Virtually everything that you enjoy about PLATO – the courses, the
lectures, the trips, the publications – is available solely because of
the efforts of members like yourself. Committees are comprised of member volunteers. Serving on a committee is one way to participate and contribute. See below for more details about the various committees or check out the volunteers page for additional info.
The two main responsibilities of the Curriculum Committee members are:
Other opportunities within the Curriculum Committee are:
The Committee meets the first Friday of every other month.
Time of Meeting: 1:30 p.m. Location: Until further notice, our meetings will be held virtually via video conference.
For more information contact committee chair: Paul Thompson (pthompson1@outlook.com)
The Diversity Committee works to foster and assist PLATO’s committees to address learning and teaching about the issues of diversity, inequality, and injustice in the greater Madison community.
Click here for their current Social Justice Events and Reading Recommendations
Contact Committee Co-Chairs Kathy Michaelis (ksmichaelis@gmail.com) or Rick Orton (rickorton@tds.net) for the Diversity Committee meeting schedule.
This Committee oversees the operations of PLATO. Its membership consists of the PLATO President, President-Elect, Secretary, Treasurer and Immediate Past President. It is responsible for:
The Executive Committee currently meets at 10 am on the first Friday of the month at the UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies, 21 N. Park St., 7th Floor. Contact the PLATO President or the PLATO Office for updates on meeting dates, times, and location.
This committee provides advice and counsel to the Treasurer concerning the development and oversight of the PLATO budget and expenditures, other financial activities, and business functions and initiatives. The Treasurer, President, and President-Elect will serve on the committee as ex officio members. Additional committee members will be selected by the Treasurer in consultation with the ex officio members.
The Finance Committee is responsible for :
The Fund Development Committee oversees the fund raising activities for PLATO. The purpose of these activities is to provide scholarships to adult students with significant financial needs who are returning to college to finish their education. The PLATO Education Fund is administered through the University of Wisconsin Foundation and coordinated with the Division of Continuing Studies at UW. All donations to the PLATO Education Fund are tax deductible.
The duties of the Committee involve the following:
There are no regularly scheduled meeting times. To find out information about the next meeting, please contact the committee chair: Rod McKenzie at rod.mckenzie@mail.tds.net or 608 444-5935.
Meetings are scheduled on the 4th Monday of each of the following months: May, August, October, January, and March. Meeting locations vary. To learn more, please contact committee co-chairs, Sue Dentinger (flumpo@gmail.com) or Janet Cabot (jbcabot52@gmail.com).
The Technology Committee is responsible for:
1. Providing technology services
2. Maintaining the PLATO website
3. Assisting committees with data retrieval and analysis.
4. Recommending data archival storage and retention policies.
The Technology Committee meets as needed (typically the afternoon of the first Monday of the month). Contact committee chair, Scott Kolar with any questions or for more information about the committee.
The Agora is PLATO’s literary and arts journal, created in the spirit of PLATO’s mission to promote intellectual and cultural enrichment opportunities for the senior community. The Agora is a venue for sharing the creative literary and artistic talents of PLATO members in a periodic volume of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and pictorial and photographic art. The first volume was printed in 2011. It is currently a biennial publication.
The Agora is distributed to PLATO members and made available to the wider Dane County community through libraries, senior centers, retirement centers, and our website.
The Agora Editorial Board solicits submissions for the journal, provides juries to review submissions and select items for publication, oversees production of the journal, and raises funding to support printing and distribution costs.
Current and past issues of The Agora are available on the PLATO website under the The Agora tab.
For questions, contact Managing Editor William Eisinger, weisinger@scu.edu.