A New Community Learning Opportunity

CommunityThink is designed to create new educational, recreational and social community opportunities in a tolerant, supportive atmosphere for, and by independent learners in the Southeastern Connecticut area and beyond.

The idea is essentially a hybrid program: we solicit pro (pay) instructors for classes we'd like to see, and supplement that programming with our (free) CommunityThink volunteer effort to create a range of topics & affordability. The options are ENDLESS! We finally have space & opportunity together! What would you like to see? What can you offer?
Jump in, ask around and fill out a form!

As of Friday, May 30th, 2008, the CommunityThink concept has a green light!
Groton Parks&Rec (GP&R) Program Director, Ben Morse, gave the go ahead to recruit instructors & submit our class overview forms for a daytime program for a 6-week mini-session on Tuesdays at William Seely School beginning the week of September 14th, 2008! Wahoo!

*If you have a class idea, NOW is the time!* You can lead it yourself, ask a talented friend, or invite an instructor to fill out the GP&R form (email jenniferpryor@sbcglobal.net for form) and drop off/return it by mail to:
Jennifer Pryor
35 Pearl Street
Mystic, CT 06355

by JUNE 9th (or email me for extension!)

From here, we will put together the CommunityThink class portfolio and schedule and submit it all at once to Parks&Rec. (Sorry for the short notice, GP&R has moved up their catalogue deadline by 2 months!)

COSTS & TIMING
Start times will coincide with the GP&R calendar sessions for a Fall (Sep-Oct), Winter (Jan-Feb) and Spring (Apr-May). The shorter sessions will hopefully allow for a more manageable time chunk for volunteers, and reduced rates for pros.

The idea is to offer up both pay and free/nominal fee programming to balance out the overall costs for families. We are proposing a facility fee of $20 per family, per session fee to take as many of the CommunityThink volunteer (free) programs as you like. Upon registration for the free classes, each family would receive a list of ways in which they can contribute in return - from organizing/instructing a class to hosting/monitoring a playgroup to cleanup or...?

The interest from seasoned pro instructors is building - including L'Ana Burton of CDC Lyman Allyn/Dragon's Egg fame and Lee Rummel of the former Brenda Kerr Theater. (Thank you, Heather Thompson for pursuing them!)

PRICING
Determined by the instructor. Parks&Rec has just initiated a small mark-up fee (up to $5) for pro classes and will make recommendations for a "saleable rate" if you wish, but all fees essentially go to instructor. Pros may suggest a higher minimum-to-run number to offset lower fees.

MINIMUM/MAX
Set by instructor and determined by classroom space requirements. The classrooms have a capacity of approximately 25 for seated instruction and 15 for movement. The gym and meeting lounge have higher capacities of approximately 30 - 75.

AGE RANGE
Set by instructor.
*tip* If age-specific, you may wish to allow for a year's worth of wiggle room on either end of age range to account for maturity variations. My personal experience with P&R registration is that the computer will often NOT allow numbers outside of a designated age-range to register without instructor consent.

SCHEDULE
We will try to let the instructors' ideal times dictate the schedule. Following a lead from preliminary classtime submissions, timeslots could look like this:
9:30-10:30
10:30 - 11:30
11:30 - 12 (shortie or break)
12:00 - 1
1:00 - 2
2:00 - 3
Shorter/longer or over-lapping times will probably work fine, as well. Fill out the form with your IDEAL time and maybe add a post-it with a 2nd choice. We hope to establish a number of options for various age-ranges to occur throughout the day.

Tuesday was chosen soas not to conflict with the Green Street homeschool co-op in Middletown on Wednesdays, nor the local museum programs often offered on Thursdays & Fridays. The Seely building is also widely available on Tuesday.

FACILITY
The William Seely building is a small former school just seconds from I-95 at the SubBase exit. It is situated on its own cul-de-sac and has plenty of parking, as well as lots of outdoor playing field space, a baseball diamond, basketball hoop, hardtop and several play structures. Inside, there are four classrooms (two empty for movement classes) with counters and sinks. There is a gym/stage room, a kid-friendly lounge/playroom and a meeting lounge.

JUMP IN!
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FORWARD AND/OR RE:MAIL AND JUST ADD YOUR NAME TO THE INTEREST LIST!
Thanks for your help & enthusiasm -

Jennifer
jenniferpryor@sbcglobal.net