Cyber criminals are clever.  They prey on the elderly and vulnerable via emails, web sites, phone calls and even text messages, tricking them into paying fake tax bills with gift cards or fees for non-existent sweepstakes winnings, among other things.  And the scams keep getting more creative.  The estimated loss per scam targeted at seniors is $16,000.

In Internet Safety for Seniors, a one-session Chesapeake Forum class, you’ll learn how to evaluate potential scams and to keep safe online. New emerging internet scams will also be presented.

Instructor Lawrence Rudner, Ph.D. has taught several Chesapeake Forum classes on artificial Intelligence and cyberwarfare. He also teaches oyster gardening through the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. He retired as the Senior Vice President for Research and Development at the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC®), sponsor of the GMAT® exam, where he was responsible for the Psychometric Research as well as the Market Research and Analysis Divisions.

Internet Safety for Seniors is one-session (1), Oct. 27th from 10-11:30 a.m., in-person at the Peachblossom YMCA, on Zoom or recording, $15.00.  To register for this or any other Chesapeake Forum course, visit https://chesapeakeforum.org.

Chesapeake Forum is a nonprofit dedicated to providing continuing education opportunities for residents of the Eastern Shore.  If you would like to receive Chesapeake Forum’s monthly newsletter, please email [email protected] with your name and preferred email.

Move over Tony Robbins.  Turns out, Shakespeare may be the original motivational speaker.  At the Battle of Agincourt, where prospects for victory were grim, Shakespeare has King Henry V deliver one of the greatest motivational speeches of all time:  “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers…”

This is the famous Band of Brothers: The King’s Speech, a masterful example of how to build a persuasive argument and rally the troops.  In a one-day Chesapeake Forum course on Oct. 25th, instructor Suzanne Sanders shows how Shakespeare used language, rhetorical flourishes and pacing to build passion and feeling.  We could all use some help in that department!

And if positive encouragement doesn’t work, Henry has another speech that shows how to scare the wits out of people. You won’t have to make any speeches yourself, just come and learn from Shakespeare how it’s done.

Suzanne Sanders earned a B.A. in Humanities from Johns Hopkins because, hey, somebody has to balance out all those pre-med students. She has worked as a journalist, bartender, metaphysical manager, poet, full-tilt mom, and Russian translator.

“Band of Brothers: The King’s Speech” is a one (1) session course, Oct. 25th from 10-11:30 AM, in-person at the Peachblossom YMCA, Easton, ZOOM or recording. $15.  To register for this or any other Chesapeake Forum course, please visit https://chesapeakeforum.org.

Chesapeake Forum is a nonprofit dedicated to providing continuing education opportunities for residents of the Eastern Shore.  If you would like to receive Chesapeake Forum’s monthly newsletter, please email [email protected] with your name and preferred email

Over the last three decades, an intensive effort to recreate Poplar Island has resulted in a vibrant flyway for more than 400 different species of wildlife and nesting habitat for more than 30 different birds.  To see for yourself, join Chesapeake Forum for “A Trip Back to Poplar Island on Oct. 24th.  This very popular tour regularly sells out.  If that’s the case, a second tour will be added in the spring so be sure to add yourself to the waitlist!

In 1847, Poplar Island boasted more than 1,100 acres and during the early 1900s, the island supported a thriving community of about 100 residents, several farms, a school, a church, a post office, and a sawmill. By the 1920s, residents began leaving the island as more and more of its landmass fell victim to erosion. The island’s remains were still used as a retreat in the 1930s and 1940s, and Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman were among its visitors. By the early 1990s, all that remained of the original island were several small clusters of islets rising just above the surface of the water. Reduced to about four acres, Poplar Island’s disappearance seemed imminent.

In 1994 an interagency team decided that restoring remote island habitat lost in the Chesapeake Bay was of great environmental value, and signed a Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem Management Agreement committing to the beneficial use of dredged material from the navigational channels leading to the Port of Baltimore to restore island habitat. The island restoration project re-establishes the approximate size of the island in 1847.

The Chesapeake Forum tour covers a variety of topics pertaining to Poplar Island including the island’s history, the beneficial use of dredged material for habitat restoration, salt-marsh habitat, and wildlife sightings.  Led by Maryland Senior Environmental Specialist Kristina Motley.

