PRESIDENT'S CORNER - September 16, 2016 | School of Public Health

Fall Open House: I saw many happy faces at Wednesday’s Open House. Roger Dalton, our intrepid photographer, was wandering around snapping pix that I have a feeling we’ll see posted here and there…thanks, Roger. Nancy Wasson and her committee were busily signing up people for memberships and classes and our director and office staff were kept hopping with welcome duties…thanks to Jae, Diane, Sonja and Steve. And thanks to the Board members that came and circulated and served in many ways. We still have a way to go to meet our membership goal of 585, so please help us by either renewing or bring in several friends to take what you regulars know are exciting and worthwhile classes of all kinds.

Fall Term: we are just about a week and a half from the beginning of our fall term. 50+ courses listed for Morgantown and over 20 for Charleston, so no excuses for not finding something to love. It is very easy to register on our website, so I hope that all of you that have computer access have signed on. My latest learning adventure was to find that, as an instructor, I can access my class roster and send everyone emails and other attachments—look out! I would like to extend my personal thanks to the Charleston committee for stepping up and coordinating a fine group of classes, instructors and venues. We’ll grow from there! It is my firm belief that no branch “campus” can possibly thrive unless its local members can work together to plan and implement a curriculum, recruit members and instructors and find out what works best for them. Onward!

Film Forum: Next week we’ll see a gem from the work of Cecil B. DeMille, one of the founders of Paramount Pictures and, as I’m sure most of you know, one of the great “characters” of the movie business. Did you know he was a close relative to Agnes DeMille, the legendary choreographer of “Oklahoma” fame? For our series, we’ll see DeMille’s 1937 “Cleopatra,” featuring all of the elements he would become identified with: sex, costumes, sex, spectacle, sex, Egypt, passion…did I mention sex? Claudette Colbert plays the queen of the Nile and even in black and white, the sets and all the details are breathtaking. Join us Wed. at 3 PM in classroom A.

Board News: Your Board passed some needed edits to the Handbook we approved last December. Jae will have it posted to our web site soon, along with needed appendixes that will have their own section. We also approved the Strategic Planning Framework that we had worked on last year in several long meetings to identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. All of that was distilled into a series of charts that outlined plans for moving forward. It has become quite normal for most organizations to undergo this kind of planning and can provide an outline of what we think we’d like to accomplish over, say a 3-5 year period. Our process was briefly sidetracked when Angela left us and we hired Jae Haislet, but now that she has settled in, the time was right to review what we had done and approve it. We can revisit the plan as new Board members and Board leadership changes every couple of years.

Next up for the Board is a discussion about how we motivate volunteers to our OLLI and identify people that are willing to chair committees. You’ll be hearing from Jae about possible changes and opportunities for those of you that would like to serve in the office. We still have a couple of committees with no chairs, so please don’t be shy if you have an interest. It’ OK to toot your own horn! Call me or send email to us, to Jae, or talk to any Board member if you have questions. Volunteer committees are a really vital part of our mission, so please help!

I think I’ve bent your eyes long enough for this week. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you at OLLI!

Jim Held, President