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Association for Experiential Education (AEE): A community of progressive educators and practitioners.

Old Folks & Allies (OFA)

Old Folks & Allies Affiliation Group

AEE's Old Folks & Allies Affiliation Group (OFA) was designed to create space for the elders of AEE to connect with each other, share their wisdom with those newer to the field, and contribute to the promotion of experiential education through their connections, projects and initiatives.

This page includes information on:

OFA Mission Statement & Structure
At a planning session on February 27-28, 2006, OFA members adopted the following:

Mission Statement:
The mission of OFA is to provide ways for the wisdom and experience of the elders to be available to the association.


Structure:
OFA is a Professional Affiliation Group of AEE that operates in accordance with published criteria for Professional Affiliation Groups. We are governed by a steering committee that is selected at our annual meeting, which takes place at the Annual International AEE conference.

The OFA Steering Committee

For a full biography and photo of each steering committee member, please follow the hyperlinks.

  • JoAnna Allen
    JoAnna Allen has taught in the Peace Corps, in an alternative school for special needs youth, and in public school classrooms from kindergarten to college. She has been a member of AEE for over 20 years and in experiential education she found a home for her own philosophy of teaching, learning, and parenting - which led her to pursue her Ph.D. A perennial optimist for world peace, she has hosted numerous exchange teachers from China and Thailand in the last five years to encourage their support for experiential learning. Her recent retirement finds her in fast pursuit of projects kept waiting in the wings until now.
  • Cliff Knapp
    Clifford Knapp has been an experiential educator for most of his 40 years, working with schools and colleges. He has served as a summer camp director and consultant, and university professor. His interests include nature study, reflection/processing skills, indigeous cultures, placed-based education, and enfironmental education. Although her retired from Northern Illinois University six years ago, he remains busy as a workshop leader, program consultant, and author. He has written then books, some of which are classics in the field of outdoor and experiential education.
  • Tom Smith
    Tom Smith discovered his life mantra fifty years ago:  "There is a wilderness beyond...and there is a wilderness within." He described himself as a "psychologist/wilderness guide" and facilitated personal growth wilderness adventures to the Boundary Waters of Minnesota for thirty years. He is founder and director of the Raccoon Institute in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He has been active with AEE for thirty years and has been honored with the organization's Kurt Hahn Award. He is the prime mover of the theory and practice of Raccoon Circles. Tom has authored a dozen books for experiential educators. His life has been enriched by 6 children, 10 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren.
  •  Tom Lindblade
    Tom Lindblade has been a counselor and experiential educator for over 40 years. For 25 of those years he taught in and coordinated the Field and Experiential Learning Program at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Since retirement in 2000, he continues to teach in an adjunct capacity. He has led experiential adventure field study programs that have taken students to 51 countires and many wilderness areas of North America.

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The OFA Elder Roster

JoAnna Allen

Lee Gillis

Cliff Knapp

Tom Lindblade

Tom Smith

 

Proposed Plan of Action

  • Project #1 Support the development of AEE's research agenda.
  • Project #2 Develop a Center/Institute for Experiential Education.
  • Project #3 Identify demographic, socioeconomic and educational trends.
  • Project #4 Assist with fund development, working toward creating a Foundation.
  • Project #5 Develop a directory of our skills, talents and experiences.
  • Project #6 Collect and organize archives, identifying lessons learned and best practices.
  • Project #7 Continue to develop mentoring/partnering/coaching relationships within AEE.
  • Project #8 Provide advice, counsel, mediation and other resources as requested.
  • Project #9 Build strategic alliances with other organizations to affect policy.
  • Project #10 Develop plans and strategies for AEE to acquire our own physical plant.
    •

OFA Action Steps for 2006-2007
Each topic below begins with a summary of discussion or actions taken during the OFA annual meeting at the St. Paul conference in 2006-2007. An update on our current progress follows in blue font.


1. Historical Trends
At the OFA annual meeting in St. Paul, Rob Rubendall reported that the AEE Board is currently studying historical trends in the Association. He will coordinate this project and asked for help from OFA members.

Update May 2007 (From Rob Rubendall)

As part of the Board of Director's annual agenda work, Rob Rubendall surveyed a group of OFA members and attended a workshop conducted by Dyke Williams in St. Paul to learn how AEE has evolved from its origins in 1973. See the article in the Horizon that outlines the entire scope of the board survey work and its results at http://www.aee.org/horizons/survey.htm.


2. Archives
Tom Lindblade reported on the growing interest in preserving archival materials in a format that is accessible to the membership. Ideas discussed at the meeting included video recordings of elders to capture their stories and historical information, scanning paper information into DVDs and other uses of emerging technology. The Northeast Regional Conference has provided a model through its Josh Miner Dialogues.

Update May 2007 (from Tom Lindblade)

At my request the Board agreed that the creation of an archive was a shared concern and in line with the Board's Ends Policies. CEO Pat Hammond now has the task of creating/ supporting the archive. She has been very busy, but we hope to see some progress by November.

