PRESIDENT'S CORNER - January 15, 2016 | School of Public Health

As your President, it is my sad duty to inform you that, at our Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday, Angela tendered her resignation, to be effective by February 15. She had not been looking for a new position, but an opportunity arose in the last two weeks that was simply too ideal for any sane person to ignore! For those of us that have had administrative experience, we know that these situations arise and that in the life of anyone of the age and talent of our Director, very competent employees must make decisions for the advancement of their own careers matched with the needs of their families.

I hope we will all be able to stop and give Angela a hug and wish her very well in the weeks to come. She has committed to staying with OLLI through the Winter term to complete the launch of the Lumens program, develop the Spring term catalog with the Curriculum Committee, and assist as much as possible with the process of finding her successor.

The Executive Committee and the Board will be working to fill gaps in the administrative needs of our OLLI in the likely event that the Director’s position is not filled by Angela’s departure date. To that end, the Executive Committee will be having a special meeting on January 26 at 9 AM to plan this transition and then report in detail to the Board immediately after. It is likely that I will call a Board meeting for the first week or two of February so that Angela will have the opportunity to meet with all of us one more time and to include as many people in the planning stage as possible. This will include a review of the job description, in cooperation with Lillian Smith at the School of Public Health. If you have any comments or suggestions, please channel them to me or any member of the Executive Committee [Jane Martin, Tom Rogers, Stanley Cohen, Royce Keller and me].

Meanwhile, bon hiver!
Jim Held, President