Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Delaware in Lewes
Council Minutes
Frederick Thomas Building
August 18, 2014

In attendance were:  Council members Donna Beecher, Jack Boettger, Bob Comeau (chair emeritus), Mary Folan, Bo French, Sabatino Maglione, Rob Morgan, Bill Sharkey (chair), Carol West; librarian and archivist Ruth Barnett; committee chair Bernie Fiegel; program coordinator Anna Moshier; Bill Ashmore, instructional support for Ocean View; and Ed Chamberlain, instructional support for Lewes.

Bill Sharkey called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m.

The agenda and the minutes, as amended, of the meeting of June 30, 2014, were approved. 

Staff
Anna:	Jim Broomall informed her that the National Resource Center for the OLLI network is moving from the University of Southern Maine to Northwestern University.
There have been no changes to the spring timeline previously distributed.
As of this morning (August 18th), the Lewes and Ocean View programs have 485 registrants, all of whom met the priority registration deadline and thus will be eligible for the lottery for oversubscribed courses.  Anna will send the list of available seats in courses that are not yet full to Dover, so that their registrants can sign up for them without paying separate tuition.
Anna attended the OLLI conference at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and found it useful; in particular she had great conversations with the owner of CampusCE, the company that handles the OLLI database.
Donations can now be accepted online.  Jack asked if the credit card companies were taking a fee, and Anna will look into that.

Ed reported on the new digital display to be wall-mounted tomorrow in the hall that will show Osher information including schedules and upcoming events.   Ed also reported on the new router, which is up and running.  The new router is stronger, faster, and for instructors only; it should eliminate some congestion problems we were having as a result of bandwidth constraints, with instructors’ computers having to buffer when trying to stream videos from the internet because of all the students connecting their devices to the network at the same time.  

Committee Reports (*indicates report on file)

Financial * (Jack Boettger)
Jack reported that $31,770 of last year’s revenue surplus has reappeared in our books.  The University has a way of deferring money to the following year so that it becomes a cash fund to pay our bills before our revenue for this year begins to come in.  Bob noted that if we didn’t do that, the surplus would get dumped into our reserve fund, where we don’t want it.
Jack says we seem to be doing well.  In August we will have substantial revenue.

Academic Affairs (Mary Folan/Carol West)
Anna:  There will be a meeting today to go over orientation.  
There was good turnout at the Ocean View Open House and ribbon cutting.  
The instructors’ handbook is being updated.
Bernie noted that the thank-you letters to instructors had been delivered by first-class mail and suggested saving money by emailing them.  Anna responded that the letter should have gone in the same mailed package as the instructors’ feedback forms.

Communication * (Lynn Kroesen)  
Lynn was absent travelling, but in her report emailed on August 14th she thanked the Council members who had submitted articles for the summer Tides, noted that the deadline for the next issue will be October 17th, and reported that the press release announcing registration for fall classes was picked up by the Cape Gazette, the News Journal, and the Coastal Point twice.
Travel (Mary Folan/Joan Sciorra)
Mary reported that flyers for the UD Resident Ensemble Players’ 2014-15 season were now available.  We hope to have enough interest to justify a big bus to save money.  The first two plays of the season will be a package deal for $90 including transportation; those interested should see Renée. 

Community Relations (Donna Beecher)  
Donna will work on a standard display, and admired the work that her predecessor Frank Meredith had done on displays.  
The next big event is Coast Day, October 5th, which is unfortunately the same day as the trip to see the Resident Ensemble Players perform Angels in America.  Donna plans to be at Coast Day all day and asked for volunteers to do two-hour shifts, rain or shine, in the tent at UD.  The theme this year is climate and weather.  She will contact Rae Tyson, teaching climate change this fall, and Tom Lord, teaching several outdoors classes, about the possibility of bringing related materials to our display.

Social (Bernie Fiegel/Joan Sciorra)
Bernie reminded us that Azafran will no longer be the provider for instructor lunch, since their Lewes location has closed.  The Lewes Bake Shop will pick up what Azafran used to do.  

Library (Ruth Barnett):  
Ruth has finished labeling a thousand books and has added 40 new books.  
Ruth has a friend helping her with the inventory.  
The library now has an open shelf for instructors who wish to lend materials for students to check out short-term.

Scholarships (Sabatino Maglione):  
There have been four applicants.  Sabatino has called them, congratulated them on being approved, and told them to pay the $65 reduced tuition. 

Old Business

Scholarship Policy:	Bill pointed out that we have a balance of over $5,000 in the scholarship fund.  There was discussion of whether to increase the percentage of tuition covered by a scholarship, and the suggestion was made to publicize their availability while emphasizing confidentiality; no decision was taken. 

New Business

Lingo-Townsend:	Bill asked Anna to address the proposal by Lingo-Townsend to donate 10 acres of land for an arts center if their development application is approved.  Anna reported that she met with Sue Early, Executive Director of the Rehoboth Beach Film Society, with which we have an MOU.  No action or position will be taken until we have further information; Anna will continue to follow developments.

Orientation:  The orientation for instructors and new members will be on August 28th.   Bob noted that a frequent question raised by new members is the use of UD library privileges that come with a membership.  It was pointed out that materials requested often arrive too late to be useful for a class.

Bob also suggested that we make sure a list of classes is available, and Sabatino suggested showing electronically, for registrants after the priority deadline, which classes are full and which still have room.  Ed expects that the information will be available on the wall display by then.

Mary Folan related that she could have gotten student-rate tickets in NYC if she had had a UD photo ID.   Anna said she would find out whether and how such IDs can be provided.  

Next meeting:  The next Council meeting will be on September 23rd at 12:20 p.m. or as soon thereafter as a room becomes available in the Frederick Thomas Building.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:59.

Rob Morgan, Secretary