LLL Contact Information
Pat Ingalls
* Website: www.lifelonglearningatpc.org
* Email: [email protected]
* LLL Center hours: Closed until further notice
Choose Curiosity Over Clash
Bill Nee
Julia Dhar’s TED Talk, titled “How to have constructive conversations,” shares tips that can open up dialogue with others who see things differently than you.
Dhar, a three-time world-champion debater and a behavioral business consultant, shares techniques on how we can develop ideas by formulating discussion in a nonthreatening way, using curiosity instead of clash. For example, say: “I never saw it that way before; could you share …?”
Dhar states that anchoring discussion around a common purpose builds a foundation for bridging differences in points of view. It requires listening, being heard, and understanding, in order to have a constructive, curious conversation.
Open up, be curious, and tear down walls effectively. You will grow from the process.
To view this 10.5-minute talk, go to TED.com, click Watch in the header, then TED Talks, then in Search talks input “How to have constructive conversations,” scroll a little lower, and click on the talk you selected.
Volunteer Jim Plasker has provided technical, web-based expertise to LLL for more than seven years.
Volunteer Spotlight on Jim Plasker
Pamela O’Shea
Jim Plasker embodies what it takes to volunteer and contribute to LifeLong Learning and to PebbleCreek. For all he has done, he is the first to be profiled in LLL’s new Volunteer Spotlight.
Retiree Plasker and his wife, Billie, moved to PebbleCreek in 2013 as snowbirds. Though originally from Oregon, Plasker spent much of his 43-year career on the East Coast.
As a young student at Oregon State University, Plasker earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in engineering surveys. After college, in l972, he began working for the United States Geological Survey in its Rocky Mountain region, and eventually worked his way up to associate chief geologist in USGS’ Senior Executive Service, based on the East Coast. During his 27 years with USGS, he traveled internationally, representing the U.S. in both military and civilian mapping. He took an early retirement in 1999, then worked 16 years as executive director of a professional society in the Washington, D.C. area.
Throughout their careers, the Plaskers had spent time in Phoenix, which led them to decide to spend winters in PebbleCreek, while continuing to maintain a summer residence in Eagle Point, Ore.
Jim Plasker got involved with LLL somewhat by chance in 2014. While purchasing tickets for a LLL event, he noticed Emily Grotta (who then served as LLL’s marketing and communication director) using Joomla!, the content-management program that LLL’s website uses. Plasker became familiar with Joomla! during his 50 years of officiating high school football wherever the Plaskers had resettled. He offered to demonstrate how to incorporate LLL’s icon, (a tiny, unique symbol designating a website’s owner) into the website. From that point forward, he has shined as a LLL volunteer!
Plasker became the nuts and bolts, behind the scenes, keeping LLL’s website up and running. Most recently, during the 2020-21 season, he and another volunteer, Neal Wring, led the charge to simplify registering people for events and processing payments. That resulted in a more efficient, easier to use, and reliable online system. As if that’s not enough, he also helps Billie in her LLL trip team volunteer responsibilities, which he refers to as his “husband duties.”
“I really appreciate the mission of LLL,” Plasker said, when asked how he has benefited from volunteering for LLL, and said that it is a great resource for the community. He said that he has been exposed to things he wouldn’t have otherwise learned to appreciate if he had continued concentrating on his career’s scientific and engineering disciplines. Through LLL, he has expanded his horizons and learned more about politics, history, water resources of the arid Southwest, cultural issues, and even baking. After taking Gene Fioretti’s bread baking class, the Plaskers have never again purchased a loaf of bread!
“If you want to meet people who are interesting and friendly, while becoming active in the community,” he said, “this is an excellent way to do it.”
The LLL Board thanks Plasker for the valuable impact he has made.
New Directors Elected
Pat Ingalls
LifeLong Learning approved its new board of directors for the upcoming 2021-22 season at its annual meeting held May 17. During LLL’s first in-person meeting since COVID lockdowns began more than a year ago, members who met in the Tuscany Falls Ballroom, as well as those using Zoom, gave these leaders their support, effective July 1: president, Paul Polk; vice president, Wendy Frumkin; secretary, Catherine Lindstrom; treasurer, Jeff Edwards; co-directors of lectures, Jill Burnham and Dawn Spiak; director of trips, Susan Roth; co-directors of classes, Carole Korzilius and Kayrene Braden; co-directors of marketing and communications, Ruth Shaffer and Barbara Younker; co-directors of volunteers, Pam O’Shea and Robbie Fox; director of community outreach, Jeff Young; board member-at-large, Phil Korzilius; and board member-at-large, Doug Jameson.