Enews23-15

July 17, 2015

• Alerts & Notices
• Water Plant Tour: An Example of Special Events Committee Planning
• OLLI Supports the World Police and Fire Games
• Mahjong at OLLI
• Will You Help OLLI Create Its First Slogan?
• Photo Club's Photo of the Month
• Poet's Corner
• Arts & Music at George Mason
• Meetings & Clubs
• About OLLI E-News

Alerts & Notices

You're Invited!
The OLLI Humanities and Social Sciences Program Planning Committee will meet on Wednesday, July 22, at 1:30 in the Tallwood Annex. All interested OLLI members are invited to attend as planning begins for the 2016 winter and spring courses and events. This is an important and fun way to volunteer at OLLI, and your ideas and comments are always welcome! If you have questions, contact the committee coordinator, Johnnie Hicks, 703-455-5536.

E-News Articles
The standard article length allowed for the E-News has been set at 250 words. However, feature articles such as member profiles may be up to 350 words. The only exception to these limitations is when the Executive Director needs to provide critical information to members as was the case recently with instructions for using the new registration system.

All submissions to the E-News are subject to an editorial process. The editor of the week will revise articles for grammar, clarity, flow, length, and appropriateness. If the editor makes substantive changes to an article received by the Tuesday 6 pm deadline, it will be returned to the author for review. The author will have one day to respond. After all articles are placed in a final draft, there is a further proofreading review which may result in additional changes.

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Water Plant Tour: An Example of Special Events Committee Planning

          

 By John Nash, E-News Editor


Many of us never give a thought to what it takes to get clean, safe water to use each day. It’s quite a process which was explained to more than 25 OLLI members who toured the Corbalis Water Treatment Plant in Herndon on Monday, July 13. The group learned how Fairfax Water processes raw river water to the finished product we usually take for granted. “I had no idea there are so many steps in making drinking water safe,” said Leo Brennan, OLLI member.

The tour of the Corbalis Water Treatment Plant is an example of the many special events offered OLLI members each term, either as trips or tours of offsite venues or special one-time speaker presentations. Putting together these special events for each term requires much long range and coordinated planning.

For several years now, the special events planning committee has been headed by Florence Adler, a longtime and involved OLLI member. It’s through this committee that special events, described in the back of each term catalog, are selected. Special events can entail bus trips, location tours, or one-time presentations. “We always try to assemble a selection of special events that will appeal to a broad spectrum of OLLI members,” said Florence. The committee meets on the first Wednesday of each month and is open to all members.  The date and location for each meeting is generally listed in the calendar of events in OLLI E-News.

Beth Davis, who serves as the committee recorder, keeps track of past events, how successful each one was and whether the event should be repeated. “We get great suggestions from committee representatives and other OLLI members so it’s important to keep track of them,” Beth pointed out. According to Florence, at least one special event is scheduled each week during an OLLI term, usually on Wednesday afternoons and some Fridays.

If you have a suggestion for a trip, tour or special speaker presentation, please contact Florence Adler, floadler@verizon.net. Or better yet, “We’d love to have more OLLI members participate in our planning committee. New ideas benefit all OLLI members,” Florence said.

OLLI Supports the World Police and Fire Games

By George Bradshaw
                 
                     and

Dan Feighery 



The World Police and Fire Games (WPFG), an international, biennial sporting event held from June 26 to July 5, attracted nearly ten thousand athletes in more than 60 sports to the George Mason University campus and many other locations in the Washington, D.C. area. OLLI Photo Club members Norm Bayne, George Bradshaw, Dan Feighery, and Tom Simpson, joining a team of 80 volunteer photographers, captured images of baseball, 3x3 basketball, 5x5 basketball, billiards, bowling, cycling, darts, motocross, outdoor soccer, rowing, tennis, and volleyball to provide athletes with mementos of their time in our Nation’s Capital. 
 
The WPFG’s photo guidelines were to capture both the spirit of the games and highlights of the action, including the ball (if a ball game) and a face or identifying uniform number. The photographer’s workflow involved taking hundreds of pictures of an event, culling the day’s shots, picking the best, cropping, making needed adjustments, then uploading the photos to WPFG storage systems for historical purposes as well as for Web access by the athletes and public. 
 
From a photographer’s perspective, the team spirit and the camaraderie among the competitors are as memorable as their athletic skill. Few have the opportunity to view such nearly professional sporting events from the sidelines as does a photographer. From this vantage point we have been blessed with the opportunity to hear private strategy sessions, see the muscle strains of a well-executed volleyball spike, and almost join the teams in post-game high-fives and awards presentations. We hope these photos convey those experiences.  

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Mahjong at OLLI

  
 
By Liz Bateman, Mahjong Club Coordinator


Here at OLLI, we have a lovely group of Mahjong players, who laugh, play and enjoy each other. There is no pressure and we welcome newcomers, teaching them how to play. We follow the rules set forth by the National Mah Jongg League (yes, Mahjong is spelled different ways) which include a card, changed annually, of standard hands.

- Mahjong is similar to rummy, but is played with tiles rather than cards.

- There are three "suits" - dots; bamboo, known familiarly as "bams"; and characters, or "cracks"; as well as other tiles known as winds, flowers, dragons, and the jokers that we all want.

- The game starts with players setting up "walls" from the tiles the dealer passes out. Each player gets 12 tiles although the dealer gets one extra tile. 

- Players then pass a few unwanted tiles from one player to another. The game continues as players pick tiles from the current wall and discard tiles until someone declares "Mahjong" by completing one of the hands on their card.

- Mahjong is becoming more and more popular around the world and even has computer and Internet versions. A small amount of time and effort is required to become familiar with the elementary principles of the game. Your patience in mastering the fine points of Mahjong will be repaid many times by the enjoyment you will derive from the game and the new friends you will make. 

If you'd like to join this happy group, just contact Liz Bateman, Mahjong Club Coordinator  at concordiaerb@verizon.net

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Will You Help OLLI Create Its First Slogan?

By Dave Ryan, Outreach Committee Chair
 

“The happiest place on earth.” (Disneyland)
"The few, the proud, the Marines.”
"Where innovation is tradition.” (George Mason University)
 
Seeing or hearing good, concise slogans -- like those above -- creates an immediate emotional image in our minds of the true essence of an organization, what makes it unique. Moreover, such catchphrases can move us to actions benefiting that organization, such as buying its product or service. OLLI is a good example of a unique organization, but unfortunately, one that has never had an overall slogan reflecting why it’s so special. Therefore, the Outreach Committee would like each of you to think up one or more brief and comprehensive taglines that forcefully convey to members and non-members alike what OLLI is all about.

Think about it: If we want people to get really interested in OLLI when they hear our name, we need to give them a concise mental image of what we REALLY stand for.
 
By thinking up, writing and sending us one or more pithy slogans for OLLI, you’ll help us clarify our mission for the world.  Here are a few examples to inspire you:
 
“Engage, Enlighten, Enjoy.”
“The next step in your life.”
“The best is yet to come.”
 
If your entry is selected as our official watchword, you win a $10 OLLI Visa card and unlimited bragging rights.
 
Please submit your ideas by July 31 to Outreach Committee Chair Dave Ryan at d.ryan8@me.com.
 
We know you’ve got a great line lurking somewhere in that creative OLLI imagination, so “Just Do It” (Nike).

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Photo Club's Photo of the Month

Meetings & Clubs

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