Enews34-15

November 6, 2015

• Alerts & Notices
• OLLI Clubs/Ongoing Activities – Registration Now Lasts One Year!
• OLLI Members Get Their Brains Examined
• Day of the Dead
• Job Opening!  Reston Liaison Coordinator
• Fun Facts to Celebrate OLLI’s 25th Anniversary
• OLLI Book Club
• Inside
  OLLI-Mason
• Development Committee: Having Fun while Raising Funds for Friends of OLLI!
• Poet's Corner
• Arts & Music at George Mason
• Meetings & Clubs
• About OLLI E-News

Alerts & Notices

New Between-Term Event, “Let’s Read a Play Together – A Tuna Christmas,” Thu, Dec 14, 9:40-12:00, Tallwood. Have you seen or heard about the Tuna, Texas plays? Set in a small Texas town named Tuna, they showcase eccentric characters and their very funny predicaments, especially at Christmastime. Each registered attendee will purchase a $10 script from Doris Bloch, the instructor, at the start of class, and will have an opportunity to read at least one role. Register via the member portal (between terms event 1010BT). Class limit 28.

Feeling lucky? Buy a raffle ticket to win a one-year OLLI membership. Use it for a new membership or renewal. Prices: one ticket - $5, three tickets - $10, seven tickets - $20. Purchase tickets from Development Committee members before and after fall-term classes, and at special events such as the Town Hall Meeting and the Holiday Party. Winner will be chosen December 4 at the Holiday Party; you need not be present to win.

Missing something? The Lost & Found box at Tallwood (under the desk near the fridge in the Social Room) contains several articles that are currently unclaimed, and will be donated to a worthy charity when the fall term ends on November 13. If one of these items rings a bell, please go and see if it’s yours.
- Man’s LL Bean windbreaker, black, XL Long
- Ladies’ black straw hat with brim and bow
- Three nice water bottles
- Little (6” x 12”) fuzzy black pillow
- Beige camouflage cap with Defense Logistics Agency logo
- Yellow spiral graph paper notebook

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By Alice Slayton Clark, Communications Associate/Registrar

To register or not to register? That is the question circulating at OLLI with respect to clubs and ongoing activities. We understand that registering for clubs is new and may seem on the surface superfluous or an added burden. Please be assured; it is not.

We are grateful to all who signed up fall term for clubs and ongoing activities via the member portal. Registration has made it much easier and efficient for coordinators to communicate with members regarding meeting dates, changes in scheduling, topics of interest – whatever helps the club function better. If you are not on the roster in our database, you will miss these notices. Registration also has ensured that coordinators have current emergency contact information in the unfortunate event something happens to a member while attending a meeting on or off campus.

Moreover, in response to your constructive feedback, registration for clubs has just been made simpler. Starting winter term, OLLI members need only sign up for clubs once a year, not every term. Memberships last the entire calendar year and must be renewed every winter term. You can sign up for clubs any time during the year, but if you are currently a member of a club or ongoing activity, please re-register for it when you sign-up for Winter Term 2016 either online or using the paper form.

To paraphrase Shakespeare again, "Though this be madness, yet there is method in't" and your registration will last the whole year!

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To say that the OLLI members were interested and engaged by the presentations would be a significant understatement. The Mason professors confided to the course coordinator that they wished for this much enthusiasm from their regular students.

Here are just a few of the comments by OLLI members:

• The presenters were fantastic. Very lucky to have such highly qualified instructors.
• The interaction between the presenters and the audience was great.
• The depth of the studies and research presented was impressive and relevant to problems of society today.
• Knowledgeable instructors made current research accessible without dumbing it down.
• Knowledgeable scientists – excellent speakers on very complex subjects.
• They made difficult subjects understandable to the class with different backgrounds.

The Committee is working to have another course in the spring 2016 term that will highlight up to eight research areas of the Department of Rehabilitation Services in Mason's College of Health and Human Services. We hope OLLI membership will find these presentations equally interesting and informative.