Video Archive: The Northeast Region has already begun videoing interviews with prominent OFAs. Jennifer Payne has contributed DVDs of those interviews for the archive. Chris Cavert and I are planning on informally videoing additional material at this year's conference.


3. Social Activities/Trips
Faith Evans reported on the successful canoing trip this past summer and encouraged OFAs to continue to gather for community building activities and fun. During this year JoAnna Allen has emerged with a proposal to visit Bill Copperthwaite at the Yurt Foundation in Bucks Harbor, Maine.

Update March 2008  (from JoAnna Allen)

Due to last minute obligations arising for Rob and Richard, and Jed Williamson who also had hoped to make it, this trip did not take place. JoAnna did make the trip on her own.  The original invitation came about because of her earlier plans to be there during August.   She is open to a future trip, possibly geared toward OFAs with grandkids and other OFAs as an OFA adventure.   Bill turns 78 this year.  The experience is unique and a gift for those who have had opportunity to taste of his life and land.  


An ideal stay is about five days to allow for a relaxed time and bending with the weather.   Some favorite activities that I’ve done with groups I’ve brought include spoon carving starting with the birch tree, knife making, paddling out to Hickey Island, beach combing, star gazing, blue berrying, trail sawdusting, bridge repair, musseling, wire weed pulling, hiking, service projects, visits to the community, and evening forums on favorite topics. 
 
There is no electricity except for one solar panel, johns are aesthetic, and Bill cooks over wood.   Bill’s policies include no smoking, alcohol, or petrol.   Those who wish can paddle from Duck Cove to Bill’s home site on Mill Pond.  His trailhead starts in Bucks Harbor, about a 2-mile hike in.


JoAnna Allen      
410-823-7246
jowallen@comcast.net




4. Mentoring Directory
During this conference Faith Evans, Dan Garvey and Bob MacArthur offered a 3-hour workshop on mentoring circles and linking interested AEE members to peer resources for sharing and receiving each others' talents. Momentum from this workshop will be carried over into compilation of a directory that will be accessible through the AEE website. We will also develop an online forum for sharing information, FAQs and discussing issues.

Update May 2007 (from Bob MacArthur)

Dyke Williams and I agreed to develop this resource online. It is still a work in progress.


5. Web Page
The AEE web site has a web page designated for OFA communication that has yet to be tapped. We will develop that page this year.

Update March 2008  (from JoAnna Allen)

Bob MacArthur established this page in 2006 and we hope to gather more readership, input, and contributions in 2008. I hope to make phone contact with individual OFAs toward this purpose.


6. Planning for Next Year's Conference
We discussed plans for next year's conference and ways to keep the momentum growing. In addition to the action steps below, we noted from previous conferences the positive impact of activities, displays and scrapbooks that recognize the years of involvement of AEE members.

Tom Smith and Sam Tower will offer a drop-in workshop for elders and allies.

Faith Evans and Marianne Scippa (assisted by other OFAs) will offer the Mentoring Circles workshop again.

We will ask Marianne Scippa to coordinate a mentoring booth and mobile designated mentors throughout the conference.

Provide area with rocking chairs for elders and allies to gather and chat informally throughout the conference. Katie Miesle volunteered to arrange this.

Offer to co-present with first time presenters. Implementation of this idea has yet to be determined.

Update May 2007 (from Bob MacArthur)

Earlier this year the OFA airwaves were filled with plans for workshops and presentations at the conference in Little Rock. It would be great if folks who presented at regional conferences could share a few sentences about their presentations.


7. Research Agenda
One of the projects adopted by the OFA planning committee was to advance the research agenda of AEE in collaboration with other organizations. Work has been proceeding on this important project.

Update May 2007 (from Dick Prouty)

Waiting to be received.


8. EE Institute
Another important project adopted in the OFA plan of February 2006 was to work toward the development of an International Center for Experiential Education. Several postings on the list serve earlier this year indicate wide spread interest in this project.

Update May 2007 (from Tom Lindblade)

In attempting to conceptualize how to get from here to there, I have begun to see the ICEE as a process which will have to move through a number of phases. One of the most important aspects of such a Center would be collaboration between as many EE organizations as possible.

This kind of collaboration does not exist at present, and besides the cooperation necessary for a center to be established, there is also a great need for such collaboration so that EE can have a strongly positive influence on public policy decision making, which is likely to be absolutely crucial in the advancement of EE over the next few years. At Rob Rubendall's and my request the Board has begun to look into such collaboration and is very supportive. In May, we will be considering how to proceed with the formation of an EE coalition. I think this will be a very exciting first step.

Suggestions, Notices & Articles
We welcome your ideas for developing it to serve your needs. Send your suggestions, notices or articles. For the time being, contact Bob MacArthur at bob@birchcorner.com.

 

How to Join OFA

If you are an AEE member interested in joining the OFA group, email membership@aee.org.  Or, log in with your username and password in the top right-hand corner of this page. Then, click on the My Account and then My Profile. Once in your member profile, select OFA under Affiliation Groups.