Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Delaware in Lewes
Council Minutes
Frederick Thomas Building
February 25, 2016

In attendance were: Council members Bob Comeau (chair emeritus), Peter Feeney, Mary Folan, Philip Fretz, Lynn Kroesen, Sabatino Maglione, Rob Morgan; Bill Sharkey (chair), Carol West; librarian and archivist Ruth Barnett; committee chair Joan Sciorra; program coordinator Anna Moshier; Bill Ashmore, instructional support for Ocean View; and John Lafferty, instructional support for Lewes.

Chair:
The Chair called the meeting to order at 12:20 p.m.

The agenda and the January 20th Council minutes, as amended, were approved.

Bill informed the Council that Bernie Fiegel had suddenly fallen ill and that Dolores was with him in the hospital.  

Staff:
Anna informed the Council that Soma Chakrabarti has succeeded Jim Broomall as the supervisor for OLLI at the University of Delaware.

Anna has been having conversations about sound assistance for students who have hearing problems.  Portable mikes seem to be working well.

Anna noted that the Delaware Humanities Forum has changed its policies and no longer requires a membership fee.  The Forum charges $50 per speaker, and offers possibilities for enhancing our offerings.

John said that he is looking into how to connect to other classrooms outside this building via Skype or conference equipment.   He looked at the equipment we have, a camcorder from 2009, which might work with supplementary equipment but is somewhat obsolete in light of advances in technology.   Anna noted that Dover has a system bought out of our joint budget and that we will try it out.  Phil moved that we resolve to find a new home for the 2009 camcorder with someone who can make better use of it.  The motion passed without opposition.  Anna and John will come up with ideas for a worthy recipient.

Committee reports (*indicates report on file)

Community Relations: *  	(Dolores Fiegel)
Dolores was absent but had circulated a written report of her committee’s activities.  

Library/Archives:	(Ruth Barnett)
Ruth is grateful to have another volunteer to help with the library.

Long Range Planning:  (Peter Feeney) Pete participated in reviewing and revising the by-laws, which is part of long range planning.

Financial: *(Philip Fretz)
As of the end of January, as his written report shows, there have been no surprises.   

Academic Affairs: *	(Mary Folan/Carol West)  
Mary reported that the Instructors’ Appreciation breakfast would be on May 4th from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the King’s Creek Country Club.   Expenses for gifts, postage, centerpieces, and entertainment are $450; the restaurant will charge $15/head.  We will invite 135, so if the yield is 120 our cost will be $1,800 + $450 for a total of $2,250.  $2,000 has already been approved.  It was moved to approve another $499, and the motion passed without objection.

Carol had circulated a useful report on the Ocean View Boosters Happy Hour on February 12th, evidently a great success, which included ideas for possible future courses.

Communication:	(Lynn Kroesen) 
The deadline for the next Tides will be April 18th, just four days after luncheon and before people go to New York City.

Travel: 	(Mary Folan/Joan Sciorra)  
Mary reported that both trips to the Repertory Theater have been cancelled for lack of enough subscribers.  Anna noted that we had the same problem last year, so it might be well to steer clear of trips from January to March.
The trip to the Library of Congress for May is on, with 35 people signed up.
The New York trip is also on for April 26-29, and 55 people are still on the waiting list.  On average about 20 people who have signed up and fully paid drop out; we try to refund their payments if we can replace them.
The trips to Falstaff on May 15th and Hamlet on May 22nd both have enough subscribers and are also on.

Social:		(Bernie Fiegel/Joan Sciorra)
Anna noted that our Spring Fling on April 14th at Irish Eyes would not be a sit-down lunch but rather the attendees and food would circulate.

Old business:
Inclusion and Diversity:  We are still working with the County to arrange for two poets laureate, twin brothers, to come and talk about inclusion and diversity.  The talk is tentatively scheduled for April 23rd tentative.  

Election:  The electronic ballot went out yesterday and already we have 80 responses.   Renée has paper copies of the ballot for voting in the office.

Bylaws:  The Bylaws Committee moved the adoption of the amendments they had drafted; the amendments were adopted by acclamation.

New Business:
Anna outlined some necessary equipment purchases: $300 printer for Renée; $370 for a locked cabinet for Ocean View; $240 for four laser pointers for presentations; $400 for two rolling presentation carts to hold all electronics at once; and $50 for a last wireless microphone to outfit the last of our classrooms.  Sabatino moved to approve $1,400 for equipment purchases and the motion passed without objection.
Bill suggested that Anna select the fund from which to draw the money; Anna suggests drawing down equipment fund to get rid of it for ease of accounting; the gift fund could also be used for buying equipment.  Lynn expressed some reservations about using the gift fund for equipment purchases because there are no restrictions on that fund’s uses and hence it is more difficult to maintain good controls over the uses.

Next meeting:  March 22, 2016 at noon at the Fred Thomas Building.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:03 p.m.

Rob Morgan, Secretary