If you would like to collaborate with fellow members to develop other courses in the science, technology, and health fields, please contact John Acton at jacton1@cox.net for information on joining this program planning group.

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The OLLI Spanish Intermediate Conversation class celebrated the “Dia de los Muertos” (Day of the Dead) on November 2. This is a national holiday celebrated throughout Mexico on November 1 and 2 in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Families gather on this day to remember loved ones who have died. Many go to the cemetery and place flowers on the graves.

Other traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased and decorating them using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed. Today, the common symbol of the holiday is the skull which is represented in masks, “calacas” (skeletons), and food such as sugar and chocolate skulls, along with “Pan de muerto” (a sweet bread). Even “mariachis” go to the tombs to serenade the dead relatives.

La Senora Glass and her class celebrated with a reading on the history of this day, a film on how the day is celebrated in Mexico, and food and prizes. (Photo above by Kendall Ayers, Mason Work Study Student and OLLI AV Aide)

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After years of hard work, Ann Youngren (photo at right by Dan Feighery) has decided to step down as Liaison Coordinator in Reston. (Thank you for handling it for so long, Ann!) At this point, we are looking for someone who would like to take on this job and pitch in during the liaison assignment days prior to each term, finding liaisons for Reston classes.

The job is pretty straightforward: you look at class rosters, find likely liaisons (especially people who have checked “yes” and volunteered to be liaison), contact them, and confirm that they’ll be liaisons. This can be done by one person or by committee; files are all available electronically (by email) now, making these duties easier to handle.

This is an important volunteer function, and it has a great advantage:  it only happens four times per year, and always during the two weeks just before classes start. Ann Youngren will be happy to help the next coordinator learn the ropes, so if you’d like to learn more, please contact Martha Powers, Liaison Chair, at marthapowers@verizon.net.

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By Ray Beery, Member, Board of Directors

George Mason University offered space in three rooms in the Tallwood Building at 4210 Roberts Road on October 29, 1993 with a five-year lease. At the February 24, 1994 Board meeting it was reported that the contract with Mason had been signed for the use of Tallwood. By the March 17, 1994 Board meeting, LRI had moved to Tallwood and obtained permission to use the Fairfax Swimming Pool parking lot next door to Tallwood.

OLLI will celebrate its 25^th year of classes for seniors in 2016.
We’ll be publishing fun facts and interesting milestones about the Institute each week that OLLI E-News is published from now through the end of the fall term, 2016.

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Meetings & Clubs

The following list covering the next two weeks is extracted for your convenience from the master online calendar maintained by the office, with direct web links added when available. The list is accurate as of mid-week but to check anytime for the latest information, please view the latest forecast of upcoming events on our website (News/OLLI Calendar). Note: All OLLI members are welcome at, and encouraged to attend, meetings of the Board of Directors, committees and resource groups, kickoff coffees, etc. (bolded below).

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OLLI E-News was created by Rod Zumbro, who served as its editor from 2005 to 2013.

Editorial Staff
Chief Editor/Technical Editor: Irene Osterman
Associate Editor: Sheri Siesseger
Weekly Editorial Team: John Nash, Paul Van Hemel, Sheri Siesseger, Leslie Vandivere, Jean Boltz
Proofreaders: Gordon Canyock, Jerry Moore, Marilyn O'Brien, Susan Van Hemel
Backup Chief Editor: Alice Slayton Clark

Submissions. Members are encouraged to submit letters to the editor, letters to Ms. Ollie Ettakit (on etiquette matters), OLLI-related news items, articles and photos. Submit material to: ollienewseditor@gmail.com.
Deadline – 6:00 Tuesday for that week's issue (6:00 Monday for letters to the editor); early submissions are greatly appreciated. Please limit articles to about 250 words.
Note: You can view past issues of OLLI E-News on the DocStore. To search the content of issues, use Search Our Site or put your search term in Google followed by "site:ollidev2.earthcare.com/" without the quotes.

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