President’s Message

On May 2, NOVA Provost Diane Mucci met with me and two other LLI Board members, Patricia Brennan (VP) and Steve Cohen (Scholarship Committee chair and my chief technical advisor). It was a good opportunity to broach a number of subjects.

John R. Lewis Leadership Program at Lewis High School in Springfield:

At our last Forum, our Community Outreach Committee (Betsy Pugin and Susan Jagen) collected food for students who, under this program, take field trips to immerse themselves in history and can greatly use nonperishable food items to support the trips. I mentioned this program to Dr. Mucci. She is convinced NOVA Annandale can help and has already taken steps to meet up with the Leadership Program leaders. I am also looking at possible ways LLI and the Lewis program can collaborate. Check out its website (here) for more info on the leadership program. Kudos to Betsy for finding yet another way to help our community!

Microphones

We also discussed whether NOVA Annandale would be open to collaborating if we could secure a grant to augment the campus audio system (probably through the purchase of lavalier mics) for increased amplification of our speakers in our classes. Dr. Mucci indicated they would be interested. LLI Board member Andy Butler, a former employee of PBS, is helping explore this option, which will be chaired by Steve Cohen. This could possibly benefit both LLI/NOVA and NOVA.

Donate professional clothes

Patricia mentioned to Dr. Mucci that she had recently discovered that NOVA Annandale has a Professional Clothing Closet that provides clothing for interviews for students who mightfind it unaffordable. Patricia pointed out that many of us retirees would be happy to donate suitable clothing from our closets. Diane was delighted. More info will come in future newsletters. Kudos to Patricia!

Parking

At our request, Dr. Mucci agreed to try to get a block of parking (even if in the “lower forty”) free to LLI members— (this was cited as an issue in our member survey). However, as we have noted before, parking is not controlled by NOVA, so this may not be possible, but she’ll try!  We’ll let you know. If you have any questions or comments, please email me (president@llinova.org).

Remember:  Our strength is our members!

Patti Volz
President, LLI/NOVA