Executive Director Communication V O L U M E
Briefly highlight your point of interest here.
Briefly highlight your point of interest here.
Briefly highlight your point of interest here.
Briefly highlight your point of interest here.
1 ,
I S S U E
1
F A L L
2 0 1 7
S E P T E M B E R
The State of OLLI at DU This past year I presented at Town Hall meetings at each site. Due to feedback, it was determined that an article in addition to a presentation was an even better way to share the news of OLLI at DU. A Look Back As we prepare to begin yet another amazing year at OLLI at DU, I thought it valuable to take a look back at this past year and provide a quick glimpse at the year ahead. Active Engaged Lifelong Learning is one of the best strategies we can incorporate to delay any signs of Dementia. Accordingly, we have and will continue to explore how to enhance the OLLI experience. Looking Back at Academic Year 2016-2017
INSIDE
The past year had many high moments and a few low moments to be sure. In the end, we as individuals and as the community of OLLI at DU survived them all. Many of them we actually thrived on!
THIS ISSUE:
Our Firsts:
Our Contin-
Our first increase in membership fees was incorporated;
Our first joint Facilitator Only event was held in December with Allison Friederichs, PhD. from DU’s University College speaking on how older learners learn;
Our first volunteer appreciation ice cream socials were held. Volunteers are the lifeblood of our organization. It was a pleasure to celebrate all they offer to OLLI at DU. We look forward to future celebrations of our dedicated volunteers;
Our first collaboration with the Lamont School of Music. OLLI members listened to wonderful music and interacted with the musicians. This is a collaboration we look forward to each Spring Term.
2
ued Success Glimpse Ahead
2
Facilitators— Lifeblood of OLLI
3
Executive
4
Information
Our Losses:
Vonnie Wheeler, our Executive Director of 22 years took retirement. The celebration we had was certainly appropriate
Central Christian Church, one of our founding church locations, decided to open a pre-school. We have lost the use of this amazing and familiar facility.
PAGE
2
Our Continued Successes
A total of 417 classes were facilitated;
With a total of 11,811 seats occupied in those classes;
2,772 unique (individuel) membres of OLLI at DU
Eight Summer Seminars were held with registration in excess of 960 members.
And all of this was accomplished during a time of turbulence in our wonderful country.
A Glimpse Ahead-2017-2018 As we look forward, there are several changes currently being enacted or planned. We are very excited about these and our expectation is they will continue to enhance the OLLI experience.
Our online registration system was used by the OLLI South campus during this Fall term registration.
While there were some adjustments and enhancements, overall it was very successful. We will be launching this process for all sites for the Winter term. We hope most will migrate to on line registration, nevertheless we will continue to accept manual registrations as in the past.
We launched our first new site in eight years to catch up to our growing membership. OLLI-on-Campus, a new and different experience, launched for the Fall term. Seven classes, in collaboration with the University College’s Enrichment Program, begin this new venture. This number is very similar to the number of classes offered during the launch of other sites.
We will be launching our second new site – OLLI East – in the Spring term.
We are planning our first Wellness Symposium in November. This event will be formatted very much like the OLLI at DU’s International Symposium.
“Teamwork makes the impossible possible”
A Glimpse Ahead—Continued
PAGE
We are testing a product to assist in hearing in our various classrooms. Each site will have one a ‘Redcat’ systems to test during the Fall term so we can determine how they might fit the needs of OLLI at DU.
Last Spring Term we launched on-line class evaluations building on the work of OLLI West who pioneered this addition. This gives us more complete information and is easier to gather statistics to improve our class offerings.
And we are using online systems such as Qualtrics, iModules and Signup Genius to allow you to register for various events and offerings of OLLI at DU. The use of these systems is intended to enhance your experience and optimize the time and talent of our limited staff.
And through all that has been mentioned, we continue to be focused on our mission to offer a wide array of classes led by committed facilitators and assisted by amazing volunteers, and augmented by social events and other offerings. I anticipate another year of learning and expanding our thinking and caring for our brains. Here’s to a fabulous 2017-2018 academic year.
Facilitators—The Lifeblood of OLLI I wanted to take a few moments to ensure we each recognize the critical role of the Facilitators at OLLI at DU. OLLI is, at its core, an educational organization with many added benefits for you, its members. The classes being offer are our core product of the organization. Thus, Facilitators are the life blood of the organization. OLLI at DU is a volunteer organization, built so many of us can share our talents on behalf of the organization. Our facilitators are simply the cream of the crop due to the commitment and caring they invest in each class they facilitate. Without facilitators, we would have very few classes and the educational classes we offer would most likely be more of the lecture type. Thankfully, the majority of our facilitators prefer smaller classes where they can actively engage the members – you – in conversation and considerations. Recent research shows that Active Engaged Learning one of the most impactful activities to engage in to reduce the amount of proteins which form a plaque on the brain. Without our amazing volunteer facilitators, our pricing structure would be significantly different and may impact how many of us could continue our search for Lifelong Learning. Facilitators are encouraged to share their passions instead of their ‘pedigree’. Without passion, a class would be dull and uninteresting. For those rare individuals for whom their training and experiences (pedigree) is still their passion, we are honored with a double benefit. ( continued on the back page)
3
With an eye to allowing each site its own unique personality, I will be sending OLLI wide articles of interest to all members in an email format from now on.
Barbe Ratcliffe Executive Director OLLI at DU 2211 South Josephine Street
These articles will not be synchronized with the timing of the newsletters. They will be posted as events and/or news occur on their own schedule. Some sites may include the articles in their newsletter, other may not.
Denver, CO 80208 Phone: 303-880-5950 Email: Barbara.ratcliffe@du.edu
In addition to the emails you will be able to find the articles (with a summary at the beginning of each), on each of the individual site websites under a new tab labeled: Executive Director
Facilitators Continued While we have many facilitators from academia, many with very advanced degrees and experience, the majority of our stalwart facilitators are simply individuals like you and I who wish to share their passion. Facilitators are brave, creative, flexible individuals who simply love to share. The OLLI at DU membership is made up of individuals with amazing backgrounds and expertise. It is not uncommon for a member or two taking a class in which they have a more extensive background in aspects of a topic. Luckily, we have a learning environment where individuals are thoughtful and share appropriately as the questions come up and discussions occur. It is not uncommon to take amazing situations and individuals for granted,
“Volunteers
thinking they will always be there and not saying that extra ’thank you’ when the timing is right. By this article, I am reminding us of the critical role of four facilitators in this OLLI organization which we enjoy and benefit from so much. The next time you enjoy a class, you may want to provide an extra bit of ‘thanks’ for all they do. Barbe Ratcliffe
don’t necessarily have the time, they just have the heart “