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Print a condensed .pdf copy of this newsletter, two web pages per sheet of paper. Website   What's New   Catalog   DocStore   Facebook   Officials   Member Portal   Contact Us OLLI Walking Group Near Statue of George Mason, Aug 18, 2014 August 22, 2014 Editor of the Week:  Paul Van Hemel Table of Contents Alerts & Notices New OLLI Registration System Coming Save the Date – Thu Sep 18, Open House at New Campus in Loudoun OLLI Supports Mason’s First Veterans' Employment Summit American Girl Author Visit Instructor Profiles Photography Club Poet's Corner Arts & Music at George Mason Meetings & Clubs About OLLI E-News Alerts & Notices We will publish again on September 5. We will resume weekly publication on September 26. The Tallwood office will be open 9 - noon until the start of the fall term. Back to Top of Page New OLLI Registration System Coming By Jennifer Disano, Executive Director The Board of Directors approved the purchase of a new registration system for OLLI in the spring of 2014 to replace the antiquated registration system we are currently using. An improved lottery and prioritization feature was purchased with the Augusoft Lumens system and is being customized to retain the OLLI policy of giving members an “equal chance” to get into preferred classes/special events. We expect that, with the new system, the user experience will improve overall but will still be very familiar to OLLI members. The Augusoft system has many excellent administration features which should aid office staff and OLLI volunteers with day-to-day operations. It also permits the preparation of many complex reports. Training, implementation and activation of the system require a several-month process. Currently, staff and several OLLI volunteers have completed the first month of training, but there is much to do ahead. Your patience and understanding will be greatly appreciated as the Tallwood staff devotes necessary time to getting the new system ready. Back to Top of Page Save the Date – Thu Sep 18, Open House at New Campus in Loudoun OLLI is holding an Open House on Thursday, September 18, for all interested members to visit our new Loudoun site, at 21335 Signal Hill Plaza in Sterling, VA! See the new suite, pick up your new parking pass for Signal Hill Plaza, and socialize with OLLI members and staff. We encourage you to enroll for Special Event 951, an OLLI teleconference with George Mason University’s President, Dr. Angel Cabrera on “Being Global: How to Think, Act and Lead in a Transformed World.” The teleconference will be broadcast during the Open House. And, as a special bonus, the Hylton Center will be holding a raffle give-away of performance tickets for the 2014/15 season. Back to Top of Page OLLI Supports Mason’s First Veterans' Employment Summit By Alice Slayton Clark, OLLI Communications Associate/Registrar The OLLI-Mason Board of Directors voted in July to donate $1000 from the Friends of OLLI charitable fund to sponsor George Mason University’s first annual Veterans’ Employment Summit, held on campus August 7. The summit, planned jointly by Mason’s Office of Military Services (OMS) and the Easter Seals Veteran Staffing Network, was designed to help local veterans gain access to meaningful employment opportunities in Northern Virginia and beyond.    “Many OLLI members are concerned that our country gives too little support to the veterans who volunteered to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. This year, we are using this unrestricted gift to aid veteran graduates in finding good jobs as they move on in life,” explains Ray Beery, OLLI Board Member, former OLLI President and 23-year Air Force veteran.   OLLI has been a staunch supporter of OMS and of military personnel over the past several years. According to Jennifer Connors, Director of Military Services at Mason, "We are so thankful for the faithful support of OLLI members. There is absolutely no way we could provide the student veteran programming and special events without the generous contributions over the last 3 years. I hope OLLI members know they have truly made a difference and have touched so many lives."   