January 2020 www.usm.maine.edu/olli

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

IN THIS ISSUE

[Hint: Click on these to

jump to their page.]

Brown Bag Lunch

Wrinkle in Time

Advisory Board

Passages

Sally Poland

Copyright

Protections

Lunch Out

History Book

Group

Walking Club

New Visions for

Reflections

Submit Your Work to Reflections 2020

O L L I N E W S L E T T E R

USM

Two Talks on Media Set for January

with Camden Conference

As part of OLLI’s partnership with the Camden Conference, two

talks by seasoned journalists have been set for January. These talks

are planned to lead up to the weekend event on “The Media Revo-

lution: Changing the World,” which you can attend at USM’s

Hannaford Hall February 22–23, as well as at other live-streaming

venues or live in Camden.

On Monday, January 13, at 11 a.m. in

room 133 in the Wishcamper Center, Bill

Lord, former ABC news reporter, bureau

chief, and producer, will speak on

“Newsgathering: Applying the Tools of

2019 to the JFK Assassination of 1963.”

Also discussed will be the killing of Lee

Harvey Oswald and how both deaths might

be covered today on social media platforms.

Lord reported live at the JFK assassina-

tion. He later served as executive producer of Nightline with Ted

Koppel, Good Morning America, and World News Tonight with

Peter Jennings.

In 1992, he returned to his alma mater, Boston University, as a

professor of journalism, specializing in multimedia. In Maine, he

is known for his ground-breaking solar-powered residence in Cape

Porpoise, built in 1995.

On Monday, January 27 at 11 a.m. in

room 102 at the Wishcamper Center, Dan

Dinsmore will talk on “The Role of Non-

profit Journalism in the Evolving Media

Environment.”

An award-winning journalist with 25 years

of media experience, Dinsmore joined the

Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting

as executive director and editor in December 2017.

He started his career in 1992 as a sports writer at the Antelope

Valley Press in Palmdale, CA. He joined Blethen Maine Newspa-

(Continued on page 2)

In Memoriam:

A Special Section on

Rabbi Harry Sky

Page 6

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Camden Conference (Continued from page 1)

pers in 2001 and led an award-winning sports reporting team at

the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. Dinsmore

later redesigned the combined newspaper, including a complete

overhaul of the computing and pagination systems. He also

conducted ongoing efforts to embrace digital news and social

media solutions and became executive director of Maine Today

in 2007.

Dinsmore lives in Casco with his wife, Christine, four chil-

dren, and four dogs.

The Camden Conference originates in Camden and is live-

streamed to Portland, at Hannaford Hall at USM, as well to the

Hutchinson Center in Belfast, the Strand Theatre in Rockland,

and OLLI at Dartmouth in Hanover NH. For more information

and to register, see www.camdenconference.org.

Volunteers from the Camden Conference will be in the Wish-

camper Center before and after OLLI courses in early January.

Stop to chant with us and pick up a brochure.

SAVE THE DATE Wrinkle in Time

History of Racism in America

March 4–5, 2020

Backup snow day, March 6, 2020

8:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m.

Room 102, Wishcamper

For this year’s Wrinkle in Time, OLLI will be supporting USM’s goal of upholding the principles

of equity and justice by offering a two-day educational program on the history of racism in America.

A diverse set of topics will be addressed by speakers within and outside the OLLI community regard-

ing the impact of race both specific to the Maine experience and within larger contextual concerns

such as immigration, education, the Native American community, art, music, and socio-political

history.

We are working with the University’s Intercultural and Diversity Advisory Council to provide

occasions for interaction between OLLI program participants and others within the University and

larger communities, and as part of the event, President Glenn Cummings will be addressing partici-

pants and be available for questions.

This special two-day event will include breakfasts and lunches, interpretative historical

displays, and opportunities for learning in a variety of ways about the history of race and its

impact on American society.

Brown Bag to Discuss

Facebook

Do you love Facebook? Are you

nervous and/or wary about Face-

book? We want to hear from you!

