PLATO - Committees
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Attic Angel Place
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Bethany United Methodist Church
Capitol Lakes
Chazen Museum of Art
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Covenant Presbyterian Church
Fitchburg Senior Center
The Gardens Retirement Community
Goodwill Community Room
Goodwill - Northside Town Center
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
Madison Senior Center
Middleton Glen
Monona Library
Mount Olive Lutheran Church
Neighborhood House
Oak Park Place
Oakwood Village Prairie Ridge
Oakwood Village University Woods Campus
Pinney Library
UW South Madison Partnership
UW Space Place
Verona Public Library
Verona Senior Center
Vista West
Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center
Wisconsin Bank and Trust
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Courses Past
Summer 2025 Course Schedule
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Events
Annual Event Calendar
Field Trips
Lectures
Local Tours & Walks
A Self-Guided Walk in the Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood
Indigenous Earthwork (Indian Mound) on Lake Mendota's North Shore
Stewart Lake County Park
POPE Farm Conservancy
Cherokee Marsh: Yahara Heights Section
Edna Taylor Conservancy
Cherokee Marsh - North Unit
Donald Park: Woods, Hills and Farmstead
Wilkie Gorge of the Cross Plains National Scientific Reserve, where the Glacier Started to Recede
Pheasant Branch Conservancy
Olin Park, Turville Point Conservation Park
Social Gatherings
The Agora
Features from The Agora
Test page - Feature from The Agora
Past Recordings
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Social Justice
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About
Spread the Word About PLATO
Board of Directors
Board Nominee Bios
Board Election 2026-27
Meeting Minutes
Committees
Weekly Update
Organizational Documents
PLATO Staff
Join PLATO
Courses
Spring 2026 Course Schedule
Winter 2026 Course Schedule
Curriculum Showcase
Propose a Course
For Course Coordinators
Course Locations
Attic Angel Place
Ashman Public Library
Bethany United Methodist Church
Capitol Lakes
Chazen Museum of Art
Christ Presbyterian Church
Covenant Presbyterian Church
Fitchburg Senior Center
The Gardens Retirement Community
Goodwill Community Room
Goodwill - Northside Town Center
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
Madison Senior Center
Middleton Glen
Monona Library
Mount Olive Lutheran Church
Neighborhood House
Oak Park Place
Oakwood Village Prairie Ridge
Oakwood Village University Woods Campus
Pinney Library
UW South Madison Partnership
UW Space Place
Verona Public Library
Verona Senior Center
Vista West
Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center
Wisconsin Bank and Trust
Wisconsin Historical Museum
DCS
Courses Past
Summer 2025 Course Schedule
Spring 2025 Course Schedule
Winter 2025 Course Schedule
Fall 2025 Course Schedule
Fall 2024 Course Schedule
Events
Annual Event Calendar
Field Trips
Lectures
Local Tours & Walks
A Self-Guided Walk in the Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood
Indigenous Earthwork (Indian Mound) on Lake Mendota's North Shore
Stewart Lake County Park
POPE Farm Conservancy
Cherokee Marsh: Yahara Heights Section
Edna Taylor Conservancy
Cherokee Marsh - North Unit
Donald Park: Woods, Hills and Farmstead
Wilkie Gorge of the Cross Plains National Scientific Reserve, where the Glacier Started to Recede
Pheasant Branch Conservancy
Olin Park, Turville Point Conservation Park
Social Gatherings
The Agora
Features from The Agora
Test page - Feature from The Agora
Past Recordings
About
Committees
Committees
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.
Curriculum
Committee
Diversity Awareness
Committee
Executive
Committee
Finance
Committee
Fund Development
Committee
Membership and Communication
Committee
Special Events
Committee
The
Agora
Editorial Board
Curriculum Committee
The two main responsibilities of this committee are:
Evaluating course proposals.
Becoming a liaison for a few course coordinators.
Other opportunities within this committee are:
Course planning.
Host location planning and management.
Coordinator care and recruitment.
Assist coordinators in learning and managing course technologies.
Write Curriculum Showcase articles and create ideas for Facebook & Weekly Update Newsletter.
Maintain Curriculum web pages.
This committee meets the first Friday of every other month starting in September of each membership year.
Time of Meeting: 1:30 p.m. Location: Until further notice, our meetings will be held virtually via video conference.
For more information please contact committee co-chairs Kathy Brown (
kathytft@charter.net
) or Jayne Fischer (
jdfischer2@gmail.com
).
