OLLI Annual Meeting Report

Thank you to everyone who attended the OLLI Annual Meeting on Wednesday afternoon. It was a delight to see everyone and celebrate the last year.

For those who were not able to attend, below are some of the highlights of meetings, followed portions of the Director’s Report.

Vice-President Ed Johnson opened the meeting at 2:30 p.m., after a lively social hour featuring a Year in Review slideshow and lots of food.

An important point of business each year at the meeting is to elect new OLLI board members. But first, Ed took a moment to thank Sumitra Reddy, Earl Melby, Judy Morris, Tom Rogers, Karen Long, and Stan Cohen who are leaving the board. Linda Jacknowitz, Gwen Gill, Beverly Kerr, Carolyn Atkinson, and Kay Goodwin were recognized for their continuing service. A big thanks as well to Ed, George Trapp, Kathy Hanko, and Gwen Rosenbluth, who were up for reelection. The results of the election will be announced as soon as all nominates are notified of the outcome.

The Extra Mile Award, given to an OLLI member who has gone over and above the call of duty as a volunteer, was awarded to Paul and Kathy Hanko. Paul and Kathy have been instrumental in initiating upgrades to our facilities over the last year, including hanging blinds in the office and classroom A, fixing a hole in the wall of classroom A, and cleaning carpets, as well scouting out additional space for classes, and much more. Thank you, Paul and Kathy, for all of your support!

Six instructors were granted OLLI Honor Roll Faculty status this year. These faculty members are recognized for their contribution in teaching at least 10 classes and 60 hours for OLLI. This year’s inductees are Christopher Bily, Kenton Colvin, Rabbi Joseph Hample, Edwin Johnson, Michelle Klishis, and Sumitra Reddy.

Four other instructor were recognized for achieving significant milestones in teaching for OLLI as well: Leo Horacek for teaching more than 80 classes, Wallace Venable for more than 70, Rae Jean Sielen for more than 60, and Jim Held for more than 50 classes. Thank you all for your continued support and generosity.

Following the instructor recognition, we took a moment to recognize those beloved members and friends that we lost this year. Helen Almasy, Paul A. Atkins, Jr., Mary Biggs, Thomas Boyd, Elizabeth A. “Betty” Elder, Arthur I. Jacknowitz, Mildred Lindley, Don T. Martin, Charles D. Neel, Lillian J. Waugh, and Anthony “Tony” Winston, you will be missed.

Director’s Report, delivered by Jascenna Haislet

“I was reminded earlier this year that 2018 was the 25^th anniversary of the founding of the Appalachian Lifelong Learners, the predecessor of OLLI at WVU. In all of the business of the past three years, this milestone slipped under our radar. But I’m happy to report that 2018-19 has been a very busy year for us.

We saw a 20% increase in membership this year, welcoming nearly 300 new members and increasing our member retention by 10%. We ended the year with 826 members, 204 in Charleston and 622 in Morgantown.

We also increased the number of classes, events, field trips, and other activities, offering approximately 200 in 2017-18 but well over 300 this year. Along with many returning favorite instructors, we welcomed several new instructors and presenters to our family. We visited the Museum of American Glass in Weston, the Culture Center and Governor’s Mansion in Charleston, the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, and Arthurdale, WV. We took in movies, plays, operas, a baseball game, and a couple shows at the WVU Planetarium. We learned how to groom horses and how to cook kosher and authentic Chinese foods, toured the West Virginia Botanic Garden and Core Arboretum, and kayaked on Cheat Lake. We enjoyed the music of Almost Heaven Dulcimer Club, Rachel Eddy, and the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra. We held classes at the WVU Crime Scene Complex, the J.W. Ruby Research Farm, B’nai Jacob Synagogue, Temple Israel, South Charleston Public Library, Edgewood Summit Retirement Community, the Schoenbaum Center, and the Village of Heritage Point, and more. We learned about urban heat islands, citizen scientists, and Blue Zones.

New initiatives this year included the OLLI Member Directory, Ask a Geek sessions, and a member survey.

In October, Linda Jacknowitz and I travelled to Arizona to attend the OLLI National Conference. We met with colleagues from the OLLIs of Pennsylvania and Maryland and discussed possible collaborations. We attended workshop sessions are recruiting and engaging volunteers, diversifying fundraising efforts, and collaborating with the host university. Later that month, I was asked to serve on the OLLI National Resource Center Distance Learning committee, to help identify interest in and barriers to OLLIs offering online learning opportunities and best practices to do so.

So where do we go from here? Last year, because of the receipt of a capacity building grant from the Osher Foundation, we were encouraged to increase our membership by 10% over the previous year. As I noted earlier, we more than met that requirement. However, with growth came a few challenges. In order to successfully address these challenges, I believe we must reaffirm our mission, evaluate our resources, and develop a plan to manage growth in a way that will allow us to maintain the high quality experience that our members expect and deserve.

Although we will of course continue to encourage OLLI membership, we are not under an obligation to increase our membership by 10% this year. So we’ve set a goal of 850, just a 3% increase. This will allow us to focus our attention on the needs of our current members, recruiting more instructors, increasing opportunities for hands-on learning opportunities and travel, and investigating suitable space to accommodate larger class sizes.

I have asked the Board to review OLLI’s strategic plan, which was adopted in 2015 and updated in 2017. We have achieved many of the goals set forth in the plan and therefore, I believe it is time to develop a new plan to lead us toward 2022, when we celebrate the 30^th anniversary of ALL and the 15^th anniversary of becoming the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at WVU.”

 

The meeting adjourned at 3:30 p.m. Official minutes from the meeting will be available in mid-July.

Thank you to Charlotte and Roger Dalton, Judy Morris, Karen Long, Connie McCluskey, and Ed Johnson, who helped the OLLI staff set up and tear down the event.