“Field Trip:  A Trip Back to Poplar Island “ will be October 24th from 9 a.m – noon, in-person at the Maryland Environmental Service Tilghman Island dock.  To register for this or any other Chesapeake Forum class, please visit https://chesapeakeforum.org.

Chesapeake Forum is a nonprofit dedicated to providing continuing education opportunities for residents of the Eastern Shore. If you would like to receive Chesapeake Forum’s monthly newsletter, please email to [email protected] with your name and preferred email.

Ahoy you pirates and wenches! There’s some rum tasting ahead at Chesapeake Forum. Join Joe Petro proprietor of Snifter’s Bistro and Hair ‘O the Dog in Easton, as he unravels the qualities of well distilled, aged, spiced, and blended rums of Barbados, Guatemala, Africa, Fiji, and the United States on Friday, October 21st. Discover your favorites during a fun tasting of rums from around the world.

Rum is a diverse liquor whose varieties range from white rum, dark or “black” rum, spiced rum, gold rum, and premium aged rums. Every rum is made from either molasses or sugar cane – each has a flavor profile based on fermentation time, length of barrel aging, and whether spices, botanicals, or fruits are infused into the alcohol base. While rum is widely mixed in fruity, tropical cocktails, some rums are meant to be slowly sipped much like other high-quality liquors (straight up or on the rocks) – not sucked through a straw.

Joe’s “horizontal tasting” will transform class participants into rum maestros as he takes sippers on a journey of the Caribbean’s favorite spirit.

“Rum Tasting for Pirates & Wenches” is a one (1) session course, in-person at the Snifter’s Bistro in Easton, Oct. 21st from 3-4:30 PM, $35. To register for this or any other Chesapeake Forum class, please visit https://chesapeakeforum.org.

Chesapeake Forum is a nonprofit dedicated to providing continuing education opportunities for residents of the Eastern Shore. If you would like to receive the Chesapeake Forum’s monthly newsletter, please email to [email protected] with your name and preferred email.

Some things seems so huge, they are impossible to change, but what if you had a roadmap, a process to make that possible? In Chesapeake Forum’s new class “Change:  It Starts with You and Here’s How,”  instructors Lynn Randle and Hans Kuschnerus will explore how we, as individuals, can make a difference.

In this two-session course, Hans and Lynn will present a structured problem-solving approach to addressing local community problems that garner substantial interest. This highly interactive dialog format engages all participants in being part of the solution.

Course participants will explore the common elements of problem solving. This will include identifying community concerns (problems), prioritizing these concerns by importance and urgency, and lastly, learning how to outline pragmatic and effective action steps that can lead decision makers down a path of agreement with our suggested solution.

As a group, we will walk through the exercise using the issue of “lack of passive green spaces in Easton” as an example before selecting issues to consider for Session 2.

In Session 2, we will try our hand at putting these issues through Hans’ problem-solving approach, offering up suggestions in a constructive and supportive manner to test and refine the approach for influencing change at a local level.

“Change:  It Starts with You and Here’s How” is a two (2) session course, in-person at the Peachblossom YMCA in Easton, via Zoom or recording.  October 19 and 26th from 1-2:30 PM, $25.  To register for the or any other Chesapeake Forum class, please visit https://chesapeakeforum.org

Chesapeake Forum is a nonprofit dedicated to providing continuing education opportunities for residents of the Eastern Shore. If you would like to receive the Chesapeake Forum’s monthly newsletter, please email to [email protected] with your name and preferred email.

Ernest Hemingway may have said “you can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to the other” but his magnificent first novel, “The Sun Also Rises”, will move you nonetheless with its poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation. This masterpiece is the subject of Chesapeake Forum’s upcoming class “Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises” starting on October 19th.

The novel introduces two of Hemingway’s most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920’s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. In his first great literary work, Hemingway portrays an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions.

Course Leader Sam VanNest majored in English at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and graduated in 2009 with a BA, then studied American Literature as a grad student at Washington College for a year, before going west to University of Oregon to study for a Ph.D. A self-proclaimed nerd, VanNest was diagnosed with Friedreich’s Ataxia, a progressive neurological disorder, at age sixteen.

“Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” is three (3) sessions, in-person at the Peachblossom YMCA in Easton, and also via Zoom or recording, October 19, 26, Nov. 2nd from 10-11:30 AM, $35. To register for this, or any other Chesapeake Forum course, please visit https://chesapeakeforum.org

Chesapeake Forum is a nonprofit dedicated to providing continuing education opportunities for residents of the Eastern Shore. If you would like to receive the Chesapeake Forum’s monthly newsletter, please email to [email protected] with your name and preferred email.

Musician Paul Simon once said about songwriting, “you start with something that’s true” and go from there. If “you start with something that’s false,” he said “you’re always covering your tracks,”

Aspiring songwriters can try their hand at writing something true in Chesapeake Forum’s Songwriters Workshop starting Saturday, October 15.  This small group-format workshop gives musicians a chance to try out new material each week in a supportive environment.   Bring one or two songs to share along with the motivation behind the work. The group will listen to these works, encouraging each other with helpful suggestions from a shared love for music.  No formal experience necessary.

Songwriters Workshop is three (3) sessions, in-person at the Family YMCA on Peachblossom in Easton, October 15, 22, 29th from 2-3:30 PM., $35.  A student discount is available through the instructor.

To register for this, or any other Chesapeake Forum course, please visit https://chesapeakeforum.org

Chesapeake Forum is a nonprofit dedicated to providing continuing education opportunities for residents of the Eastern Shore. If you would like to receive Chesapeake Forum’s monthly newsletter, please email to [email protected] with your name and preferred email.

Join Chesapeake Forum for a tour of the U.S. Naval Academy’s new cyber warfare center on Wednesday, October 12 to see first hand how the service is addressing this risk.  In the Field Trip to the U.S. Naval Academy for a Cyber Operations Briefing, Department Chair Ike Stutts, Ph.D. will talk about how the Navy is educating its young officers about cyber threats and the importance of protecting the United States, including potential threats that could impact all of us.

After Commander Stutts’ briefing, there will be an opportunity to watch the traditional Noon Meal Formation prior to heading for lunch at one of several eateries in the ‘Yard.’  After lunch, there will be a choice of a short walking tour of the Yard led by 2022 USNA graduate Ensign Wells or a self-guided visit to the USNA Museum that is adjacent to USNA Club.

Once the registration quota is filled, instructions will be sent to course participants regarding entry into the Naval Academy and how participants will be guided to our meeting place at Hopper Hall.  A carpool staging area in Easton will be used to ease parking concerns in Annapolis.

Field Trip to the U.S. Naval Academy for a Cyber Operations Briefing is one (1) session, in-person at the U.S. Naval Academy, Hooper Hall, Annapolis, Wednesday, October 12th, from 10 AM – 3 PM.  $15.  To register for this, or any other Chesapeake Forum course, please visit: https://chesapeakeforum.org

Chesapeake Forum is a nonprofit dedicated to providing continuing education opportunities for residents of the Eastern Shore. If you would like to receive the Chesapeake Forum’s monthly newsletter, please email to [email protected] with your name and preferred email.

“The Chief Witness – Escape from China’s Modern-Day Concentration Camps” is the amazing and frightening story of Sayragul Sauytbay, one of the first to escape from China and relate the horrendous treatment of the Muslim minority people.  It is also the subject of Chesapeake Forum’s two-session Book Discussion starting October 6th at Snifters in Easton.

“Chief Witness,” details Syragul’s life as a doctor before she was appointed a senior civil servant, and her sudden, shocking incarceration for the crime of being Kazakh, one of China’s ethnic minorities. Imprisoned solely due to their ethnicity, inmates are subjected to relentless punishment and torture, including being beaten, raped, and used as subjects for medical experiments. The camps represent the greatest systematic incarceration of an entire people since the Third Reich.

In addition to her story, the class will explore the newest evidence of China’s persecution and genocide of the Uyghur population including internment, slave labor, organ harvesting, and genocide.

Led by seasoned Chesapeake Forum Great Decisions discussion leaders, Bob Degour and Rich Harrison, the class will be in-person at Snifter’s Bistro in Easton.  Two sessions, October 6 and 13th from 3-4:30 PM.   $25.  To sign up for “Chief Witness”, or any other Chesapeake Forum class please visit https://chesapeakeforum.org.

Chesapeake Forum is a nonprofit dedicated to providing continuing education opportunities for residents of the Eastern Shore. If you would like to receive the Chesapeake Forum’s monthly newsletter, please email to [email protected] with your name and preferred email.