From Dick Vernon, LLI, Baldwin Wallace College, Berea, OH – rvernon@worldnet.att.net
We are about 8 years old, with a membership of about 250 ($15/yr), and we charge $15.class (6 meetings, once a week); we are an all-volunteer organizations. We do not have any paid staff or instructors. We donate the nominal amount of $7500/year to the college. We have about 12-14 classes each of three quarters and we have LLI luncheons after each quarter's classes conclude, and one annual dinner. We just recently started offering overnight trips to various attractions and these have been old out. Now on to your questions. We rent rooms for about ¾ of our classes; the college lets us have rooms as available but, like your experience, rooms are at a premium even for the colleges primary purpose – educating undergraduates. The college has graciously provided office space (presently at a remote location) and a computer (with software) for our use. In the near future office space for our LLI will be included with the offices of the Lifelong Learning Department. We have no separate area for socializing, unfortunately. My personal opinion is that a dedicated social area would be most desirable and contribute significantly to increasing member involvement. At one time we had a goal of obtaining 2 classrooms (available afternoons) which would be located near an LLI office and a dedicated area for socializing; the goal was so difficult to achieve I think we have dropped it now.

From Norm Bennett, Institute for Continued Learning, Young Harris College, GA – critter3@whitelion.net
The majority of all our classes are held in college facilities. In fact, the college has identified a specific classroom for our use because space is not presently an issue on campus, nor is it expected to become an issue in the near future. The college also provides office space and the facilities for all our social activities.

From Bob Hartmann, QUEST, City College of New York – bobwea@prodigy.net
Fortunately this is not one of our problems. City College of New York has classes in the evening on two floors of an office building in downtown Manhattan, and we have access to this space during the day. Our only caveats are that we must be out before 3:30 p.m., and we can utilize up to 6 classrooms, 1 auditorium with overhead audio-visual equipment, and 1 office with computers. At night the entire 2 floors are used for the CCNY undergraduate students. This system works out great for us, therefore, space is not an issue. I know that this is very different from most of our other groups.

From Art Sherman, Berkshire Institute for Lifetime Learning, Berkshire Community College, Pittsfield, MA – gdmads@aol.com
You have struck upon the classic problem. We are fortunate in being able to use the facilities of 3 colleges in our area – Williams, BCC and now Simons Rock. However, we have successfully used the local Pittsfield Library, which has excellent classrooms, and we have accessed the auditorium of the Clark Art Institute. You may find that the college you are affiliated with has some relatively obscure places that are not normally used as classrooms, i.e. small conference room(s) in the school library. We have also found that by using the college faculty to teach courses for us, they somehow manage to find some of the more obscure locations within the buildings that seem to always be overlooked when your needs are being considered, but are perfectly adequate. Clearly, the jigsaw puzzle of matching class space availability, instructor schedules, etc, is the most difficult job our Curriculum Committee faces. We do not pay rent for the classrooms; however, when we are at the pubic library, we do pay a small fee for room setup. We also use the facilities of the local Holiday Inn in Lenox because of ease of access and parking for our winter semester for a nominal setup fee, because the facility is not well used in this season and the owner is civic minded. You might look to public facilities such as local museums or venues, YMCA, special exhibition spaces, etc.

From Dick Aime, Lifetime Learners Institute, Norwalk, CT – fernaime@juno.com
LLI gives most of our courses in Norwalk Community College’s classrooms, because most of our classes take place in relative off-hours. Not much in the mornings and nothing in the evenings. We do give a few courses at off-campus sites, which are free of charge to us. As to office work, we are an entirely volunteer operation, which takes some doing as we reached a membership of 762 this past spring term. For socializing, we use the Atrium of one of our two main college buildings from 12 noon to 1 p.m. on Fridays – a light day on campus.

