It’s the middle of June. Most people I know haven’t taken their summer vacations yet (Tim and I are taking our “summer vacation” in September, when prices are lower and crowds are smaller. One of the benefits of being retired). It’s summer, and the livin’ may not always be easy, but the pace is usually slower.
We’re halfway through the Osher summer session (classes happen only in June), and even the courses are slower-paced and more relaxed than they are during the regular semesters.
However, as you probably can imagine, planning is in full swing for the upcoming year. All course proposals for the fall semester have been approved and scheduled, and the fall catalog will be published later this summer so people can sign up for their fall classes.
I was part of one effort in the spring semester which will be repeated this fall: a class for potential Osher instructors. We put this together after we learned that other Osher programs offered a class like this, and we decided to follow suit. After working to develop this course last fall, we offered it for the first time in early February. The class was full – almost 30 people signed up – and half of them have taken the next steps to become an Osher instructor. This means new courses for our catalog and new opportunities for our members.
Here’s a Sneak Preview of the course offerings for the Fall. I think this looks like a whole lot of fun. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yt2t8REwNkYIv0IBMZc9sFEMi-Zv047Q/view?usp=sharing
This growth was essential to the health of our program. COVID drastically reduced our course offerings and our membership. The Old Dogs who run the Osher program (I am among them) learned the New Trick of offering virtual classes. We became Zoom-ified and continued to run our program under challenging circumstances. A lot of our members and instructors simply didn’t want to “attend” classes remotely, and we lost the opportunity to recruit new members (and instructors) while we were not meeting in person. Thousands of recent retirees move to Williamsburg every year, and we need them to keep our program going. Just like the housing market is reacting to the pent-up demand that COVID impacted, we think there is pent-up demand for meaningful activities during retirement.
See, this is how a friend of mine characterized the retiree population:
The “go-goes” are newly retired, full of energy to FINALLY do what they’ve always wanted to do – play golf or tennis, run, bike, paint, write the Great American Novel – and they’re actively looking for opportunities to do these things. They bring new ideas and new energy into the program. If we snag them now, they’ll be valuable Osher assets for a long time. The Osher program has lost a couple of years’ worth of “go-goes,” and we need to capture them.
The “slow-goes” are the people who have been retired for a decade or so and have realized that they no longer leap on new opportunities the way they did a few years earlier – at least, not without pulling a muscle or something. Possibly, they (or their life partners) have experienced health problems that restricts their ability to be on the go all day every day. These are the people whose experience with Osher over the years make them valuable contributors to the structure and organization of the program, helping the “go-goes” focus on what needs to be done. Many of our instructors are in the “slow-go” category, particularly if they have taught for the program for a while. They still enjoy teaching, and like the intellectual stimulation the program offers, but they are less likely to engage in new initiatives. Most of the slow-goes have continued to offer – and take – courses during the after COVID, but we need to bring others back to the fold.
The “no-goes” are the people who simply don’t go out very much any more. They still attend Osher classes, but are no longer interested in being part of the structure or organization of the program. They often feel as if they have “done that” and it’s someone else’s turn to take over. We have a lot of members (and more than a few instructors) who fall into this category. We lost a lot of the “no-goes” during COVID. They were not up to the technological challenges of teaching or joining classes via ZOOM. They got out of the habit of actually going places, and when the pace of life picked up again, they didn’t join in. We can keep the “no-goes” by paying attention to their needs and making Osher classes easily accessible. We need to be aware of the logistical challenges of where and when we offer classes. The “no-goes” aren’t going to walk very far to take a class, and they may not be able to navigate stairs very well. Because we teach mostly in spaces on the campus of William and Mary, our classrooms are ADA compliant – but sometimes the no-stairs entrances are on the other side of the building from the door closest to the parking lot. All of this complicates the scheduling process.
Once the COVID restrictions ended, we needed to figure out how to rebuild the program. One approach was the New Instructors Course, which greatly impacted rebuilding the program and injecting new energy into everyone involved.
I’m thinking about this now because the director of the program is scheduling a meeting for all current instructors interested in teaching this course. When we offered it in September, a panel of experienced instructors led the course, which was intended to do two things:
make a “sales pitch” to potential instructors to encourage them to see this as a fun and rewarding thing to do,
outline the process of becoming an instructor and creating a course so that it wasn’t intimidating
One of the fun things about this class was seeing how much people wanted to teach their lifelong hobbies rather than their careers. Accountants who teach an art course, financial analysts who teach a history class, urban planners who teach gardening, physicians who teach about baseball, and so forth. Some of the new instructors have a background as either public school teachers or university professors, but many do not. They bring their knowledge and enthusiasm to this opportunity, and we hope to offer them the kind of support they need to develop their skills as instructors.
The approach worked, and we are going to do it again in September. I expect that the course will be led this time by a different group of instructors than the ones who piloted it last semester, although not all of that is fleshed out yet.
I led the development of this course and moderated the panel presentation during the class. I expect to be involved in the meeting that will identify the instructors who will offer the course in September, but it would be fine with me if an entirely new set of instructors take the lead – and modify the PowerPoint presentation – to present the course in the fall. Our idea is to keep the pipeline full of new instructors so that we capture the “go-goes,” reward the “slow-goes,” and entertain the “no-goes” for decades to come.
I have been a “go-go;” I am transitioning (probably) into a “slow-go;” if I help with this work now, the program will be around – and accessible – if I am fortunate enough to become a “no-go.”
As usual, a splendid article about our Osher program. Thank you, Karen!!