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Dear WISE Members,
We’ve recently completed another great session at WISE with the 2016 B-session courses, and we’re now into a bit of a hiatus until the C-session courses begin on February 1st. In the meantime, we have the holidays to look forward to with a chance to get together with friends and family, and to give thanks for the many blessings we enjoy. To quote Elie Wiesel: Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love.
The WISE Holiday party was a huge success. Unfortunately, I was forced to miss it, as I had a prior commitment in D.C. Nothing opened up for me there, so I’m back as WISE President for a while longer.
Registration started for the Spring, 2017 classes on December 13th, with seventeen (17) wonderful courses being offered in C-session and nineteen (19) more in D-session. We continue to grow with many new members, and there is a great deal of enthusiasm for our next series of courses. (Also, don’t forget that for new members, the New Member Orientation is January 24th. You can sign-up to attend the orientation on our registration website.)
As of late Tuesday afternoon, the first day of registration, 221 members had registered, and approximately three-quarters of those on-line. I am happy to report that although there were several screens one had to click through to get confirmed in a course (something we will try to simplify in the future), only a few problems were reported, and overall, registration went very smoothly. Some courses – ones in the smaller venues – filled quickly, putting some people on a wait list, but courses in the larger venues still have room, and registration will continue right through the start of Spring classes and beyond.
I always have mixed feelings when I see members on a wait list. I’m sorry that not everyone can attend the course they want, but I feel good that so many of you are so enthusiastic to want to take these courses. We do, of course, make every effort to move people from the wait list into the course, so if you are registered for a course and decide you cannot attend it, please be considerate of your fellow members by sending me an e-mail at jdcorn45@gmail.com, to let me know you wish to drop out of the course. This will open a slot for another member, and I will move them into the course and let them know they are now registered. Based on the availability of our Group Leader, we also try to repeat our most-popular courses.
Even though there are no courses running at present, there is still much activity at WISE. The book and movie clubs are still busy. If you would like information about the Book Club, contact Joyce Abdow-Dowd at jadjd6@townisp.com. If you’d like to receive e-mail announcements about upcoming movies, contact Bobbi Corn at bobbizcorn@gmail.com.
We’re also starting to plan for our 25th Anniversary with the goal of conducting many events throughout the year, culminating with a banquet in May, 2018. If you have some great ideas of things to do for our Silver Anniversary and want to help in the planning, please contact WISE Director Susan Perschbacher at spersch@assumption.edu.
I cannot end without another Dilbert cartoon. Most of the great courses we offer run for 90-minutes and 5-sessions, or a total of 7 1/2 hours. For that investment in time (plus often some additional outside assigned readings) we all become “experts.” Unfortunately, not everyone is so gifted they can benefit from such accelerated learning, Wally being a case in point:
Until next month!
Joe Corn, President
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Mission Statement
The Worcester Institute for Senior Education (WISE) at Assumption College is a member-directed organization providing lifelong learning opportunities for older adults.
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