From Bob Hartmann, QUEST, City College of New York – bobwea@prodigy.net
You asked about socialization. Because we are completely on our own from about 9:30 am. to 3:30 p.m. we have a sense of community which is very valuable to us. We do not have a cafeteria, but we do have tables and chairs set aside for lunch and most people brown bag their lunch and use our lunch hour (noon-1p.m.) to talk and socialize. We provide coffee; the members bring whatever else they want. A delicatessen is within half a block from our building so food is not a problem. We also have available from CCNY a refrigerator and microwave as well as the coffee maker. In addition to the lunch period, each week after school we have an "art walk." This consists of a group, which leaves school at 2:30 p.m. who walk to various art galleries in Manhattan with a guide (one of our members from the art field). Also from time to time we hire a bus and take a group to the Bronx Zoo or the Botanical Gardens or other places of interest in the area. Also many of our group attend the theater together, but these arrangements are made on their own, outside of the auspices of QUEST. Once a year we have a celebration for the end of the spring semester, which has been held at one of the "tonier" restaurants in Tribeca – the Tribeca Grill. We get a private room, lunch, and minimal speeches wherein we all pat ourselves on the back for having had a wonderfully productive year.

From James B. Woodruff – Lyceum, SUNY Binghamton, NY - ffurdoow@pronetisp.net Lyceum's office is on campus, managed by a part-time coordinator plus a some-times graduate student. (telephones, files, computers, voice mail, university contacts, etc.). We pay the Coordinators wages plus some service expenses. Although class space is offered, university parking mandates classes off campus. For five years we have used a local church where flat parking is available during the week. The area we have is about 40' X 60' which includes a separate entry, kitchen and wash rooms, adequate for 106. For larger gatherings the sanctuary is available. However, we make it a point to use university facilities for larger meetings and catered dinners (4-6 times a year). We feel it is important to keep the office in the university to maintain close contact. The membership considers these arrangements to be ideal.

From Joe Scorpion – Academy for Lifelong Learning, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA – scorpion+@andrew.cmu.edu
We have a dedicated classroom on campus, which has a capacity of about 32. We try to schedule as many of our classes in this room as we possibly can. It is given to us rent free. We did, however, have to furnish it. Through the generosity of some of our members, chairs and carpeting were provided. We did have to purchase a screen, blackboard and window shades, etc.-funded from our budget. If we have need for additional/larger classrooms we deal with the University Registrar. These are provided, where possible, free-of-charge. You must understand that we are in competition for space. However, the University does their best to accommodate us. We have an office in the basement of the Alumni House. It is rent free. We do not pay for any utilities except the telephone. We do pay for use of their copier based upon the number of copies we use. Also, we do reimburse them for the paper we use in our printer by buying them a carton of paper 3-4 times per year. There are several rooms in the University Center available to us for social events-evening lectures, annual meeting, Fall convocation, holiday party, etc. These sites are free of charge but must be reserved in advance, sometimes at least a year ahead of time. What legal arrangements, if any, do you have with sponsors?

From Mark Levine, U Mass Lowell LLI, Lowell, MA – mark_levine@uml.edu
We have an agreement pending with UMass/Lowell. I will be glad to be in touch with Salem State about it. Since ours is still in process, currently in review by the University’s lawyers, I would love to know about others you find in our UMass system.

From Dick Vernon, LLI, Baldwin Wallace College, Berea, OH – rvernon@worldnet.att.net
The college includes us as a recognized subset within the college and their lawyers tell us the college insurance will cover us. We have no formal legal arrangement with the college; this makes some of us nervous, but each time we have approached the college they assure us we don’t need one. We do not pay for any space the college provides, we do pay for services such as printing and copying just as all departments pay.

From Norm Bennett, Institute for Continued Learning, Young Harris College, GA – critter3@whitelion.net
The college provides all facilities free of charge. The college also provides all liability insurance free of charge, including director and officer liability insurance. The college administration believes very strongly that our LLI is part of its mission in the community.

From Bob Hartmann, QUEST, City College of New York – bobwea@prodigy.net
We, QUEST, have a letter of agreement with City College for the utilization of the above-mentioned space. The letter runs for one year and is renewable on an annual basis. As far as insurance is concerned, we are covered under the insurance of the host (CCNY). We do not have additional insurance. Regarding payment, 75% of our fees ($450 per annum per member) go to CCNY for the use of the space, all audio/visual equipment, utilities, computers, etc. We retain the other 25%, which is utilized to pay for special programs, salary for one part-time administrative assistant, photocopying, etc. This 75/25 split, considering rental costs in Manhattan, is eminently fair and still gives additional income to the Host University.