Come to our brown bag discus-

sion as we talk about adding an

OLLI Facebook page to current

communication avenues. It is

scheduled for Tuesday, January

14, in Room 205 from 11:30 to

12:20.

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WEB SITES

Maine Senior College Network

www.maineseniorcollege.org

OLLI National Resource Center

www.osher.net

OLLI at USM

www.usm.maine.edu/olli

ADVISORY BOARD

Susan Jennings, Chair

Steve Schiffman, Vice-Chair

Peter Curry, Secretary

Paul Doherty, SAGE Chair

Elizabeth Housewright

Communications Chair

Gael McKibben and Rae Garcelon,

Community Co-Chairs

Georgia Koch, Nominating Chair

Walter Allan and Betsy Wiley,

Education Co-Chairs

Karen Day

Matt Goldfarb

Dick Leslie

Star Pelsue

Steve Piker

OLLI members are invited to attend

Advisory Board meetings. Check

with the Chair for time and place, or

if you wish to address the Board.

OLLI NEWSLETTER

OLLI Office:

Wishcamper Center 210

P. O. Box 9300

Portland, ME 04104-9300

Phone: 207 780-4406 or

1-800-800-4876

TTY 1-207-780-5646

Fax: 207 780-4317

E-mail: ollinews@maine.edu

Tim Baehr, Editor

Don King, Editor Emeritus

Mogens Ravn, Layout Editor

Please send newsletter material to the

OLLI Office, via our e-mail.

Deadline for the January

issue is December 15.

OLLI STAFF

Donna Anderson, Director

Rob Hyssong, Program Coordinator

Linda Skinner, Admin. Assistant I

Sue Schier, Admin. Assistant II Passages

Sally Poland

Longtime OLLI member Sally Poland died on November 29.

She was 86 years old. At various periods of her life, Sally raised

four children, worked full-time, served as a minister’s wife, be-

came a minister herself, was a pastor, and continued preaching

after retiring in 1999. She married OLLI member Ted Poland in

1992. Many more details about her life can be found in Sally’s

obituary at https://www.athutchins.com/notices/RevSally-

Poland

News from the Advisory Board

Happy New Year! As we start the New Year let’s take a moment

to see where OLLI is as an organization. The Managing Growth

strategic planning committee, chaired by Dick Leslie, has com-

piled statistics for the last ten years. At the end of the last fiscal

year (June 30, 2019) our membership has grown from 1,206 in

2008 to 2,197 in 2019, an increase of 991 members. We did see a

slowing of growth in the last year—only 12 members. It is not

known if this small increase is a real trend or just an anomaly.

As the membership increased, enrollment in courses and work-

shops also increased. The total number of courses and workshops

in a year increased from 122 to 212 from June 2009 to June 2019,

with almost half of the increase coming from the growth in the

number of workshops. Enrollment increased from 2,321 in the year

2008–2009 to 4,162 in the year 2018–2019. In Fall 2019, 64

courses and 16 workshops were offered in the catalog. Although

the Fall term has limited capacity to grow because of limits to

classroom space in Wishcamper, there is significant opportunity

for growth in the number of courses in Summer, Winter, and

Spring terms. The Advisory Board and OLLI Administration are

currently researching other types of learning opportunities for the

increasing number of members.

The 2020 Winter term is offering 36 classes and workshops. As

of December 10, we have 603 enrollees. Enjoy your classes and

workshops!

—Sue Jennings

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Lunch Out Goes to Ginza

The January Lunch Out will bring us East to the

Japanese/Vietnamese cuisine at Ginza Town in

Portland.

Even though we’ll miss Japanese New Year on

January 1st, we’ll celebrate being together again

for a comforting meal. This place has a cozy feel-

ing in its new dining room, and great reviews for

their dishes. The menu is easy to read, separating

Sushi from entrees, and includes a fascinating

dessert: tempura ice cream.

Please come join us.

When: Monday, January 20, at 12:00 noon

(school holiday).

Where: Ginza Town, 1053 Forest Ave., Portland

(https://ginzatown.com).

Reservations: Call or write by noon on Sunday,

Jan. 19.

