|
| |
Changes, Changes…
Membership Changes
The Institute has made some
membership and programming changes designed to make its programs available to
more people. It is no longer necessary to be a member in the Institute to be
able to attend most Institute events.
The general public is welcome at most Institute programs. Lectures may be bought
in advance or paid for at the door. Like many other area organizations, the
Institute will continue to have a voluntary “patron” memberships that will
support the work of the Institute. Those choosing to be patron members will
receive discounts on all events for the program year.
Current members (renewed as of Fall ’07) will be considered patron members for
all of 2008 and will receive reduced fees on programs for the entire calendar
year. Patron members will also have access to occasional members-only events,
advance notice and priority registration, and recognition in Institute
publications.
When the late Harry Wilmer founded the Institute 27 years ago, his idea was to
bring well known speakers to Salado and have them interact with local residents
on an informal basis. For this reason, he purposefully kept the organization
small and attendance was restricted to members of the Institute.
However, over the past several years, the Institute decided to grow the
membership and open up its programs to more people. Mandatory membership
hindered participation and that growth. Therefore, in late 2007, the board voted
to eliminate the membership requirement.
Patron
Membership
We
invite you to become a patron member and support the work of the Institute. To
become a voluntary, Patron member of the Institute at one of the following
levels, fill out this annual Membership
Form. Mail the form to the Institute at P.O. Box 527, Salado, TX 76571.
Membership dues are tax deductible. You may pay either by check or
VISA/MasterCard.
Supporting
-- $35.00/year for a single membership, and
$65.00/year for a dual membership.
Contributing
--
$200/year
Sustaining
-- $500/year
Directors
Circle -- $1,000/year
Silver
Circle --
$5,000/year
Golden
Circle -- $10,000/.year
The Institute membership year
has changed from its previous time frame of July through June,
and now coincides with the calendar year. An annual Patron membership
runs from January through December. Non-members
who join between now and the end of the year will receive discounts on the
remaining 2008 programs.
Current
Patron members who renew their membership with their fall registration will be
considered 2009 Patron members.
Programming
Changes
The
Institute has also changed its program year cycle. Instead of starting in the
fall, the Institute program (and membership) year now begins in January.
Although there may still be programs grouped in the fall and the spring,
for programming purposes, the Institute will have a single year-long program
series that begins in January and runs throughout the entire year.
This will give the Institute the flexibility to add subjects and to
address topics of current interest as they arise throughout the year.
There
will still be a minimum of four to six
programs throughout the year, including the annual Wilmer Memorial Lecture in
June. In addition, some smaller events and joint
sponsorships with other organizations are also planned.
The 2008 lectures will provide a forum to include topics of concern to
a broad audience and will include such topical subjects as our
archeological history and politics, as well as more traditional humanities
programs about the arts – all under the banner of Creativity, the Institute theme for the year.
Although you may pay for 2008 program events at the door, you can also
pre-register by mailing this 2008 program Enrollment
Form , along with your payment, to the address on the form.
- Dr.
Michael Collins, UT archeology
professor and director of the Gault archeological site in west Bell County,
will speak on the importance of the Clovis artifacts found there. His talk,
"The Gault Site and the Search for the First Americans," will
address the global issue of when, by what route(s), by whom, and with what
cultural trappings the Western Hemisphere was first inhabited by humans.
That talk will be Sunday, Aug. 10, from 4-6 p.m. in Salado at the
Celebration Center. The talk is open to the public. A reception with Dr.
Collins will follow. (Note the program date has been changed from Aug 3rd!)
- There will also be field trip to the Gault site on Saturday,
September 20th, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Advance registration
is required. Space is limited. Preference will be given to Institute
members.
- Newspaper columnists and television commentators Cal
Thomas, conservative, and Bob Beckel,
liberal, co-authors of Common Ground:
How to Stop the Partisan War that is Destroying America will give a
joint presentation.
This program will be a lively look at saving the “middle ground” from
the Red State/Blue State madness by two of the country’s top political
journalists. It will be a creative look at politics in this election year.