Military service is highly valued at OLLI because so many of its members, men and women, have served or built careers in the U.S. Armed Forces, and their children and grandchildren are also veterans. According Ray Beery, “Those experiences colored our patriotism, which lives in our hearts today… We see GMU’s Office of Military Services as the tangible place where we can put our money where our hearts are.” Back to Top of Page American Girl Author Visit By Alice Slayton Clark, OLLI Communications Associate/Registrar American Girl author Valerie Tripp visited OLLI-Mason July 22 for a fun session with members and grandchildren on the writing process and the inspiration for her books. Valerie explained to the star-struck audience of both the young and more seasoned girls, including granddaughters of OLLI members John and Toni Action, shown here with the author, that she gets her story ideas from her life experiences as well as from the children she meets. Many attendees brought their American Girl dolls and books that Valerie signed after the event. This is the second event that OLLI has hosted with the American Girl theme. Last summer during “Grandcamp,” American Girl fans young and older gathered for a special tea to celebrate the doll collection and book series. Back to Top of Page Instructor Profiles By Susan Van Hemel, Coordinator for Instructor Profiles Workgroup The workgroup that is managing the OLLI instructor profiles web page is glad to announce that there are now profiles available for 108 (and counting) OLLI instructors, both members and non-members. Many of these provide much more information than the catalog is able to include in its limited space. They will give you a fuller picture of the variety of skills and experience our instructors possess, and their personalities and interests as well. You will also find photos of most instructors. We have added new profiles since the fall catalog was published, so even if there was not a link in the catalog, an instructor may have a profile there now. Visit the profiles page at http://olligmu.org/profiles/index-profiles.html , or click on the links in the online catalog. Back to Top of Page Photography Club By Dan Feighery, Photography Club Coordinator Throughout the Fall term, the OLLI Photography Club will mount an exhibit of members’ work in the social room at Tallwood, as it usually does. Our theme for the exhibit is “Abstracts,” so it will consist entirely of non-representational photos, including some works that were juried into the annual Joseph Miller Abstract Photography exhibitions.   What on earth is “abstract photography?” When you look at an abstract photo, you see the forms, colors and patterns for themselves, and usually you cannot easily identify the concrete object that the photo is “of.” But each of the photos, unlike an abstract painting, starts as a photographic image of something real. What makes the finished work abstract is that the artist (photographer) has worked with the subject matter or photo equipment to find a different or unique way of seeing it, before taking the picture, and/or has manipulated the photo afterwards, to produce a result that is interesting to the eye but does not immediately suggest the actual material pictured.    We hope you will take a few minutes to view the exhibit and enjoy the creativity of our OLLI photographers! ----------------- Note: Although regular meetings of the Photo Club are usually held the second Friday of the month in the morning, there is a meeting of the Photo Club today (Fri, Aug 22) at Tallwood at noon. The speaker will be Dan Feighery, discussing photography as art. Back to Top of Page Poet's Corner Courtesy of the Poetry Workshop Stone   Nothing soothes like stone. Pennsylvania bluestone, for instance, set in a pattern The eye can get to know— long-stone-wide-stone-right-angled-narrow-stone— all the way to the end of the patio. Or the broad grey flags that lead you to your own front door, again and again. Or think about those small square stepping stones in grass that go around the side of the house to where the lilac is.   