President's Message

A new semester at OLLI is well underway, and I have had an opportunity to visit several classes over the past two weeks. The feedback I have received from students who are enrolled in our 15 classes has been uniformly positive and I really believe this is the best semester that OLLI (or The Academy at FSU) has had to date.

Just the variety of courses is stimulating, and the interaction between the professors and the students makes every class lively and the students fully engaged. I am enrolled the The Wine and Culture class being held out at the FSU Reservation, and the participants in this course eagerly await that part of each session when Instructor Chas Latour opens the bottles and tells us all to “use your nose” to inhale the fragrance of the wine being offered for tasting that day. We may not finish this class as wine connoisseurs, but we will all emerge as informed purchasers and able to order wine for dinner in our favorite restaurant.

In other classes, we have watched with rapt attention as Ron Yrabedra shows slides of great paintings and discusses the lives of the artists as reflected through their work. John Parks is wowing us with wonderful musical recordings, focusing on the percussion instruments in the orchestra; Mark Canter and Stephanie Chandler are each approaching the subjects of truth and wisdom through the world’s religions from their own individual viewpoints. Those of us born between 1928 and 1946 are learning about our unique generation from Elwood Carlson as he discusses The Lucky Few (which actually turns out to include most the students in his class!). Dr. John Fenstermaker is focusing on women in Victorian literature, and Heather Gamper is regaling us with descriptions of sex habits (among the birds, that is). I have not made it yet to the the Tallahassee/Big Bend Environmental History class, but everyone I have talked to who is in this class sings the praises of Instructor Doug Alderson. The Memoir and technology classes are small by design so that each student gets a lot of personal attention from the instructor. I hear that OLLI member Pat Johnson is doing a wonderful job as facilitator for the Great Decisions class and might even consider leading that course again.

We have had fascinating and well attended Noon lectures by former governor, Bob Graham, and Bill Law, the President of TCC. Our field trip to the FSU Womens’ basketball game against Clemson was great fun, and you can view pictures from this event on the OLLI Facebook page.

Looking ahead, I hope most OLLI members are planning to attend the end-of-the-year Luncheon and Annual Meeting to be held at Golden Eagle Country Club on March 18. Not only will we have a wonderful lunch, but the nominating committee will introduce the nominee for President-elect for 2010-2011, and the current President-elect, Nancy O’Farrell, will officially become the next President of OLLI at FSU. It will be the perfect end to a great year if a large number of our members are there.

Thanks to you all,

Ruth Cates

President, 2009-2010