This special lecture is being co-sponsored by the University of Mary
Hardin-Baylor and will be held at the Lord Conference Center in the
Parker Academic Center at UMHB; Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008, from 6-8 p.m.
A reception with the speakers will follow. Open to the public.
- Renowned Psychologist Dr.
Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, will
speak in Salado on Saturday, Oct. 18, from 5-7 p.m., on the concept
of creativity and “flow”.
Csikszentmihalyi is most well known for his best-selling book, Flow:
The Psychology of Optimal Experience. He defined and popularized the
concept of "flow"— as in "in the flow"— as our
experience of optimal fulfillment and engagement. Flow, whether in creative
arts, athletic competition, engaging work, or spiritual practice, is a deep
and uniquely human motivation to excel, exceed, and triumph over limitation.
- Acclaimed, best-selling author Edwin
“Bud” Shrake (Harvey
Penick’s Little Red Book, Custer’s Brother’s Horse) will
speak on Sunday, November 9th from 4 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., at Creekside
Dining Room of the Mill Creek Inn in Salado.
For
more information or to register, contact Erin at ifh@vvm.com or call the
Institute office at 947-5729.
Advance
Information on the 2009 Programs
The Institute will be
working with the Salado Public Library for some of its 2009 programs on the
topic of Love, Forgiveness and Wisdom.
To date we have three
confirmed events:
- On
February 27-28, the Institute will be hosting a weekend with renowned
psychologist, Dr. Michael Comforti. His
lecture and workshop on the topic of love, forgiveness and healing will
launch both our programming series and the Library’s discussion groups.
Dr. Comforti is a Jungian psychologist and the director of the Assisi
Institute in Vermont.
- In
late April, Dr. James Pennebaker, the chairman of the UT Psychology
Department and an expert on the healing power of expressing emotions, will
lecture.
- We
will also present a theatrical presentation in May on this topic. It will be
a dramatic reading/musical accompaniment of Tennyson’s epic poem, Enoch
Arden, which has at its heart the themes of love and forgiveness. The
artists who will perform are prominent professors from the School of Fine
Arts at the University of Texas at Austin.
In addition, we will
sponsor at least one other lecture or workshop in conjunction with the
Library’s reading discussion groups. Motivational
speaker, Paul Meyer, author of a book on forgiveness has been invited to speak.
We are delighted to be
working with the Salado Public Library as its collaborative partner.
The library will be sponsoring a series of four “community
conversations” throughout the spring around these books: Sense and
Sensibility by Jane Austen, The History of Love by Nicole Krauss, A
Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare, The Essential Rumi
translated by Coleman Barks, and Atonement by Ian McEwan.
Information From Institute
Spring 2007 Programs:
The
spring lecture series entitled, "Privacy Lost: At What Cost?" netted
attendees much useful information. Speaker Beth Givens, the director the Privacy
Rights Clearinghouse, provided a Privacy Survival Guide as well as a reading
list of privacy publications to participants. The Privacy Survival Guide can be
downloaded at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse website: www.privacyrights.org. A
bibliography of Privacy Publications is available here.
Recordings of Speakers Available
CD's of the lectures by these most recent speakers and others are available for
purchase through the Institute. Audio tapes or CD's are available for almost all
of the speakers who have presented to the Institute during the last 26 years.
Audio tapes are $11.00 and CD's are $15.00 each. To order, please contact Erin
at the Institute at ifh@vvm.com or at
(254)947-5729.
Teacher and Student Scholarships Available
A
special word to local area students and teachers:
The institute has a policy of providing scholarships to educators at the
Salado, Temple, Killeen and Belton School Districts. Two educators from each of
these school district are invited to attend each lecture of the Institute free
of charge.
In addition, a limited number
of scholarships are available for students in surrounding colleges and
universities for each lecture. Some scholarships are also available fore high
school students. Please contact
Erin Burress at ifh@vvm.com or call (254)947-5729
for information on how to access the scholarships.
|
