CCAL: Expanding the world

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January 14, 2012

From travelogues to bird watching and history to art, Oneonta organization offers variety of classes

By Nelson Bradshaw Contributing Writer The Daily Star Thu Jan 26, 2012, 01:25 PM EST

If you are interested in learning about local history, the Center for Continuing Adult Learning may be the place for you. What about saving money? Yup, CCAL. Classical music? CCAL has a class for that. Art? Gardening? Self-defense? CCAL has classes on those, too.

Now in its 19th year, the CCAL is an independent, not-for-profit, membership organization. It has offices on Maple Street in Oneonta, which are paid for by a grant.

The center holds classes for its members in rooms at the State University College at Oneonta and Hartwick College. The use of those spaces is loaned without charge by the two colleges.

The group has one employee, a part-time office worker. All the rest of the work done at CCAL is the labor of member volunteers. Members prepare classes and teach them, members run the CCAL business by committees, including the curriculum, finance and administration, college liaisons, membership and promotion, nominating, and public relations committees.

CCAL depends strictly on member dues for income. Membership costs $120 per calendar year. That bill paid, the member has access to as many as 70 classes for the year. There are four quarters in the CCAL year: winter, spring, summer and fall. Registration must be in advance for each of the sessions.

"Back in 1994, a group of retired academics went to Binghamton to meet with Elder Hostel representatives and learn about how to set up some kind of continuing adult learning program," said Eve Rabbiner, a member of the Public Relations Committee, about the group's beginning. "The Oneonta group was led by several retired professors. Reportedly, one of these professors had often been heard saying to another, 'I would have loved to have taken your class. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a kind of a program where you could present classes to colleagues and to other people too, if they were interested?'"

CCAL is a thriving enterprise now, not in terms of financial gain, but in the joy of learning and the pleasure of meeting new people and making new friends.

The reason why people seem to enjoy CCAL so much? Rabbiner's answer: "Fun."

Alice Cannistra, co-chair of the Public Relations Committee, agreed: "It's a lot of fun."

There are no other qualifications for joining CCAL, beyond paying membership dues and registering.

There is no pressure to excel academically. There is not even pressure to have fun, if you don't want to. You can be just as cranky as you like. There is a lot of interaction between students and facilitators. If you want to take a class and you're available when it's being offered and you're registered, go for it.

Don't forget to register on time, though. Most of the classes are given during the day.

And because you do have to be free to take classes during the day, older people are more apt to join CCAL than are younger ones.

Cannistra guessed that the age range of CCAL members is between 50 and 90 years old. And what kind of class does a 90-year-old take?

"It runs the gamut from hobbies to hiking, to bird-watching and more," Cannistra said. "I've been on hiking trips with 90-year-olds. Some people are fit and active at that age and some aren't. But, we always have a class for everyone."

Cannistra expanded on the question of why people get involved with the learning center.

"People are drawn by a love of learning for things outside their experience," she said.

"I was a Spanish teacher for 33 years," she said. "I've taken many CCAL classes. I took one on the great composers, because I knew nothing about classical music. I also took a six-week course on Chinese cooking. I learned from a Chinese woman who cooks in her home. I now cook Chinese food for my family once a month."

Cannistra said that classes are refreshing for the facilitators as well as exciting for students.

She gave an example: "The facilitators are very often teaching to their passions rather than just their areas of professional expertise. The gentleman who taught the great composers course was normally a political science professor at Hartwick College, but he was also a classical pianist. He wanted to share his love of composers and music with the rest of the membership. He was brilliant."

The CCAL facilitator staff is talented, dedicated and in some cases "brilliant," but fresh talent must be found and recruited to keep CCAL going.

The Recruitment Committee must help bring in more lively and talented facilitators.

"We ask newly retired teachers and professors if they would like to share something with us from their academic backgrounds. If we find somebody who is especially exciting or interesting, we may try to recruit them," Cannistra said.

She also stressed the importance of more new recruits. "They're the life blood," she said. "As you bring in new numbers, the vitality of the group grows."

She reinforced her image of the learning atmosphere at CCAL:

"The classes are not work. They are stimulating and enjoyable. When people hear the word class, the sometimes jump back in their memories to high school and college and boring experiences. CCAL is the antithesis of that. There is Shakespeare, but it's Shakespeare with friends and colleagues and discussions and interactions."