—Barbara Bardack

bravalascala@gmail.com

829-1240

Respect, Protection, and Partnership

Copyright Protections at OLLI

Have you ever entered a writing or art contest only to find that when you are selected as a finalist you

lose your copyright over the piece? Sadly, this situation is not uncommon—it happened to me! Hap-

pily, the University of Maine System cares about protecting the work of its community, including the

submissions of OLLI creative writers and artists to Reflections.

It is a mark of respect that the University of Maine System has asked OLLI to extend its copyright

protections to our beloved literary magazine, Reflections. The legal counsel for the system has shared a

sample contract that we will adapt to be part of the submissions process. The contract says two things:

1) The University of Maine system extends its copyright protections to the journal, including both print

and any future online versions, and 2) the writer, artist, or photographer retains complete copyright

over their individual piece. So, for example, if your photograph is selected for inclusion in Reflections,

you can still share, sell, or use it in whichever way YOU choose. That is an important protection for

your creative work.

OLLI can print only a finite number of hard copies of Reflections, and some members have encour-

aged us to share the journal on line. That change would also be in keeping with trends in publishing,

which are intended to reach the broadest possible audience, and being able to share Reflections with

each of our 2,200 members would be a new aspiration for us. If we do make Reflections available

online, we will take the extra precaution of including lower resolution images of all artwork, which are

not reproducible.

The OLLI board is currently reviewing a draft contract for Reflections, along with a memo written by

Board member and lawyer Matthew Goldfarb. In this memo he will explain the benefits of the contract

and help you to see beyond legal language to understand the exact protections you are being offered.

Of course, I will be available to discuss any questions you may have about the final contract.

This welcome addition to our submissions process is a fine example of the beneficial relationship we

have with the University of Maine System!

— Donna Anderson

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OLLI History Book Group Date Change for 2020

Please note that we will have one meeting, our next meeting, in the OLLI library on Wednesday,

January 8 as facilitator Richard Parker is unavailable on Thursday that week.

For February through June, we will meet on the second Thursday from 3:15 to 4:30 in a different

room: 205.

New meeting dates (with books) are as follows:

Wednesday, January 8—Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

Thursday, February 13—The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

Thursday, March 12—American Lion (Andrew Jackson) by John Meacham

Thursday, April 9—The Pioneers by David McCullough

Thursday, May 14—The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough

Thursday, June 11—Heirs of the Founders…Clay…Calhoun…Webster by H.W. Brands

Walking Club

(Also Snowshoeing)

We start the New Year with some snowshoe outings. Please remember that most

of the places we visit have trails we can walk on if conditions are not favorable for

snowshoeing. So if you have a good pair of winter boots, you can still join us.

On Wednesday, January 8, we will be going to Fort Williams Park for a look at the

winter landscape there. We will meet at the Back Cove parking lot across from Han-

naford at 9:50 a.m. to carpool, but you may meet us at Fort Williams. We’ll provide

more directions later on where to park. Bring water and dress in layers. Hand warm-

ers are also helpful. On the Web: https://fortwilliams.org/

On Tuesday, January 14, we will hold our annual meeting at Wishcamper at 10

a.m. in Room 205, and some of us will walk in the neighborhood after the meeting.

Please note—this is a date change from our schedule because of room availabil-

ity. We may visit a restaurant in the area also for lunch. This is an opportunity to talk about the last

year and to suggest new destinations. The slide show of the walks of 2019 will be shown on the big

screen. I hope you will join us.

If you have questions about either meeting, please call me at 846-3304.

—Rae Garcelon

Remember to pick up a CLYNK bag at the office for your deposit bottles and cans! Proceeds benefit OLLI.

January 2020 Page 6

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In Memoriam: a Special Section on Rabbi Harry Sky

Rabbi Harry Sky died in Greensboro, North Carolina, on December 14, at the age of 95.

Many of us will remember Rabbi Sky as one of the founders of the Senior College that became our

OLLI at USM, and as an instructor on spiritual topics.

Rabbi Sky’s life was a rich mixture of Jewish scholarship and worship, travel, social activism, and a

passion for senior education.

