OLLILife
A community of learners over 50
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June and OLLI are busting out all over! Everywhere I go I see fresh new flowers exploding on trees and plants and hear the music of new birds filling the tree branches, and I feel the exuberance of people beginning to venture out after more than a year of isolation.
New things are happening at our OLLI, too. The staff and volunteers already are putting the fall catalog together, with a big lineup of courses, lectures, events, Shared Interest Groups and more in store for us. The summer term is in full swing – one month is over already and we have three more months to go. Summer has traditionally been our lightest term, mostly because many members and teachers travel to other places. But in 2021, summer term is a little more robust because people can access our classes via Zoom from anywhere, and we have the new OLLI Encore program (page 21 in the summer catalog) which offers popular courses recorded from past terms that you may have missed, so you can watch the sessions at any time, and at half the original price!
A few face-to-face courses are planned for the fall. As we inch our way back to face-to-face classes, we want to also retain some of the advantages of being online. Some of those might be hybrid classes, with members both online and face-fo-face.
Our fall catalog has a new printer – the Tampa Bay Times will print it, the size and the paper it comes on will be different. Everyone on our mailing list will receive a copy through the postal service as usual, but on Sunday, August 29, a copy of our catalog will be inserted into every printed newspaper that is circulated throughout Hillsborough county!
Happy summer, whether you stay in Tampa Bay or go off on a travel adventure!
As always, if you find something you think would be interesting to your fellow OLLI members, please share it by sending an email to me, Mary Ettinger (ettinger@usf.edu).
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Enjoy OLLILife?
We've gotten great feedback from members about OLLILife. Hundreds of you open it every month, click on the links, etc. It almost seems like you are depending on it...
Can you help staff and key volunteers keep OLLILife a monthly, delivered on-schedule?
We are looking for several members who would enjoy learning about putting together OLLILife and sending it out. Writers and editors are welcome too, but we are seeking people who can help pull it all together and make it ... readable. Training provided. Contact Ara Rogers for more information.
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OLLI-USF 2021 Volunteer Honors
Volunteers – An Important Piece of OLLI
The Volunteer Management Committee solicits nominations for Volunteer Achievement from the OLLI-USF general membership annually. This year’s awards were presented virtually on May 25, 2021.
The recipients are:
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Award of Excellence – Judith Page-Lieberman
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Above and Beyond Award – Diane White
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Lifetime Achievement Award – Jane Applegate
The recipients receive certificates, and their names are engraved on permanent plaques in the OLLI-USF Office.
Congratulations and our heartiest THANKS to these three and to all OLLI volunteers!
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SIG-nificant Events
For more info on OLLI SIGs, see the full list here. Most SIGs are meeting on Zoom; a couple are starting to organize small group outings. To visit a SIG email the contact(s) below.
China SIG
Wed, June 30 at 1pm. Don Menzel will speak on "US-China Relations: Moving Forward or Backward?
Food, Glorious Food!
Mon, June 28 at 10am. Guest speaker Helen Freund, Tampa Bay Times Food Critic. For an invitation, contact Jane Applegate. Freund explores the multifaceted dining scene in the Tampa Bay area through restaurant criticism, dining news stories, investigative deep dives and feature enterprise reporting. Before starting at the Times in 2019, Freund was a restaurant critic and features writer in New Orleans. She lives in St. Petersburg with her dog, Sadie Mae.
Games
Thur, June 10 at 3:30pm. Play Scattergories with us! Email Kathy Palmer for the link.
German Conversation
Ici on parle français! NOW FORMING
Mon, June 7, at 1pm. For an invitation, contact Teresa Sokol.
OLLI Outdoors
The OLLI Outdoors SIG takes a hiatus from hiking during the hot summer. If you are interested in joining us this Fall, send an email to the SIG leaders at ollioutdoors@gmail.com.
Operatunity
Operatunity members will be enjoying an intermission until September. For information about the SIG, contact Derrie Perez.
P-SIG
Will meet next in July. Email Bill Sapper for more information.
Talking Movies
Fri, June 18 at 2pm. Watch the movie Stories We Tell on your own and then get together to talk about it. For more information, and to find out where to watch the movie for free, contact Kathy Palmer.
Write Time for Poets
Thurs, June 10 & 24 at 2pm. Email Cath Mason for more information.
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Keeping Zoom Fresh by Al Carlson
Remember that awful day in elementary school when all the cool kids came to school wearing Davy Crocket coonskin hats, and you showed up in last season's Lone Ranger shirt, because you hadn't gotten the memo? Talk about embarrassing! Well, Zoom can be just as bad. Their updates are frequent, sometimes weekly. And they rudely move useful tools (e.g. Raise Hand) around and change their labeling. So, if you’re a few versions behind in your next OLLI class, you may embarrass yourself and slow the class down.
We’ve got your back, though, with a step-by-step guide to painless updates on a Mac or a PC. You don’t have to use it every day. That would be overkill. But follow this link now and “test drive” our cheat sheet. Feel free to print it out, if you wish. Then stop by again for a refresher just before your next OLLI Zoom class.
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White Promotes OLLI, Outdoors SIG
Diane White has been a contributing writer in Bay Soundings, Tampa Bay's Science and Nature News Journal. The journal itself will be of interest to many OLLI members, as it is a quarterly news journal covering Florida's largest open-water estuary. It explores Tampa Bay's magnificent waterworld and watershed, covering news and issues affecting Tampa Bay, while profiling the people, places and creatures that make it so compelling. The journal can be found online at http://baysoundings.com.
Diane's most recent article, about a recent OLLI Outdoors hike at the favorite Circle B Bar Preserve, starts as follows: "Nature is so abundant at Circle B Bar Preserve in Lakeland, FL that you only need to stand still and wildlife comes to you. At our OLLI Outdoors recent outing, the birds we identified included a wide diversity of wading birds, waterfowl, ospreys and even bald eagles."
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Flying High
OLLI-USF member Neil Cosentino, who will teach his course Florida Aviation: Past, Present and Future this August, is president of the newly formed local chapter of the national Experimental Aircraft Association – EAA (www.eaa.org). He invites anyone who may be interested in airplanes and flight to join the EAA and to participate with him in building a scaled down version of the world’s first airplane to make a commercial flight, an historic flight which happened right here in Tampa Bay!
That first commercial airplane made its inaugural flight on January 1, 1914, from Tampa to St. Petersburg carrying a paying passenger, piloted by Tony Jannus. There is a full scale metal monument of the aircraft at the entrance to the new St. Petersburg pier. Another full scale replica of the plane, crafted by the Benoist Aircraft Company, an early manufacturer of aircraft in the United States, hangs from the ceiling at the St. Petersburg History Museum. Email or call Neil at 813-784-4669.
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Carolyn Clark, our Goodwill Ambassador, has been kept busy recently with news of member illnesses, setbacks and triumphs. Send your OLLI People News to Carolyn. Thanks to your efforts, we are learning more about the challenges (or joys) we are facing, so we can reach out to them. Email Carolyn here or call her at 813-545-7477.
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