Interest Groups

INTEREST GROUPS

To start a new interest group contact the web master (Bob Ehrlich) at rehrlich@gmu.edu to send out a mass mailing.  The following interest groups currently exist as of Spring 2024:

The RFA Book Club started in 2014 and it meets monthly at 1PM on the third Monday of each month.  Some meetings are via zoom, while others are in-person.  For the in-person meeting we get together at 11:30 a rotating host’s house and share potluck dishes and then discuss the book for that month.  We do both fiction and nonfiction, and all selections are made democratically.  New members are welcome, especially if you are able to be an occasional host.  If you wish to join the book club please contact Julie Mahler (jmahler@gmu.edu). A list of books read from the beginning of the club can be found here

An RFA Film Club was formed in Sept 2017.  Members of the group meet on the 4th Wednesday of each month to discuss that month’s film after watching it on their own.  Currently meetings are virtual via Zoom.  As with the book club all film selections are made democratically. Films discussed thus far since the start of the club can be found here.   If you wish to join the film club or to receive regular notices, please contact Kathy Perry at kperry04@gmail.com.

An RFA Travel Club.  A very popular activity among retirees is travel.  Many travel club members might want to take tours separately, but together, that is, two or more participants would sign up for the same cruise or tour.  This can be accomplished using the travel “bulletin board.”  Anyone who has chosen an actual or potential tour/cruise could just let others know about it by posting it on the bulletin board, specifying dates and particulars of the tour/cruise, website etc. Another member who decides the tour/cruise sounds interesting could then sign up for it. All arrangements would be made individually, but once on the trip, they would then have friends or acquaintances on the trip. They would travel separately and then could spend as much or as little time together as they want. If you do add trips to the bulletin board please put them at the bottom, and they will later be arranged in chronological order.

An RFA “Hot Topics” Group.  This group formed in Fall 2024 is a discussion group covering “hot topics” chosen by the members after getting feedback from all retired faculty.  The group has both in-person and zoom meetings, scheduled for the 2nd Monday of the month at noon.  In-person or face-to-face meetings are at people’s homes and include a potluck lunch beforehand.  People are always sought with expertise in topics to be discussed from among the entire retired faculty in order to lead each single topic discussion.  The meetings are open to all retired faculty, whether or not they are group members.  The group co-coordinator is Andrew Finn (afinn@gmu.edu).  A list of the topics scheduled for Spring and fall 2024 can be found here.  The dates listed for each discussion together with the discussion leader are shown, together with whether they are face-to-face (F2F).  The “score” shows how many people wanted the particular topic.

An RFA Luncheon Group. This group (currently inactive) will meet at various restaurants for lunch at a frequency to be determined by the group.  The coordinator is Rita Rowand at rrowand1@yahoo.com).  There may be some sort of program associated with some of the luncheons.