Seasonal newsletters are included in ASC membership. To download a copy of our current newsletter, please click here.
Other News:
Summer Events 2008:
July 21, 2008, 5:00 Dr Anne Clunan of the Naval Post Graduate School will speak on
“The 20th Century’s Potent Legacy” at the Gates Community Center, College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor (click here for more details.)
July 26, 2008, 2-4:00, The Politics of Sports – Excerpts from Leni Riefenstahl’s classic film “Olympia, 1936,” with commentary from well known sports historian, William J. Baker
Southwest Harbor Public Library (click here for more details.)
Annual General Meeting, 2008
Acadia Senior College members gathered for our 2008 Annual General Meeting and supper on June 4 at the Neighborhood House in Northeast Harbor. Retiring President and ASC founder Jim Clunan passed the gavel to incoming President Bill Dohmen, who read a resolution by the Board honoring Jim and his wife Dorothy for their outstanding vision and leadership in establishing the College and guiding its vigorous growth over eight years. (See photo at the bottom of this page.)
ASC members in attendance elected two new Board members: Jim Kitler, who will serve as our new treasurer, and Rob Fry.
Jim's farewell speech outlined the significant milestones of his tenure, and credited the "entrepreneurial" spirit that motivated the creation of this lively organization, and will continue to guide its growth. (Click here to read Jim Clunan's farewell speech.)
As a finale, Sheri Kean's winter term line dancing class showed off their hot stuff. It was a fitting wind-up to a year full of "stimulation, knowledge, interaction, and fun."
(Click here for more photos from AGM.)
- Membership Party on April 28, 2008 a Grand Success!
[To view some PARTY PHOTOS taken by Bob Pennington, click here. Also see the one at the bottom of this page.]
Thanks to all who volunteered to help, especially the Membership and Volunteers Committee members- Ginny Blaney, Liz Hugnagel, Fran Fry, Rita Gallon and Don Cousins for all the organizing! Many thanks to Rob Collins for entertaining with jazz piano, and to those who joined him in song. We were happy to be able to host the party at the Maine Sea Coast Mission, and many thanks go to staff at the Mission for all their assistance.
Close to a hundred people attended the party. New and renewed memberships have exceeded all expectations. The new three-year option is proving to be popular. Thanks to all for supporting ASC!
- Perhaps our biggest news item is this new website!
Lelah Cole, of Lelah Cole Design is the website designer. She worked closely with the Public Relations Committee: Chair - Peggy Forster, Sydney Roberts Rockefeller, and Jim Clunan and Jude Lamb, ex officio.
Our goal was to create an up-to-date site, easy to navigate, and with a fresh look. We have gained much more than that, as there is opportunity for many photographs and images. The site is easy to update, and Jude has the promise of some help in keeping the site current.
We look forward to being able to expand our course descriptions, as available. We will also be adding podcasts sometime soon. We already have a link to the movie-trailer for “End of Suburbia.” (See Community Events/Program Series.) We are pleased to provide our members and friends an easy way to keep up with what is going on in Acadia Senior College!
- Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation Grant Awarded to ASC
Acadia Senior College recently received a $2000 grant from the Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation to support its Local Public Library Enhancement Project. This project aims to give broad public access to every book studied in its classes on an ongoing basis. Librarians at Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, Northeast Harbor Public Library, Southwest Harbor Public Library, and Thorndike Library at College of the Atlantic make choices each term from a tempting menu of titles.
The STK Foundation found this ASC cultural outreach effort sympathetic with its mission to support local community building initiatives here in Maine. Among those served by the Project are at least 10,000 Mount Desert Island residents off-season, plus College of the Atlantic students and staff, and many seasonal residents who use these libraries in summer. While the four participating libraries are on MDI, their holdings are available statewide through inter-library loan. Most of these collections are widely accessible online.
Thanks to a generous lead grant from private donor O.P. Jackson, ASC was able to provide for the acquisition and distribution among libraries of all its texts studied since the year 2000. Now this STK grant will allow the Project to continue at least through 2009.
One grateful librarian summed it up nicely: "It was very exciting to have you arrive with the boxes of books that Acadia Senior College is donating to our library. This is such a generous and meaningful way to reach out to the larger community."
Look for special bookplates identifying all Senior College books, and for attractive displays of these books in some area libraries.