by Susan Phillips and Carmela Gersbeck
Introduction
The folks on the Bard LLI Communications Committee who come up with this newsletter every month are always interested to know how Bard LLI is fortunate to enlist so many talented people who are willing to share their knowledge and experience through LLI classes. Who encouraged these generous people to spend time and energy preparing an hour-and-a-half presentation for WinterFest? For some newer presenters, working with Zoom was a brand-new and sometimes challenging format. How did that go? Did they feel sufficiently supported by session managers, producers, and the LLI tech team? Was Zoom a useful vehicle for the information they had to share?
Here is a bit of background about three of our 2024 WinterFest presenters and how they felt about using Zoom.
Richard Cahn
Richard Cahn (LLI) was encouraged to present his class Whatever Happened to Baby Jane Doe by long-time presenter Mark Lytle, who was impressed by Richard’s book Making Law: A Memoir of Good Times. Richard had a 50+ year career as an attorney and he played a major role in the Baby Jane Doe case.
Richard grew up on Long Island. He was inspired by his father, who was a renowned and respected trial attorney, and he developed a love of history and law. After graduating from law school, he spent time in Washington, DC, where he attended, and was fascinated by, many hearings at the Supreme Court. Luckily for Bard LLI, Richard and his wife of 62 years, Vivian, relocated to the Rhinebeck area after he retired from practicing as an attorney on Long Island.
Richard believes very strongly that history and law are closely intertwined. He was happy to present his class because the issues he mentioned, many of which were from cases that were decided several decades ago, are still relevant—e.g., privacy, constitutional law, and originalism.
This was Richard’s first experience presenting on Zoom. Of course, he would have preferred to present in person, but since WinterFest is only on Zoom, he had to learn how to work with that platform. He was grateful for the assistance he received from the session management team and curriculum committee, and enjoyed the experience. We hope Richard will return to teach another fascinating class, this time in person!
John Rhetts
John Rhetts has visited Rhinebeck regularly over the last 20-plus years, as his daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren are local residents. He and Marge Moran met three years ago on one of his visits and chatted about some of John’s prior teaching experience, including offering several courses at the OLLI in Bend, Oregon, where John has lived for the last 30 years. This led to John agreeing to give a talk on A History of the Pixel.
John grew up on a farm in Virginia, and then moved to the Washington, DC area when he was 10. As an undergraduate, he majored in philosophy and developed his skills as a skier. After earning his BA degree, he took a year out to decide between career paths in psychiatry/medicine versus psychology, after which he earned a master’s degree in psychology from Harvard and a PhD from Cornell.
John held a professorial position at the University of Minnesota in the 1970s, teaching students at the graduate school level. Subsequently, John opened and managed a clinical psychology practice for 25 years. After closing his practice, he moved to Bend, Oregon. From his base in Oregon, in addition to outdoor recreation and international travel, John helped establish a 4-year-degree program in Bend in conjunction with Oregon State University, and he served for seven years on the board of Central Oregon Community College.
John recently bought a second residence in Rhinebeck and, going forward, plans a measured migration toward Rhinebeck. He welcomes the chance to present more classes for Bard LLI.
John has been a computer/technology user since the 1960s, and he has presented multiple courses on Zoom. This helped his presentation for WinterFest go smoothly. Nevertheless, both the session managers and John needed to work together to ‘up’ their game—drawing especially on YouTube—as John did not [yet] have at his disposal the same technology here as he has in Oregon.
Judith Nelson
When Judith Nelson (LLI) first moved to Rhinebeck in 2021, she met Leslie Weinstock, who introduced her to Bard LLI. When Leslie learned about Judith’s extensive dance experience and her interest in possibly teaching for LLI, well, that was that! Judith’s first LLI class, at the height of Covid, was on Zoom. Since then, Judith has presented classes both in person and on Zoom, including Get Your Brain Moving, Beginning Ballet, and Basics of Dance Making. For the 2024 WinterFest, Judith gave her third Zoom class for LLI, Space, Time, and Energy. While Judith thinks Zoom is fine for lecture-type presentations, she much prefers in-person classes where she can connect with the energy of her students directly. Her goal is always to get people moving in a variety of ways, especially older folks who need that kind of encouragement the most.
Judith has danced all her life. She trained as a child and in college continued dancing and did musical theater. She danced with the Limón Dance Company and David Gordon Pick-Up Company. She taught dance at Auburn University and Carleton College, and is a senior faculty member at Mark Morris Dance Center. She has worked extensively with children of all ages. She also designed dance classes for people with disabilities, a pursuit close to her heart as she has a daughter with Down syndrome.
Judith’s most recent Zoom class required a fair amount of assistance with getting an array of screenshots and several videos up for viewing during her presentation in just the right sequence at just the right time. She wants to thank Robin Berger, Susan Simon, and Carmela Gersbeck for their superb tech team support.
Thank You
Our presenters put a lot of time, effort, and thought into their classes, whether it’s one class for WinterFest, four classes for SummerFest, or seven classes for a spring or fall semester. Judith is hoping for more in-person classes. Both Richard and John hope that we consider having hybrid classes in the future. Of course, we need technical assistance for that, so if you are interested in helping out, please contact Carmela Gersbeck at [email protected].
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