Caroline McNeil Back to Top of Page Arts & Music at George Mason Performances, next two weeks By Shelly Gersten, OLLI E-News Staff Writer For tickets for either CFA or Hylton, call 1-888-945-2468, buy tickets online through the event calendar (see links below), or visit the venue's box office. For more information see the CFA ticket page or the Hylton ticket purchase page. Mason Student & Faculty Performances APAC Cultural Show Wed, Aug 27, 6:00 - 8:00 The Asian Pacific American Coalition will be hosting a culture night. Admission: Free HUB Ballroom ________________________________________________________ SAI in Concert Thu, Aug 28, 1:00 - 2:00 The ladies of Sigma Alpha Iota will be in concert. Admission: Free North Plaza ________________________________________________________ Mason Improv Association: Kick-off Performance Fri, Aug 29, 10:00 - 12:00 Admission: Free Bistro (Johnson Center) Back to Top of Page At the Hylton Center A Different Perspective - Multi-level Photoart Jul 20 - Aug 31 The Buchanan Partners Art Gallery is open to the public Tue - Sat, 10:00 - 6:00, Thu, 10:00 - 8:00 and two hours before performances. For more information about the current exhibit, visit HyltonCenter.org/gallery Admission: Free ________________________________________________________ Jammin' at the Hylton: Bluegrass and Old Timey Jam Sun, Aug 24, 3:00 Includes a public open jam as well as performances by local bands. It is a family day to be enjoyed by all even if they are not pickers. 3:00 - Steve Potter and Friends 4:00 - Thoroughfare Gap 5:00 - The Dixie Rails 6:00 - Vint Hill Special Gregory Family Theater Admission: Free ________________________________________________________ Relationship: Tom Neel & Linda Neel, artists Sep 3 - Sep 28 Gallery Reception: Sep 4, 6:00 - 8:00. The Buchanan Partners Art Gallery is open to the public Tue - Sat, 10:00 - 6:00, Thu, 10:00 - 8:00 and two hours before performances. For more information about the current exhibit, visit HyltonCenter.org/gallery For reception RSVP to [email protected]. Admission: Free Back to Top of Page For further details on any of the above events, please see the CFA event calendar and the Hylton Center event calendar Back to Top of Page Meetings & Clubs The following list covering the next two weeks is extracted for your convenience from the master online calendar maintained by the office, with direct web links added when available. The list is accurate as of mid-week but to check anytime for the latest information, please view the latest forecast of upcoming events on our website (News/OLLI Calendar). Note: All OLLI members are welcome at, and encouraged to attend, meetings of the Board of Directors, committees and resource groups, Kickoff Coffees, etc. (bolded below). Sat Aug 23 10:30am Tai Chi Club–TA-3 Mon Aug 25 10:00am 10:00am 10:30am   12:00pm Bridge Club–TA-3 What’s in the Daily News, cont’d–TA-1 History and Current Events Program Planning Committee–Cottage Russia Discussion Group–TA-1 Tue Aug 26 10:00am 10:00am 12:30pm   Knitting and Needlework Club–Panera, Herndon Humanities and Social Sciences Program Planning Committee–Annex Art and Music Program Planning Committee–Annex Wed Aug 27 10:30am 12:15pm   Tom Crooker Investment Forum–TA-1 Economics and Finance Program Planning Committee–TA-1 Fri Aug 29 9:00am 10:00am 11:00am Recorder Consort–TA-3 Craft and Conversation–Cottage Homer, etc–Annex Sat Aug 30 10:30am Tai Chi Club–TA-3 Tue Sep 2 10:00am Craft and Conversation–Panera, Herndon Wed Sep 3 10:00am 10:30am 10:00am Mah Jongg Club–TA-2 Tom Crooker Investment Forum–TA-1 Bridge Club–TA-3 Fri Aug 22 9:00am 10:00am 10:00am 11:00am Recorder Consort–TA-3 Craft and Conversation Group–Cottage iPad Users Group–UCP Homer, etc–Annex Back to Top of Page About OLLI E-News OLLI E-News was created by Rod Zumbro, who served as its editor from 2005 to 2013. Editorial Staff Chief Editor/Technical Editor: Irene Osterman Associate Editor: Weekly Editorial Team: Paul Van Hemel, Sheri Siesseger, Leslie Vandivere, Proofreaders:  John West, Gordon Canyock, Susan Van Hemel Backup Chief Editor: Sheri Siesseger Submissions. Members are encouraged to submit letters to the editor, letters to Ms. Ollie Ettakit (on etiquette matters), OLLI-related news items, articles and photos. Submit material to: [email protected]. Deadline – 6:00 pm Tuesday for that week's issue (6:00 pm Monday for letters to the editor); early submissions are greatly appreciated. Please limit articles to about 250 words. Note: You can view past issues of OLLI E-News on the DocStore. To search the content of issues, use Search Our Site or put your search term in Google followed by "site:olli.gmu.edu/" without the quotes. Back to Top of Page