President's Messages

One Year Anniversary

Heads up, members; we have an anniversary to celebrate!

Dr. Richard Chobot, OLLI's Executive Director, has been with us one year.

Dick can best be described as the engine that powers all OLLI activities. Board members, committee chairs, office staff, members, instructors and people outside the institute look to him for information, for guidance, for ideas, and to help us make connections. We hired him for that and we hired him exactly a year ago.

It's been a learning year for all of us. Dick's arrival coincided with the departure of three key staff members, and his new job became somewhat like sending someone into a darkened closet and asking him to reorganize it. It took some time, but when Dick emerged, he had developed an able staff who now work as a team and keep OLLI running like clockwork. They note his willingness to share his experience and expertise and allude to the respect, resources and encouragement he shows them.

So what exactly has our "hired man" done for us, the members, for the last year? My research uncovered a lot more than I can possibly include here. It's like "what you see is what you get" plus "you also get what you don't see."

Well, you see him. Dick is on site from early morning until early evening, unless he must meet with someone at GMU, or someone about developing a class, or someone who might have a lead on an overflow site for our popular classes. If you don't know who Dick is, you're not drinking enough coffee in the social room.

When he's in his office, next to TA-2, he's on the phone, the computer or meeting with a department chair. Still, he'll see you through the window and will wave you in; his door is always open. He attends many meetings and contributes his creative ideas. He has a long view of OLLI's future and a broad view of OLLI's future influence in Fairfax and Loudoun counties.

His positive response to Mason and a former OLLI president who requested our participation in a pilot program was swift, and the initial Loudoun classes will begin in spring 2007.

The structure of the model Dick designed for program development has increased member involvement in the process, resulting in many new ideas and course offerings. Working with the program committee, he's had a heavy hand in developing the excellent summer and fall programs at both Tallwood and Reston. For Reston folks, he spearheaded the new Reston resource group that will work on better classes at Lake Anne and he teamed up with Reston founder Bob Simon to create a very successful series of afternoon classes this summer.

Friday programming at Tallwood is Dick's idea with impromptu scheduling of last minute classes and activities. Expanded use of our facility with lighter fare allows members a time to lift their heads from their heavy reading and enjoy perhaps a film or a performance.

Dick is responsible for infrastructure, for making sure equipment works and staff knows how to make it work. Dick is always sensitive to our Mason workers, who see that our house is clean and well maintained and a "thank you" party he hosted for them has resulted in an even better relationship with these unseen, early morning workers.

On the money side, Dick is a facilitator for the finance committee and he must work with that committee in budgeting and in overseeing spending. He has provided the development committee with a comprehensive plan to identify and cultivate fund-raising sources and is working with them to implement it.

Among others, Dick is now working on the following diverse projects:

• Evaluation of classroom equipment;
• Comprehensive review of OLLI insurance coverage;
• Consideration of purchase of defibrillators;
• Future overnight travel programs; and
• A class on how to teach an OLLI class.

He is our voice to the community: recently a call came in from a producer of a far-reaching TV station. They were looking for information about LLIs. Dick's intelligent and comprehensive responses to questions evidently led that producer to invite him and a member to participate in a TV show about retired senior educational opportunities.

Our ED is good for OLLI, but Dick Chobot typically would say, "OLLI is good for me." Happy anniversary, Dick!

Debbie Halverson
President, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at George Mason University

OLLI Dues

Dear Fellow OLLI Members:

Sometime back, OLLI E-News received a flurry of letters on the broad topic of dues. It's a timely topic for discussion: the 2007 budget-planning period is looming, and from a personal standpoint, I am sensitive to the issue because my dues are up for renewal now.

OLLI's budget, which upon completion will be posted temporarily in the social room at Tallwood, is financed primarily by dues, plus a certain amount of interest income. Other sources, such as the Friends of OLLI fund and the Osher money, have to date been used for costs outside of our operating budget. Some parts of those funds have enabled us to defer dues money from specific costs associated with running the institute, and we thank Osher, and we thank our members, their families, and our friends who have contributed to Friends of OLLI. We must also consider when setting up the budget that our future costs as they relate to our homesite must be considered.

Other opportunities to enlarge our income base are currently being explored and grants as a possible source are being considered. However, grants take time to cultivate and each has its own criteria for awards.

When calculating the budget, the finance committee and then the Board will look at each line item to see if it squares with expectations for our 2007 needs. Divide the total by 710, our current membership total, and we have a figure that we know will be needed from each of us to run our OLLI. This is a very efficient way to structure and administer our dues.

Options that have been proposed include half-year rates, discounts for couples, short rates for those who travel or spend some terms out of town, and per-class rates. These options present the budget-makers with major problems: how to project how many people will drop out for a term; how many single memberships will merge into a double; how many will pay for half a year and then wait another half year to join up again. The number of unanswered questions would throw the budget into a tailspin. Not to mention the costs associated with administering any of these dues options.

Your Board's bottom line is to ensure the financial health of the institute.

Looking at it from the members' side, we see things differently: for some, the figure doesn't materially affect their pocketbooks; for others, and I speak as a single woman on a simple fixed income, that yearly check I write almost always comes at an inopportune time. Nonetheless, since I sign up for many courses each term and because my lifestyle focuses around OLLI, for me it really is a bargain. Other retirees might choose to spend their money on golf-club memberships or trips to interesting places. I figure five classes each term, or 20 over the year, comes to $14.00 per class, not a bad deal.

For couples the price doubles, a huge outlay, again probably at inopportune times. But let's remember that each member of the couple is getting the full benefit of membership and each person occupies a chair in a classroom, the good news being their one car saves us on parking slots.

A typical rate structure for some LLIs includes an annual fee, say $55.00, with per-class costs of $45.00 each. For $280, I could take only five classes a year. With our fabulous catalog of choices to choose from, I would find it very hard to pick just one or two per term. An LLI in a Midwest city charges $500 for the year, limiting classes to three per their three semesters, plus a parking fee.

We don't want to lose even one member because he or she cannot afford our rates. We have a scholarship fund for those on short finances. Simply contact the Tallwood site administrator and she will handle the situation with discretion.

We've come a long way: In 1991, LRI dues were $200. Members could take two courses during each of the two eight-week semesters from a list of 30 classes. Fifteen years later, we currently offer over 200 classes for $280, no limit on the number we may take. And many of these classes are dynamite!

Will our dues rise in 2007? We can't promise you they won't, but we can promise that each of our future catalogs will convince us that we are getting our money's worth.

All the best to each of you,

Debbie Halverson
President, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at George Mason University