By Mona Sherman, First Vice President
Berkshire Institute for Lifelong Learning, Massachusetts

Taken from the spring 2005 newsletter, B.I.L.L.BOARD of the Berkshire Institute for Lifelong Learning and reprinted here with permission.

Lifelong Learning Institutes (LLIs) throughout the country share the same goals. The recent 2004 conference of New England Lifelong Learning Institutes in Portland, Maine allowed 350 attendees to exchange ideas and experiences and provided a base for mutual support and continuing contacts.

We discovered many creative concepts to enhance B.I.L.L. programs and administrative and financial outlook. These included adding the universally used study group learning model to our current lecture courses and special projects.

Discussions centered on membership retention and recruiting, LLI organization for the future, enrollment trends, attraction of newly retired members, space issues, development of improved faculty connections and community outreach.

By invitation, we joined a consortium with the LLI groups at Harvard, Dartmouth, Brandeis and the University of San Francisco’s Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning to exchange ideas, catalogs and, when available, speakers and extended travel programs. We learned of exciting new options for future funding for B.I.L.L.

Attendees to the conference included Mona and Arthur Sherman. Ann Dulye and Arline Breskin presented the work of our Special Events Committee to the unanimous admiration of other LLIs.

This conference made very clear that we are a part of a dynamic LLI world outside of our borders. There is a growing tide of maturing adults and stimulating programs underway throughout the country. We need to keep abreast and participate in this tide of creativity.