This special section of the OLLI Newsletter includes a remem-

brance by Terry Foster, who spoke at Rabbi Sky’s memorial ser-

vice on December 18, and a profile of Rabbi Sky from the Novem-

ber 2017 Newsletter.

Readers may also find obituaries in both the Portland Press Her-

ald (click here), the Portland Forecaster (click here), and the

Greensboro News and Record (click here), plus an article in the

Portland Press Herald (click here), which provide many addi-

tional details about the life of this remarkable man.

NOTE: OLLI members who knew Rabbi Sky are invited to sub-

mit brief remembrances. We will gather them and share them at a

future date. Send to ollinews@maine.edu.

~~~~~~~

Remembering Rabbi Harry Z. Sky

On the Day of His Memorial Service

December 18, 2019

By Terry B. Foster, Ed.D.

Rabbi Sky was a man of many dreams. One was to have a program for older adults at the University

of Southern Maine (USM). In the early 1990s he mentioned his dream to USM’s President Richard

Pattenaude.

In 1995, I was hired to be Director of Extended Academic Programs at USM. President Pattenaude

noted from my resume that I had prior experience that included working with older populations. He

asked me to meet with Rabbi Sky to see what we could put together for older adults at USM.

I was happy to do so, and when Rabbi Sky and I began meeting, we realized we had a lot in common.

We both had extensive theological training. He had served Temple Beth El in Portland for 29 years. I

would eventually complete 29 years in the field of higher education administration.

One of our initial tasks was to create a board to oversee the program we would put together. That took

place in 1996. Rabbi Sky, President Pattenaude, and I came up with a list of individuals we thought

would be appropriate to serve on the board. All agreed to serve. The board began meeting in 1996.

Rabbi Sky was elected the first Chair.

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That’s when Rabbi Sky really went into action. He was key to getting local financial support for the

program we originally called Senior College. Fortunately, Dr. Mark Lapping, Provost and Vice Presi-

dent for Academic Affairs at the time, supported us in naming our program and getting it started. In

addition, my supervisor, Rosa Redonnett, supported our work wholeheartedly.

Rabbi Sky began speaking everywhere about the plans we worked out with the Board. It was decided

that a public meeting would be held at USM to announce plans for the program. On Memorial Day

weekend in May of 1997, that meeting was held on the Portland campus. We invited folks from many

organizations that served older adults to attend a luncheon. I asked Rabbi Sky what we should serve.

He suggested fish chowder, but I remember distinctly that he said it should be accompanied with Pilot

Crackers. As a Kentuckian, I had never heard of such crackers, but we put in an order to the univer-

sity’s food service for what he suggested. We anticipated two to three hundred attendees. We had over

five hundred individuals show up. Wow, did we stretch that chowder!

At the luncheon, we announced that our Senior College would begin in September with seven classes.

Rabbi Sky was slated to teach a course on “spirituality.” We had over three hundred registrations for

our courses. Over one hundred of them were for Rabbi Sky’s course. In addition to teaching, chairing

the Board, and promoting Senior College, Rabbi Sky found Mary Karatsanos and persuaded her to

head up the office volunteers needed for the program.

It wasn’t long before we needed Rabbi Sky’s help in a special way. So, we hired him on a quarter-

time basis to assist with the administration of Senior College. At the time, we were developing a simi-

lar program in York County and planning another in the Bath-Brunswick area.

Then Rabbi Sky met with the governor to request support for our program. A number of us, including

Rabbi Sky, also went to Augusta and met with the Legislature. Our work resulted in state appropria-

tions for our program.

During all this activity, Rabbi Sky was writing articles for our newsletter and later our magazine

Reflections.

In 1999, we took 103 persons on the first Senior College cruise through the Panama Canal. We even

taught three classes on the Holland America cruise ship. Rabbi Sky

taught “Myths of the Sea,” I taught “Music of the Sea,” and General

Wallace Nutting taught a class on the history of the Panama Canal.

By 2000, Senior College had grown by leaps and bounds. We were

at a crossroads. We needed more help. We then hired Kali Lightfoot

to oversee moving the program across the entire state of Maine. I

always told Rabbi Sky that she was the best hire I had ever made.

Through Kali’s, Rosa Redonnett’s, and Rabbi Sky’s efforts, we

received a tremendous endowment from Mr. and Mrs. Bernard

Osher which resulted in renaming our program the Osher Lifelong

Learning Institute (OLLI). Eventually we became the national re-

source center for Osher programs in the U.S. Rabbi Sky’s dream

was being fulfilled in a very significant way.

Rabbi Sky continued his involvement long after Ms. Lightfoot’s

hiring. When he moved to North Carolina, he graciously gave us a Rabbi Sky and Senior Perspec-

tives, an early OLLI publication.

(Portland Press Herald photograph)

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gorgeous bust of himself which sits in our OLLI Library. Whenever I’m in the library, I nod or cor-

dially bow in honor of his work and, now, his memory.

I always told Rabbi Sky that in my career of 29 years in higher education administration, the founding

of Senior College (OLLI) was the most important university program I had the pleasure to oversee.

Susan Morrow continued to raise OLLI to new heights, and now Donna Anderson continues the

legacy. As Rabbi Sky once said, “The possibilities and dreams are endless.” Harry, rest in peace!

