1pm Lake Anne Bridge
Club
Wednesday
Apr 23 1:30pm Bridge Club -
TA-3
2pm 959-Spec
Event-Myers-Briggs - TA-1
Friday
Apr 25 Ballots mailed for
Board of Directors election
9:30am Drama Club - TA-3
9:30am Photography Club -
TA-1
10am Italian Club - TA-Annex
10am Recorder Group - TA-2
12:30pm Loudoun Lunch Out -
Vintage 50 Restaurant, Leesburg
1pm 960-Spec Event-Lifelong
Learning - TA-1
1:30pm Homer, Etc. Book
Club - TA-Annex
Saturday
Apr 26 2pm 961-Spec Event Measure for Measure
- Mason TheaterSpace
Monday
Apr 28 1pm Lake Anne Bridge
Club
Tuesday
Apr 29 1pm Reston-Meet the
Candidates - LA
Wednesday
Apr 30 1:30pm Bridge Club -
TA-3
2pm 962-Spec Event-Tenor in
the Board Room - TA-1
Thursday
May 1 11am Fiction Writers
Club - Kings Park Library
Friday
May 2 10am Italian Club -
TA-Annex
10am
Annual Town Meeting
including candidate speeches - TA-1
11:30am
Silent Auction -
TA-3
11:30am
OLLI Picnic -
Tallwood Grounds
1:30pm Homer, Etc. Book
Club - TA-Annex
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Rod
Zumbro
Editor
Karen
Hamilton
Deputy
Editor
|
About OLLI
E-News. OLLI
E-News, OLLI's weekly newsletter, is emailed to OLLI
members with email addresses on Fridays. When classes are in
session, printed copies of this newsletter are distributed in
classrooms, primarily for members without email. Comments,
suggestions or complaints? Please contact Editor Rod
Zumbro or Communications Committee Chair Gordon
Canyock.
| Submissions. We encourage members
to submit news items, articles and photos for this newsletter; deadline
to
the editor is 7:00 PM Wed (Mon for letters to the editor for which an
OLLI response is appropriate) for that
week's issue. Please limit
articles to about 250 words. Submit material to Editor Rod Zumbro
(email rzumbro@gmu.edu, phone
703-569-2750); email strongly preferred. |
Note
about HTML graphics. If
you do NOT see
photos and
clickable links in this message, you might want to ask a teenaged
grandchild or a neighborhood teenager or college student to fix things
for you. Or you could change your
email settings yourself. Here's how to view html-formatted messages
like this newsletter in five popular email systems:
•
Microsoft Outlook
Express and Windows Mail.
Click Tools; select Options; in the Read tab, uncheck "Read all
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• Mozilla Thunderbird.
Click Tools; select Options and click the Privacy icon; click the
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Click Mail Options/General Preferences; under Security, uncheck "Block
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AOL. Upgrade,
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| Read the Latest
Issue Before Email Distribution. Eager to read the latest news
from
OLLI? The
new weekly issue of OLLI E-News
is
usually posted to the OLLI Website some time Thursday evening. So
Thursday night or first
thing Friday morning, just go to http://www.olli.gmu.edu/pubs.htm#enews,
where you will find a list of the last 12
issues, and click the issue with Friday's date. |
GMU Webmail.
If OLLI E-News is being sent
to your gmu.edu email address, we recommend against
using GMU Webmail
(i.e., iPlanet "Messenger Express") to read this newsletter unless
you are using Firefox as your browser; in Firefox, just click
the text/html
link to view the newsletter. This does not normally work with Internet
Explorer (although you may be able to make it work by clicking Open
after clicking the text/html link and then selecting Internet Explorer
as the program to use to view the link).
• You
could forward the
newsletter to your alternate Web-based email account such as Yahoo Mail
or
Hotmail and read it there ... or read it online at
the OLLI
Website each Friday.
• Perhaps
the easiest solution for those of you with gmu.edu email accounts
is to configure your desktop email system such
as Microsoft Outlook Express, Microsoft Windows Mail or Mozilla
Thunderbird to retrieve mail
sent to your gmu.edu address. To do this, see these
instructions.
|
OLLI
E-News Editorial Staff
Reviewer and Backup Editor
John West
Database
Manager
Barbara Kyriakakis
Reviewer and Photo Editor
Michael Coyne |
|
Updated:
April 18, 2008
Copyright © 2008 Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at
George Mason University. Materials in this publication subject to
OLLI-Mason copyright may be reproduced for noncommercial educational
purposes as long as credit is given to OLLI-Mason.
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at George
Mason University, 4210 Roberts Rd., Fairfax, VA 22032-1028
Phone: (703) 503-3384; Email: olli@gmu.edu;
Fax: (703) 503-2832
Original site design and construction by OLLI-Mason member Rod Zumbro. |
|
