Presented By:
Nancy Merz Nordstrom, Program Manager, EIN
Pat Halpin standing in for Betty Scott, Renaissance, College of Notre
Dame
Toby Netherton, Institute for Learning in Retirement, Old Dominion University
(Moderator)
This workshop explored the many aspects of starting a new LLI and answered
a variety of participants questions.
Please contact the presenters for more detailed information.
Nancy Merz Nordstrom, Program Manager, EIN
The Elderhostel Institute Network web site at www.elderhostel.org/ein/intro.asp
has an entire section devoted to starting a new LLI. Contents of this
section include:
• Establishing an LLI
• Sponsoring an LLI
• LLI Courses
• Affiliate Application
• Benefits Overview
• CNR List
Each of the above sections was discussed, technicalities reviewed and
questions answered. In addition, other sections of the EIN website that
could be useful to new LLIs were discussed, including the Forum Compilations
section.
This section discusses more than 60 different topics of interest to both
new and old LLIs with input from LLIs all across North America.
Pat Halpin for Betty Scott, Renaissance, College of Notre Dame
Due to the illness of Betty Scott, Pat Halpin filled in and presented
Betty’s paper.
Inclusiveness and Accountability
These are the basic components of both beginning and nurturing a LLI.
Only an informed membership will become a committed one, and accountable
leadership promotes participating members.
As you begin to draft your aspirations try to remember the tips your
planners offer. We had a vivacious woman on the Renaissance early planning
sessions. She was as pretty as she was frivolous. She listened in horror
as she heard some of us report on the philosophy of Harvard, UCLA and
Manhattan’s The New School.
According to them, every member, having been interviewed before being
admitted, had to promise to give a 45-minute report every semester. This
struck terror in the heart of the charming suburban matron, who promptly
said: “I want to sit at the foot of the Master, and never say a
word.”
I’m eternally grateful to her, for she spoke for at least 50% of
LLI members. She never did sit reverently at the feet of what passed for
Masters at the Renaissance Institute. You see she was opening a Bed and
Breakfast and expected our members to bring her clients. When she made
her B&B pitch, the chairman gently dissuaded her. She left the project
completely, but I’m forever in her debt for the sheer practicality
of her thought. We all want stimulating courses, and many of us are not
all that keen to participate in classroom dialogue. In fact those who
do participate grow up to be our course leaders.
So her story serves as a lesson in Inclusiveness.
A basic component of running an LLI is an enthusiastic and an informed
membership. In the planning meetings begin by asking yourselves “What
do members want to know? And how can both our Planning Group and eventually
our Governing Committee, answer this basic need?”
Hard working committees, involved in specific practical problems, concentrate
on deadlines. Along with those specific goals we have to try to keep the
needs of the average member in mind. Members will become enthusiastic
participants in LLI projects, only if they know what the goals and aspirations
are. As your plans coalesce, ask for help. Through a bulletin board, which
later may evolve into a newsletter let a policy of inclusiveness prevail.
Members have to feel needed, they hesitate to intrude, unless they’re
approached.
Members of LLIs fall into several categories. There will always be leaders,
first the Planning Committee, then the Committee Chairs, the group leaders,
and finally the persons for whom all this energy is being spent –
the average attendees of these courses.
Leaders and committee members evolve in exactly the same way that general
members do. They are invited to participate in specific projects. Some
one pays them the compliment of inviting their thoughts. From the earliest
planning meetings, all the way through to 20-year celebrations, inviting
participation is a constant factor in a democratic LLI. And there are
no successful undemocratic LLIs. This recruitment of talent depends on
leaders being alert both to expanding goals as well as to new members.
Try to establish consistently, that everyone can be a recruiter. Some
of the best members might be hesitant to offer their talents, without
a request.
Course leaders, the backbone of every LLI, frequently don’t walk
into a curriculum committee meeting with a semester syllabus in hand.
It does happen, of course. This is a continuing process, and its success
depends on the general atmosphere of enthusiastic interest in better courses
and better committees. Try to get the message across, that all of the
courses, the travel plans, the social events need two components –
the planners and the audience. Every member is vital to both of these
roles.
This brings us to the second component: accountability
A well-run LLI is one where information is consistently shared. The budget
should not be a state secret. Dues are the backbone of the income of an
LLI. Every member who is remotely interested should be aware of where
the money is going. Posted budgets are the quickest way to have members
feel included. It gives them an avenue to voice any concerns about expenditures.
The only secret funds are those which offer scholarships to certain members.
The budget should include the reminder that donations for specific projects
are always welcome and can be anonymous or not.
The names of movers and shakers should be posted. A member might want
to suggest a course, a possible trip, or have a question – or want
volunteer services, or even heaven forbid, might want to register a criticism.
There shouldn’t be any mystery of where a member can register these
thoughts. The posting of the names and photographs of the members of your
governing body should be accessible to members. By addressing their comments
or criticism to an individual, they know that their thoughts will be part
of the next agenda.
Begin with inclusiveness and accountability and continue with them and
you are en route to a successful LLI.
Toby Netherton, Institute for Learning in Retirement, Old Dominion
University (Moderator)
All new start-ups should focus on three main areas:
• Who is their target audience?
• What kind of support does the new program have?
• Who will be the administrator?
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