~~~~~~~

Profile

Rabbi Harry Sky

A passionate advocate for senior learning

B ack in April 2009, when Rabbi Harry Sky was interviewed by Pat Davidson Reef,

the headline of the story was “When you think of OLLI, you think of Harry Sky.”

With Terry Foster and then-USM president Richard Pattenaude, Harry was instrumental in the found-

ing of Maine’s first Senior College. Harry’s role, twenty years ago, in helping to establish what was to

become our OLLI, was best epitomized by this comment in the 2009 interview: “I felt there was a place

for senior citizens after retirement to keep learning and be active.”

As a youngster, Harry Sky’s mother playfully called him a royter mazik—Yiddish for a red-headed

rascal. “I couldn’t sit still,” he said.

And Harry Sky spent his life not sitting still. He marched in the racially charged streets of Selma,

Alabama. He shared the vision of a new American dream with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the

March on Washington. He preached from the pulpits of Christian congregations on the rights of Afri-

can Americans, women, the gay community, the poor, and the helpless.

Even after he retired, Harry Sky didn’t sit still. He turned his attention to the challenges facing his

fellow retirees. His interest in senior education—lifelong learning—led to his contribution to the

founding of the Senior College that became OLLI.

In 2003, the Maine Policy Review published an essay by Rabbi Sky called “A New Look at Senior

Education.”* The essay provides insights into what moved Rabbi Sky to advocate at USM for senior

education. Here are some excerpts from that essay:

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“ When we address senior education, we ought to begin by breaking it down into its compo-

nents. What additional information are we interested in presenting to our citizenry who find

themselves in the ‘fourth stage’ of life as defined by Carl Jung (i.e., the period of retirement

from profession and coming to terms with the final stage of life)?

I deeply believe, as I have seen in my own life, that when one is placed in the category of retirement,

subtle and radical changes occur. For many of us, there are health problems; for others, emotional

problems. Still others have problems of faith: What will happen to me when my body stops function-

ing? Greater even than that is the desire of the older person to be viewed as a viable member of society.

We wonder: Is the gold watch or the pat on the back a way of saying, ‘Your time is up. Step aside for

someone else’ or is this the closing of one door and the opening of another?

When we undertook the founding of Senior College, now known as the Osher Lifelong Learning In-

stitute (OLLI), we believed that the older person needs empowerment, not to be cast aside and to be

told, ‘Your days are over.’ If anything, once empowered, the older person finds within him- or herself

a wellspring of untapped energy, ideas, and unfulfilled dreams. The older person begins to ask himself,

‘Who am I? Have I ever discovered my true calling in life? Is there something within me that is more

than human (perhaps divine) and is guiding me? Could it be that until this moment of retirement, I ig-

nored these questions and now I’m facing them and seeking an answer?’

….

