New Opportunities to Connect with OLLI
As we enter week six of sheltering in place, I sincerely hope you are all safe, healthy and eager to learn more. Keeping you informed regarding updates on OLLI Board activities, courses and the preservation of OLLI is paramount to leadership.
A tremendous energy and effort is taking place by our teachers, volunteers and staff to keep our OLLI members connected with one another through the use of technology. Nationwide, OLLI institutes report 40 to 80% of their members are now engaged in online learning. We aren't at that level yet, but we’re working on it. In my last message to you, I mentioned Zoom video conferencing. So please help us get this baby off the ground because that is going to be the model until COVID-19 protocols are reduced and classes return to brick and mortar facilities.
NEW opportunities to connect to OLLI friends begin soon! Instructors Morrie Kramer and Larry Lobre will be hosting a free weekly get together titled Sharing Our Decades. Using Zoom, they will moderate this online forum to discuss life-changing historic events (local and global) that participants have experienced. This is rated PG-13. We’ll have a tech specialist available to help all participants with glitches that may occur (video/audio).
Topic: OLLI-Decades of Sharing
When: Thursday, May 7 at 1 p.m.
Join us via Zoom: Check your email for the link, or contact olli@ucdavis.edu if you haven't received it.
We are also forming a group of OLLI volunteers who will be available to assist members with Zoom and related technologies on a one-to-one basis. We are fully embracing our new mantra - No One Gets Left Behind.
Actions from our OLLI Executive Board Meeting included:
- A one-year extension of current board positions for Sandy Mansfield (Treasurer), Stephanie Brown-Fehm (Operations Chair) and Sharon Dario (Technology Chair)
- A special thanks to these ladies who stepped up to ensure OLLI’s viability during this unusual time. Additionally, I have extended as your board president.
- Convening an ad-hoc committee: COVID-19 Survivability Task Force to help maintain OLLI in the age of pandemic(s).
- Updating the OLLI Policies and Procedures: Provisions/Conditions to postpone elections of officers. Broadening of officer position descriptions to include time commitments, expectations, etc.
- During this pandemic, we continue to pursue future facilities opportunities. (Pamela Trokanski Dance Theater, Davis Veterans Community facility and Bretton Woods in West Davis.)
Finally, I encourage all of you to visit our new OLLI Blog! We will be posting all of our updates, news and stories to share with you here on our new blog. We will still be sending you periodic emails, but our blog will be our newest form of communication for keeping in touch with you. We hope you will visit our blog frequently to stay informed on all things OLLI.
Please stay safe, healthy and eager to learn (via technology).
Dave Hawke
President – OLLI at UC Davis