For Volunteers

Volunteer to Lead a BILL Course

We invite you to consider leading a BILL course. You don’t have to be professionally trained or an expert on your subject; all you need is an informed interest in a topic and a desire to share that interest with others.

BILL members are eager to learn new ideas, engage in stimulating discussion, expand themselves intellectually and culturally, and find once again the pleasure of learning. They tell us how pleased they are with BILL and how much they look forward to the next term’s courses and special presentations. But it is not only class participants who are pleased; course leaders tell us again and again how much they enjoy working with such mature, motivated students.

Most courses have six class meetings, one each week over six weeks. A few courses meet only three times, one class each week. Classes meet for 1.5 or 2 hours in the late morning or early afternoon at several convenient community locations.

Proposing a BILL Course

BILL welcomes course proposals and ideas from volunteers. Many prospective course leaders first send us their preliminary ideas for the content and format of a possible course. The Curriculum Committee can provide some feedback, with suggestions to help develop a more complete proposal. As you write the proposal, we recommend that you review course descriptions in a recent BILL catalog or check our course offerings. In the "Suggestions for structuring your proposal" pdf (link below) you can find further guidelines.

Suggestions for structuring your proposal

Please submit your proposal by either postal mail or email to the BILL office:

Bucknell for Lifelong Learning
115 Farley Circle, Suite 111
Lewisburg, PA 17837

Email: lifelonglearning@bucknell.edu

Follow-up to Your Proposal Submission

Your first submission is likely to get feedback in two stages. First, the chairperson of the Curriculum Committee will acknowledge receipt of the submission. She or he might have some preliminary suggestions for refining the title and description, as well as ask for clarification about operational details. In the second stage, the proposal goes to the BILL Curriculum Committee. Members of the committee examine the course information from the point of view of a BILL member who is deciding whether to sign up for this course. Is the content understandable? Is the approach clear? Are there signs that it will appear to be interesting? After this step, you might be asked to further sharpen the course information.

After final approval by the Curriculum Committee, the chairperson will contact you. It might take a month or so for us to tell you when and where your classes will take place as we determine the availability of classroom venues.

Other Ways to Support BILL

You can support BILL by volunteering your time, talent and treasure in various ways:

  • Provide office assistance, especially during registration periods.
  • Coordinate a special interest group.
  • Become a BILL ambassador to community groups.
  • Help distribute catalogs and brochures.
  • Provide audio-visual assistance for classes and/or special presentations (easy training required).
  • Donate office supplies such as laser toner, printer paper and Keurig cups.
  • Make a donation of any size to the BILL Scholarship Fund. Visit Support BILL for more details.

For more information, contact us:

Bucknell Institute for Lifelong Learning
115 Farley Circle, Suite 111
570-522-0105
lifelonglearning@bucknell.edu

Mailing Address:

Bucknell Institute for Lifelong Learning
Bucknell University
1 Dent Drive
Lewisburg, PA 17837

Bucknell Institute for Lifelong Learning

Location

115 Farley Circle, Suite 111

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