SCORE’ing & MOOC’ing in California

August 23, 2014

by Ron Schmidt

I have been very involved with SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) for over ten years. I don’t know how much you know about the organization, but it is a 501c3 supported in part by the Small Business Administration. It is nation-wide with over 13,000 volunteers. We counsel and mentor small business start-ups and on-going businesses through the various stages of their lives and under a variety of situations. I served as Chairman of the San Francisco Chapter for three years and can do a reasonable job of describing a volunteer organization that truly contributes to the local economy as well as the national good.

Also, I am currently MOOCing (Massive Open Online Courses). This is a way to stay current with any number of subjects from over 80 Universities throughout the world. I started this due to my involvement with SCORE in an attempt to stay current in business subjects. What is amazing is these course offer any number of subjects and are free, on-line, and totally controlled by ones own pace. These are college level with participants from all over the world. Very exciting!

 

Editor’s Note: Ron will be at Reunion 2014 to share more of his story. He’s one of our discussion leaders for the “Ambassadors of Lifelong Engagement” event. If you would like to know more about SCORE and the MOOC List, just click on the names or pictures, they will take you to the websites.

By the way, on our phone conversation, Ron mentioned that he heard about SCORE when he first came to JCI in the 1970’s. His boss at the time talked about his experiences. Ron concluded that’s what he wanted to do when he retired. How about that for the benefits of sharing experiences?

Who was that boss? It was Marv Herrick, of course! You can get the rest of the story from Ron at Reunion 2014. See you there!