Ever wonder how the speakers for UMRA Forums and Living Well Workshops are chosen? The UMRA Program Committee, an evolving group of around a dozen people, meets to come up with ideas, selects what the committee members think will be the most popular, and then attempts to recruit speakers to present (for free) on our scheduled dates. Plans are made well in advance, sometimes a year or more. 

Our winter and spring 2024 forums feature the Minnesota Speaker of the House, a PBS journalist with Minnesota connections, and climatologist and meteorologist Mark Seeley on wildfires and climate change in Minnesota. The workshop topics include bad knees, the brain explained, and children’s mental health. Next fall we’ll have a workshop on art and medicine, and a forum analyzing the November election results. 

This coming summer we will form the committee to choose speakers for 2025. Membership generally requires two or three meetings per year, plus recruiting one speaker if possible. If you’re interested in joining the group, and/or if you have ideas for topics or speakers, please email me at [email protected]. 

I will pass all the names and ideas to the new president-elect, who will chair the 2024–25 Program Committee. We aim for a wide variety in our events, but we don’t know what we’re missing, so please let us know.

UMRA runs on volunteers. The Program Committee is a great way to have an impact with a very reasonable time commitment. Join us!

—Julie Sweitzer, UMRA president-elect and Program Committee chair