OLLI E-News Newsletter

July 20, 2018

• Alerts & Notices
• Notes from the Board of Director’s Annual Retreat
• Thank You, Catalog Editors and Proofreaders
• A White Christmas in July, 3rd Annual Event
• Still Seeking a Bass Player
• Meteorologist Bob Ryan Speaks at OLLI
• Photo of the Month
• Poet’s Corner
• Arts & Music at George Mason
• Meetings & Clubs
• About OLLI E-News

Alerts & Notices

OLLI will be closed for summer break from July 30 through August 10. The Tallwood office will reopen Monday, August 13.

The next issue of E-News will be published July 27. Submissions are due July 24 no later than 6:00 pm.

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By Rita Way, Secretary

The Board of Directors, members of the Strategic Planning Committee, and committee chairs met Monday,
July 16, 2018 for the reveal of a draft renewed Strategic Plan to be considered by the Board. The Strategic Planning Committee affirmed OLLI’s mission as stated in the Bylaws:

• The mission of the Institute is to offer to its members learning opportunities in a stimulating environment in which adults can share their talents, experiences, and skills; explore new interests; discover and develop latent abilities; engage in intellectual and cultural pursuits; and socialize with others of similar interests.

The Strategic Planning Committee used a standard strategic planning method—environmental scan—and an exercise examining strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) to develop goals for the next ten years. The goals will address the areas of membership, program, facilities, finance, and the organization. The Monday meeting was to obtain input about the draft goals. These ideas will be evaluated by the committee. Subsequently, a survey will solicit input from the entire membership. The committee will prepare a full written strategic plan for Board approval and then recommend an implementation plan for Board approval. It is possible the plan could be approved by the fall.

Your fall OLLI catalog will soon be arriving in your mailbox. It is already available on our website.

Production of the OLLI catalog is a big job, and we are fortunate to have an excellent group of volunteers to scrutinize and edit the text of this important resource. The editors for fall were Anna Fotias, Beth Lambert and Stephanie Stahr. Proofreaders were Joan Axilbund, Rebecca Jann, Leti Labell, Martha Powers, Irene Osterman and Donna Weiss. Thank you all for your hard work.

If you are interested in joining the catalog team, please contact me, sheri.siesseger@gmail.com, for information.

By Jim Dunphy, Chair, Member Services, Social Events

Santa made an appearance at OLLI on Friday, July 13, and no bad luck was involved! It was a holly jolly time at the third annual OLLI Christmas in July.

Taking as its theme the movie White Christmas, attendees were treated to a delicious pot-luck lunch, followed by clips from White Christmas and other holiday favorites. Santa put everyone in a holiday mood by leading a sing-along to “Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Let It Snow.” Finally, to ensure that OLLI’s educational mission was fulfilled, there was a trivia contest, with the winners getting 16 out of the 20 questions right. Who knew that the poinsettia was named after Joel Poinsett, who brought it back from Mexico when he was US minister to that country in the 1800s?

Santa wants to thank the attendees and other OLLI members who generously donated more than 20 boxes of food for the Arise Campus Ministry to help George Mason students in need. Donors will certainly end up on the nice list!

Thanks and kudos to the Social Committee and other volunteers who quickly turned TA-1 from a classroom to a winter wonderland, and to all the attendees who brought food and good cheer to the party. Finally, a big shout out to Martha Powers, who turned over the reins of the Member Services Committee and the Social Committee just before this event.

If you missed this event, start planning to attend next July! Also, check the OLLI catalog for the next wing-ding, the annual winter beach party. Cowabunga!

By Nancy Riley, Tallwood Trio Vocalist

Reminder: OLLI’s own Tallwood Trio is looking for a bass player who can join the group on a temporary basis. Our bassist, Eric Henderson, is a bit under the weather. While we expect him to make a full recovery, we have some gigs coming up in the next couple of months and would appreciate someone stepping in. If you are interested, or if you know someone who plays and is available during the daytime, please give Alan Wenberg a call at 703-690-4629. Thank you!

By Carolyn Kazemi, OLLI Member

Retired meteorologist Bob Ryan recently spoke to a large OLLI audience on “Weather and Climate or Climate and Weather?” He was the first on-air meteorologist for the Today show and served as a trusted voice in local weather forecasting for over 30 years.

Ryan firmly believes that meteorologists have a professional responsibility to deliver scientifically sound, accurate information to the public, including research results regarding climate change. His presentation addressed the scientific method, which includes observation, sharing ideas, testing ideas with verification of results, peer review, and finally, conclusions. Vivid satellite photos of Earth also demonstrated the weather effects of natural and manmade causes such as fires, sandstorms, volcanic eruptions, and even contrails left behind passing aircraft.

He said that advances in computer technology and science have resulted in more data to analyze, giving us a better understanding of climate and weather, and the differences between the two, leading us to more accurate conclusions. He believes that using scientific modeling of data is critical, since it often results in finding consistent patterns that confirm our human observations.

Ryan stressed that “nature has no agenda” and that our human influence on climate is clear. He added that “…the more disruption we cause in nature the more change we will see.” His presentation concluded with a quote from Jonas Salk, “Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.”

OLLI thanks member Stephanie Trachtenberg who brought Bob Ryan to us as a guest speaker.
Note: Photos of this event are available at this link (you will have to scroll down)

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Photo of the Month

The July 2018 Photo of the Month theme was I Love a Parade. We selected Ed Marion’s photo “Patriotic Planes on Parade,” which may also be viewed at this page. To view other photos by members of the Photography Club, visit the club’s photo website.
        — By Angela Talaber, Photography Club Coordinator

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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 any time 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).

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OLLI E-News was created by Rod Zumbro, who served as its editor from 2005 to 2013.

Editorial Staff
Chief Editor: Paul Van Hemel
Technical Editor: Irene Osterman
Associate Editor: David Gundry
Weekly Editor Team: Jean Boltz, John Nash, Sheri Siesseger, Leslie Vandivere,
Paul Van Hemel 
Proofreaders: Rebecca Jann, Susan Van Hemel, Shirley Springfloat, Linda Randall,
Gerry Ann Strube
Backup Chief Editor: Alice Slayton Clark

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: ollienewseditor@gmail.com.
Deadline – 6:00 Tuesday for that week’s issue (6:00 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.

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