Membership
We hope you find your time with OLLI to be intellectually stimulating in a friendly, welcoming environment, with many opportunities for involvement. Our staff prides itself on providing outstanding customer service. If you have any questions, just ask us!
Through two separate $1 million gifts from The Bernard Osher Foundation, OLLI at Bradley is recognized as an Osher program of distinction. Bradley University, OLLI’s home, recognizes the importance of the program as a standard of excellence in lifelong learning. Bradley generously supports OLLI through the provision of staff, meeting space and services for OLLI. Bradley University’s Continuing Education and Professional Development Division sponsors the OLLI program and provides staff for program leadership and oversight.
A dedicated group of volunteers guides OLLI with passion and vision. This grassroots approach makes everyone a stakeholder in the process and the results.
After more than a year of thoughtful consideration by the Executive Committee, OLLI at Bradley will charge a $5 quarterly membership fee beginning with its fall 2019 programs.
The Bernard Osher Foundation encouraged our transition to a membership-based program. Membership can promote a stronger sense of community and belonging and provide an additional revenue stream to further develop, broaden and sustain our OLLI at Bradley.
The membership fee will bring our OLLI into alignment with the Foundation’s best practices. Other OLLI membership fees at institutes in the Midwest range from $600 to $45 per year, but we believe $5 per quarter is sufficient to satisfy the foundation’s guidelines. The fees generated each quarter will be used to fund new offerings and offset costs that impact all OLLI activities.
Here are some advantages to becoming an official OLLI member this fall:
- Only OLLI members will have access to our quarterly programming, including classes, learning trips, study groups and OLLI Originals (special events such as after hours, cinema, dinners, and more).
- We’ll have more flexibility to develop new offerings, such as Lunch and Learns, Workshops, and Breakfast with a Professor. Many of these offerings will have higher seating capacities, so more members can enjoy these new learning opportunities.
- We’ll deliver additional benefits to OLLI members, including discounts at the Bradley Bookstore, the Bradley Theatre and other member-only perks offered by our community connections (e.g., discounted prices for symposiums and deals from other organizations).
- The affordable fee will enable us to determine the needs and interests of our members better and deliver those programs.
- Please note the quarterly membership fee is only due once every three months. For 2021 the OLLI quarterly membership fees are to be paid once in each of the following quarters:
Winter (Jan/Feb/ Mar), Spring (Apr/May/June), Summer (July/Aug/Sept), and Fall (Oct/Nov/Dec). The fee will produce an additional source of revenue for our new offerings, offset costs that impact all OLLI activities (such as producing the quarterly brochure and distributing the weekly newsletter) and allow us to maintain current prices for classes, study groups and trips.
Watch your weekly newsletter for more information. If you have any questions, please view our Membership Fee FAQs (PDF) or contact OLLI Director Michelle Riggio at (309) 677-3900 or mriggio@bradley.edu.
Membership Development Committee Information
OLLI encourages member input and participation on any of its committees to help reach their goals. The Executive Board appoints a chair to head the committee; the chair reports to the board and attends all executive meetings. The chair may assume or delegate the responsibilities of the committee for a particular session. The curriculum and study groups chairs also work with the Bradley University liaison to develop balance for their respective areas.
The Membership Development Committee works with OLLI staff to develop and enact plans that will recruit, orient and retain new OLLI members.