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Diversity Awareness Committee
This committee helps PLATO implement its core value and aspiration to “Be an inclusive and welcoming organization to all members of the greater Madison community who wish to continue learning and/or teaching in retirement.” Diversity has varied definitions. It often refers to a broad range of characteristics including, but not limited to, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and cultural background. This committee seeks to promote awareness in PLATO about social justice, inclusion, and diversity issues in all its varieties.
This committee seeks to promote awareness about diversity issues by:
Offering support and information to assist interested course coordinators in developing components in existing courses.
Offering support for and initiating new courses to increase awareness and appreciation.
Compiling references to books, films, podcasts etc. to inform interested PLATO members.
Identifying and recommending lecture presentations and field trips to the Special Events Committee.
Click here
for their current Social Justice Events and Reading Recommendations.
Contact committee chair
MaryJo MacSwain
mjmacwi@earthlink.net
) for the meeting schedule.
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Executive Committee
This committee oversees the operations of PLATO. Its membership consists of the PLATO President, President-Elect, Secretary, Treasurer and Immediate Past President.
This committee is responsible for:
Advising on Board agenda.
Authorizing expenditures subject to Board approval when deemed necessary by the committee or the Board.
Implementing Board decisions or overseeing their implementation by others.
Providing oversight for day-to-day operations of the organization.
Planning of the Annual Membership Meeting.
Evaluating organizational needs and making recommendations to the Board.
This committee meets on the second Friday of odd-numbered months at 9:30 a.m. at
A Place to Be
located at 911 Williamson Street. Contact the PLATO President (
president@platomadison.org
), or the PLATO Office (
info@platomadison.org
) for more information.
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Finance Committee
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.
This committee is responsible for :
Reviewing and monitoring PLATO financial statements on a quarterly basis.
Participating in the development of the annual budget each spring.
Reviewing the annual federal and state tax returns prior to their submission.
Discussing and making recommendations about PLATO Fund management issues.
Reviewing detailed PLATO general ledger documents on a quarterly basis.
Participating in financial planning for new PLATO initiatives.
Making recommendations about dues increases and amounts.
Providing advice and counsel to the Treasurer in the development of the Memorandum of Agreement with UW-Madison.
Performing other duties as needed to further the financial and business interests of PLATO.
For more information on quarterly committee meetings, contact the Treasurer (
treasurer@platomadison.org
, or the PLATO Office
info@platomadison.org
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Fund Development Committee
This 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.
This committee is responsible for:
Developing promotional brochures and letters.
Coordinating with DCS to send mailings and/or electronic communication to members soliciting contributions to the PLATO Education Fund.
Making recommendations to the PLATO Board about annual distributions from the Fund for scholarship assistance.
Planning for future fund raising activities to support the purposes of the Fund.
There are no regularly scheduled meeting times. To find out information about the next meeting, please contact the committee chair: Mike Kernats (
mikekernats@gmail.com
).
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Membership and Communication Committee
This committee is responsible for helping the organization optimize members’
experiences and satisfaction with PLATO. This committee communicates
with new members as appropriate to ensure a positive introduction to the
organization and conducts periodic member satisfaction surveys, analyzing and synthesizing the data to identify opportunities and trends
in members’ interests.
This committee is also charged with the development of communications
that enable interested parties to understand PLATO’s mission and the
learning and teaching opportunities it provides to participants. The
communication team serves as a “consultant” to other PLATO committees
and members seeking guidance in the preparation of PLATO-related
communications.  In the event the PLATO Board determines that a
membership growth target is desired, the membership committee will be
responsible for recruiting new members to address those growth goals.
This committee meets several times each year, as needed, however there are no
regularly scheduled meeting times. For more information, please contact the committee chair, Steve Sparks (
swsparks@charter.net
).
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Special Events Committee
This committee is responsible for planning lectures, local tours, theater trips, field trips, and social events, including the following:
Planning lectures by authors, educators, scientists and business people on topics of interest to PLATO members.
Planning, developing, and publicizing educational or social tours.
Planning, developing, publicizing and conducting walks in city and county parks, trails and conservancies.
Planning social events , including the Annual Meeting and Spring and Fall Course Preview.
Meetings are held in person at Capitol Lakes Retirement Community located at
333 W Main St on the fourth Wednesday through July 2025. Meetings may be held every other month after that.
For more information, please contact the committee chair Jack Mitchell
jwmitch1@wisc.edu
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The Agora Editorial Board
The Agora
is PLATO’s ideas 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 biennial volume was published in 2011.
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
Edie Urness-Pondillo
epondillo@gmail.com
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PLATO is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization supported in part by:
info@platomadison.org
Facebook: @platomadison
608-572-6869
6209 Mineral Point Road #203
Madison, WI 53705
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