We have found that our volunteer instructors teach from passion as well as from experience…. [N]ot

all of our facilitators have been teachers all their lives. Many who were teachers are not teaching in the

field in which they worked, but all are giving instruction in areas about which they are passionate.

When passion drives us, nothing stands in the way. Every part of our being becomes involved. We

have discovered that the recipients of faculty’s passion, in turn, translate that received passion into

their own driving spiritual force.

….

[T]he problems facing the senior citizen often include loneliness and a lack of rootedness—the feel-

ing of connection that he or she knew in younger years. When you begin to tamper with the bit of it

that remains in the senior social environment, you are headed for trouble. What is needed today is an

entirely new approach to the issues of senior living….”

---------

* Sky, Harry. “A New Look at Senior Education.” Maine Policy Review 12.2 (2003): 84–87,

http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mpr/vol12/iss2/11

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New Year, New Visions for Reflections

Twenty years ago, a small group of Senior College members had an idea—a small publication that

would showcase original creative work by writers and artists. Year after year, Reflections has continued

as a vehicle to highlight OLLI’s talent.

Now, plans are being made for a 20th anniversary expanded edition, appearing next fall, that will

have some new features and a salute to those who have helped Reflections grow.

We invite you to share your visions, through words or images, in capturing moments special to you.

Selections are based on a blind review process by an OLLI committee including writers, artists, and

photographers.

Our Submissions Manager, Tim Baehr, has produced a helpful set of instructions. His revised set is in

this newsletter and will appear on

the OLLI website: watch for a

notice in your e-mail or in a fu-

ture OLLI Newsletter.

One goal is to publish the very

best reproductions of artwork and

photographs. (Remember, a pho-

tograph can be of one of your

3-dimensional creations, such as

sculpture or craft.) Appreciation

of visuals will be enhanced by the

creators’ comments on what mo-

ment inspired that work.

The memoirist Frank McCourt

once said “Every moment of your

life, you’re writing…. Dreaming,

wishing, planning: it’s all writing,

but the difference between you

and the man on the street is that

you are looking at it, friends, get-

ting it set in your head, realizing

the significance of the insignifi-

cant, getting it on paper.”

The submissions door is open.

We eagerly await submissions in

all genres. So join in considering

where we are in the Now! OLLI

members, and the Reflections Se-

lections team in particular, await

the enrichment of new visions

and insights.

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Submit Your Work to Reflections 2020

Reflections is OLLI’s annual journal of literature and art created by OLLI members. You can send in

your submission between now and April 1. You do not have to have taken a writing or art or

photography class at OLLI to submit. You do have to be a current OLLI member. Below are the

rules and regulations about submitting; be sure to follow them closely.

Submissions are “blind.” You submit them by e-mail, without your name on the submitted work. The

e-mails and submissions are given matching code numbers and are kept in separate folders. After the

deadline, the submissions are sent, without submitters’ names, to the selections team.

These rules may seem very complicated. But they were designed so that you can submit your best

work, and so that we can keep track of names and submissions. Please read them through before you

start: we don’t want to lose track of you!

(Hint: Print out the rules so you can check off each step as you complete it.)

First, prepare your submission

Written submissions

Prose: 1,000 words or less, 12-point type, double-spaced, one-inch margins, pages numbered

Poetry: 12-point type, single-spaced, pages numbered

Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx) or Rich Text format (rtf) only. We can NOT process

Apple Pages or Adobe .pdf files!

We cannot accept revisions to your submission after we receive your entry.

We’ve been getting over 100 submissions each year. Make sure that you name or rename the

electronic file of your written piece with the same title as the actual submission. If you don’t do

this, we may lose track of your submission! For a story titled “Joe’s Boat House,” send an at-

tachment (see below) with the file name joesboathouse.doc

Photo and art submissions

Photos: Submit an electronic (digital) file in .jpg or .jpeg format (this is the regular format for

most cameras).

Artwork: Take a digital picture of your non-photo artwork. The PhotScan app from Google

Photos is very useful and is available for both Android and iPhone devices. For sculpture

or other 3-D items, take a digital photo against a suitable background.

