Submit an Article, Poem or Story

We would love to publish your article, poem, or story. Seriously! Our motto is “Sharing Stories. Building Community.” We want to be the place where OLLI-USF members connect through their writing, just as our classes and social events enable them to connect in person.

Will your idea “work” in OLLI Connects? That’s easy to figure out. Just go to our home page and scroll through what we’ve published in the past. We’ve published every week since 2018, so you’ll find lots of examples.

The odds are good (9.5 out of 10) that your piece will be great. So, how do you get it to us? Send an email to connectsolli25@gmail.com with your article, story, poem, personal experience, or whatever attached, and we’ll take it from there. If we have questions, we’ll contact you, and we’ll try to give you a heads-up a couple weeks before your work goes live.

Need further clarification? Use that same email address and ask away! — Editors

FAQ and Guidelines for Comments

Question: What is OLLI Connects all about?

Answer: It is a tool for building community among OLLI members. It is a place where you can share your life experiences, your thoughts, your creativity.

Question: How can I participate?

Answer: You can create an article for us. (Submission Guidelines here) A mix of words and photos works best, but you can see from the articles we’ve already published that the mix can be very flexible. Send your article, story, poetry, photos or videos to connectsolli25@gmail.com.

Or you can comment on our articles. Our Comment Policy is at the bottom of this page. You can–and should–read it before you comment, but it boils down to “BN, BR, BR”. Be Nice. Be Respectful. Be Relevant.

For a huge list of ways you can contribute to OLLI-USF as well as to OLLI Connects, click here.

Question: How often is OLLI Connects updated?

Answer: We generally add a new post every week. We might update more–or less–often than that, depending on what’s going on in the OLLI-USF world, but once a week is our goal.

Question: Can I subscribe to OLLI Connects?

Answer: Absolutely! Here’s how. If you’re viewing us on a “big screen” device such as a PC, you’ll see a sidebar of information on the right hand side of our landing page. The first item is Subscribe to OLLI Connects via Email. Put your email into the box and click on Subscribe. We’ll send you a confirmation email, so go to your own email IN box, find our email, click on Confirm, and you’re in.

If you’re viewing us on a “small screen” device such as your mobile phone, the procedures are the same, but–since your screen is so narrow–the “sidebar” will be a “footer”, and you’ll find the Subscribe widget right under the tenth article “snippet” on our Home page.

Question: How do I manage my subscriptions?

Answer: When you get an email about a new post or comment from OLLI Connects, you will see a link at the bottom that says, Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Click on the Manage Subscriptions link. A new web page will open in your browser. There are three options across the top – Sites, Comments, and Settings.

The Sites option will list your OLLI Connects site subscription, plus any other WordPress websites you are following. Click Unfollow if you no longer wish to get notifications of new posts. Click the Comments option – this allows you to see any post comments you are following and make modifications. Click the Settings option to change your email address or choose a delivery window time frame.

Question: Does OLLI Connects endorse specific products or services?

Answer: As a rule, no. We’re part of the USF ecosystem and can’t officially recommend or endorse specific products or service providers. However, our articles are written by OLLI members and reflect their personal experiences. If the travel agency Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe enabled one of our contributors to have a successful surfing experience in Antarctica, she may well say so in her blog post, and that’s OK. It’s her personal opinion, not an official OLLI-USF stance.

Also, OLLI-USF has a travel “service” that enables OLLI members to share some really wonderful trips. Obviously we can and will endorse that.

Comment Policy

OLLI Connects was established to build community and showcase the creativity of OLLI-USF members. We love comments and appreciate your feedback. However, we also want our comments to be as useful as possible to all of our readers. While we would prefer to post all comments, we will not post these:

Harassing comments: While we encourage sharing and the expression of different ideas, all comments need to be respectful towards our contributors and other commenters.
“Rude” comments: If a comment includes offensive language, profanity, pornography, threatening language, libelous language, or harassing language, we will not post it.
Anonymous comments: We accept comments only from people who identify themselves.
Promotional comments: If a comment is solely promotional in nature, we will not post it.
Off-topic comments: If a comment is not relevant to a posted article, we will not post it.
“Flame war” comments: If a comment seems likely to set off a flame war—deliberately or accidentally—we will not post it.

Bottom line: We reserve the right to review all comments before posting them. Please leave comments that are respectful and useful.

If you have any questions on the commenting policy, please contact us at connectsolli25@gmail.com.