From Art Sherman, Berkshire Institute for Lifetime Learning, Berkshire Community College, Pittsfield, MA – gdmads@aol.com
As far as legal relationships with the sponsors, we have none. We were started 6 years ago with the sponsorship (handshake and an unused, repaid stipend) from Williams and BCC. We are an independent, tax exempt 501c3 organization with a full-time salaried office administrator. Williams performed our accounting function for the first 4 or 5 years, but we took that over ourselves when we obtained the 501c3 designation. Williams and BCC continue as our formal sponsors and we have recently engaged Simons Rock as a third local supporter for faculty and facilities. (Incidentally, you might find that if you have lunches at the school cafeterias, the income and your group would be welcome). Our relationships have been extremely close with the administration and faculty of the sponsor schools and we work very hard to maintain that relationship, even as our BILL administrations turn over.

From Dick Aime, Lifetime Learners Institute, Norwalk, CT – fernaime@juno.com
Legal arrangements with the sponsor are covered by a letter of agreement. The college’s insurance does cover LLI, but we have our own as well. We do not pay for classroom space nor for the Atrium nor for the auditorium where we have our Friday special presentations for members.

From James B. Woodruff – Lyceum, SUNY Binghamton, NY - ffurdoow@pronntisp.net
Lyceum, being university sponsored, is a non-profit organization under the umbrella of the university. This resolves problems related with liability and non-profit status. Our accounts are maintained by our coordinator but the university manages our checking and foundation accounts.

From Joe Scorpion – Academy for Lifelong Learning, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA – scorpion+@andrew.cmu.edu
We are chartered (formally) by the University-September 13, 1992. They consider us a part of their out-reach efforts. There is, as noted, a formal, signed document. As far as we know, we are covered by the University's insurance-accidents, damage, etc. Again, we do not pay for any space we use on campus. What Letters of Agreement or other such instruments do you have?

From Dick Vernon, LLI, Baldwin Wallace College, Berea, OH – rvernon@worldnet.att.net Again, we do not have any formal agreement with the college, which is a relatively small, private institution. Such an agreement can have obvious advantages, but we think it can also limit the LLI. Since the college hasn’t felt strongly we push the boundaries, as we deem reasonable. I think most of our LLI leaders recognize and accept the college’s priorities – educating undergraduate and graduate students – our LLI is down the list; there are a few who maintain a position that as long as the college chooses to sponsor our LLI, the college should meet our needs – most of us strongly believe this is a totally unrealistic position and will remain so. We have adopted the attitude that when facilities/services can not be provided by the college we will simply find them elsewhere, and we remain grateful for what the college does provide. We are still groping to identify meaningful ways we can contribute to the college so we will hopefully become perceived as an indispensable part of the college.

From Norm Bennett, Institute for Continued Learning, Young Harris College, GA – critter3@whitelion.net
We have a formal one-page letter of agreement with the college which delineates both the college’s and our LLI’s responsibilities. I’d be more than happy to share a copy with you.

From Art Sherman, Berkshire Institute for Lifetime Learning, Berkshire Community College, Pittsfield, MA – gdmads@aol.com
We therefore have no letters of agreement and the only documents we operate under are our bylaws and P/P.

From Dick Aime, Lifetime Learners Institute, Norwalk, CT – fernaime@juno.com
We do have a letter of agreement with the college, which is a Connecticut State institution. I’d be glad to fax you a copy.

From James B. Woodruff – Lyceum, SUNY Binghamton, NY - ffurdoow@pronetisp.net
Though we operate independent of the university, we are covered under university policies relating to extended educational activities. Our off-campus facilities are ideal but are available only during periods of class activities. Though it would be even better to put it all together, we feel that the on-campus office is essential to our university relationships.

From Joe Scorpion – Academy for Lifelong Learning, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA – scorpion+@andrew.cmu.edu
As noted above, we have a formal agreement (charter) signed by all the significant parties. We are a private institution (Carnegie Mellon University). I cannot comment on state institutions. A sample of our charter can be made available upon request. UPDATE: We presently have 714 paid, active members with a "cap" of 725. We begin our 8th year in September.