Make sure that you name or rename the electronic file of your photo (or the photo of your art)

with the same title as you list in the actual submission. If you don’t do this, we may lose track

of your submission! For a photo titled “Sunset at Biddeford Pool,” send an attachment with the

file name sunsetatbiddefordpool.jpg

Some notes about artwork

If your name or initials are on a drawing, painting, etc., take two pictures — (1) the item as-

is, and (2) the item with your name or initials hidden. A little piece of paper or sticky note

will do the trick.

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Note: We will conduct one or more artwork-scanning workshops at OLLI before the dead-

line. Watch your e-mail and the OLLI Newsletter.

Some notes about photos

It’s O.K. to manipulate the image: crop, straighten, adjust contrast and lighting, etc.—even

create an abstract from it.

Most cameras today produce photos that are sharp enough for publication. Two factors can

result in a photo that is not sharp enough to print (even though it looks O.K. on your com-

puter or phone).

First, make sure you send the original and not the little thumbnail.

Second, if you crop a photo too much, the result may not be sharp enough to

reproduce in print.

One rough measure of the sharpness of your photo is the size of the .jpg or .jpeg file. More

is better—at least 200 KB (kilobytes), but one MB (megabyte) or more is preferred.

Second, start an e-mail with some information about you

Write an e-mail with the following required information in the body of the e-mail. (You can copy and

paste this section into the body of your e-mail.) Don’t send it yet! Keep it where you can find it

later.

Your name

Your phone number and e-mail address

A short third-person biography (“Sam Jones is a writer who…” not “I am a writer who…”)

35-word maximum

The category of work you are submitting

Art (Include the medium—oil, watercolor, pastels, ink, pencil, sculpture, etc. Also include

the dimensions of the original piece—X inches by X inches, for example.) Please in-

clude a few words, 20 maximum, about what prompted the artwork.

Photography (Please include a few words, 20 maximum, about what prompted the

photo.)

Poetry

Prose (Include the genre—fiction, memoir, essay.)

The title of your work (same as the file name of your electronic submission)

Reflections may include some of your comments about the artwork or photos, subject to

editing for length.

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Third, review the following rules

Deadline is April 1, 2020.

You must be a current OLLI member.

You may submit up to two works in each of the categories: art, photo, poetry, prose.

Each submission must be sent as an attachment in a separate e-mail.

If you send three items, you will send three e-mails.

Each work you submit must be your own creation and must not have appeared in another

publication.

Do not put your name anywhere on your written or visual work. All submissions are judged

“blind.”

If you submit elsewhere, you must let us know if your work is accepted. If we accept your work,

you must inform anyone else to whom you submitted your work.

Fourth, send your submission

Attach your submission to the e-mail you just wrote and send it to the Submissions Manager at

tbaehr@aol.com with Reflections in the subject line.

Compose a separate e-mail and attachment for each item you submit.

NOTE: Submissions will be acknowledged starting sometime in late March.

If you run into technical difficulties: Attaching a story, poem, or photo to an e-mail can be tricky if

you’ve never done it. If you have questions or problems, you will probably find the solution with a

Google search, or a visit to Apple’s Genius Bar, or by consulting a friend. As a last resort, get in touch

with our Submissions Manager, Tim Baehr, at tbaehr@aol.com or 899-1043. Whomever you consult,

get help early, not in the final rush to the deadline.

Fifth, wait patiently

After the submissions deadline, the Submissions Manager will forward the (anonymous) submissions

to the selections team on the Reflections Committee.

The selections team will complete their work around the end of summer. Submitters will be notified a

few weeks later, after the layout for Reflections has been completed.

Some final notes

According to university policy, USM will copyright Reflections to prevent unauthorized use of its

contents. However, members will retain the copyright to their own works. For this to be accom-

plished, members whose work has been accepted will be asked to grant first-publication rights to

USM. This is a common practice in journals with multiple contributors.

If Reflections is offered as an online version, art and photos will be reproduced at a much lower

resolution to discourage appropriation or use by others.