This fall's RendezVous festival takes place this weekend at the Burchfield Penney. Join us!

RendezVous is an art and music festival centered on common themes appealing to the varied and diverse interests of the Western New York community. The celebration of concerts, films, workshops, and lectures takes place over an extended weekend that coincides with the third anniversary of the opening of the new Burchfield Penney.

Friday, November 18, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Opening celebration: Charles E. Burchfield: Weather Event; Harald Bode: Tone Color–Known & Unknown Sounds; and Charles E. Burchfield: Four Seasons in Salem, with music by Dee Adams.

Friday, November 18, from 7:00 to 7:30 p.m.
Demonstration: Tomas Henriques will demonstrate his new instruments in celebration of the opening of Harald Bode: Tone Color–Known & Unknown Sounds.

Friday, November 18, at 8:00 p.m.
Concert: The Carrier Band

Saturday, November 19, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Toddler workshop: My Stroller Is a Spaceship: Wonder Time at the Museum, with Michaelene Dawson and Cyndi Burnett.
Cost: $10 for Burchfield Penney members, $14 for “not yet” members. Advance registration is required: call ext. 3216 or e-mail kellymc@buffalostate.edu.

Saturday, November 19, from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m.
Raid the Recycle Bin, with artist Ani Hoover (for kids 6–12).
Cost: $32 for Burchfield Penney members; $48 for “not yet” members. Advance registration is required: call ext. 3216 or e-mail kellymc@buffalostate.edu.

Saturday, November 19, at 2:00 p.m.
Reading: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Walter V. Davidson House: An Examination of a Buffalo Home and Its Cousins from Coast to Coast, by Patrick J. Mahoney.

Saturday, November 19, at 3:00 p.m.
Curators' tour of Charles E. Burchfield: Weather Event, with Tullis Johnson.

Saturday, November 19, at 4:00 p.m.
Poetry reading: 40th Anniversary of Earth’s Daughters

Sunday, November 20, at 2:00 p.m.
Concert: A Musical Feast, with performance by LehrerDance.
Tickets are $5 for Burchfield Penney members, $10 for “not yet” members.
Tickets available online or by phone at ext. 6011 during gallery hours. Visit www.AMusicalFeast.com for more information.

Sunday, November 20, at 2:00 p.m.
Introduction to the Buffalo Society of Artists exhibition and archives.

Sunday, November 20, at 2:30 p.m.
Curator's tour of Harald Bode: Tone Color–Known & Unknown Sounds, with Don Metz.

Did you know that the Research Foundation at Buffalo State has a blog? The RF Orbit: We Get Around blog was recently started to facilitate exchange of thoughts on key topics. Check out the blog posts and send in your comments to the posted items.

Please join the Great Lakes Center for the seminar “The Biological Recovery of Sudbury Lakes from Historical Metal Damage: Evaluation, Trends, and Emerging Stressors” on Friday, December 2, at 2:00 p.m. in Classroom Building B119. The presenter is Martha Patricia Celis-Salgado, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow with the Faculty of Science and Engineering at York University, in Toronto, Ontario.

Faculty, staff, and students are welcome. Light refreshments will be served.

Drop off reusable office supplies to Procurement Services, Cleveland Hall 406, tomorrow (November 29) from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and the Procurement team will sort and organize items. 

Those who donate are invited to shop on Wednesday, November 30, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in Cleveland Hall 418. 

Open shopping for all offices will take place on Thursday, December 1, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Cleveland Hall 418.

Please call Procurement Services at ext. 4113 if you have any questions.

Representatives from Community Blue, Independent Health, and the Empire Plan will be on campus today from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library 210 to answer questions about current health insurance plans and anticipated changes in coverage for 2012.

Employee benefits staff members also will be present to assist employees in making changes to health insurance coverage. Attendees may have their blood pressure checked; learn about the benefits of and sample massage therapy; learn how to maximize dental and vision care benefits from CSEA and UUP Benefit Trust Funds and GHI Preferred Dental; get ideas on how to balance work, home, and life from NYS Balance; and obtain information about the Employee Assistance Program and meet EAP coordinators. Students from the Health and Wellness Department will be conducting various other health screenings. Call Human Resource Management at ext. 4821 if you have any questions.

The New York State Employee Health Benefits Fair will be held tomorrow, December 8, in E. H. Butler Library 210 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Representatives from Community Blue, Independent Health, and the Empire Plan will be there to answer questions about current health insurance plans and anticipated changes in coverage for 2012.

Employee benefits staff members also will be present to assist employees in making changes to health insurance coverage. Attendees may have their blood pressure checked; learn about the benefits of and sample massage therapy; learn how to maximize dental and vision care benefits from representatives of the CSEA and UUP Benefit Trust funds and GHI Preferred Dental; get ideas on how to balance work, home, and life from NYS Balance; and obtain information about the Employee Assistance Program and meet EAP coordinators. Students from the Health and Wellness Department will be conducting various other health screenings.

Please call Human Resource Management at ext. 4821 if you have any questions.

The Theater Department and Casting Hall Productions' rendition of The Stepmother by Githa Sowerby continues this week in the Flexible Theatre in the Donald Savage Building. Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m. with a Saturday matinee at 2:00 p.m.

The Buffalo State Sustainability Council invites all faculty, staff, and students to celebrate the holidays with the lunch-hour screening of PBS Nature’s Christmas in Yellowstone, a breathtaking look at wintertime deep within America’s first national park, on Wednesday, December 7, from noon to 1:00 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library 210. 

This film follows in the snowy footprints of Yellowstone’s red foxes, spies on the predatory warfare of wolves and elk, and climbs into the den of a grizzly bear that gives birth to two cubs while deep in its winter slumber. Enjoy mesmerizing footage of landscapes and wildlife, and trail alongside author and photographer Tom Murphy, who has been coming to Yellowstone in winter for nearly three decades, camping and photographing amid the silence and solitude of the park. And go behind the scenes with filmmaker Shane Moore to find out how he kept up with Murphy during an at times harrowing trek, reminiscent of the legendary John Colter’s first journey into the park nearly 200 years ago.

NYS & CSEA Partnership for Education and Training has announced the Tuition Benefits Program 2011–2012 for eligible CSEA-represented NYS executive branch employees.

Copies of the catalog and the application form are available for download from the organization's website. Program highlights include the following:

• Eligible CSEA-represented NYS executive branch employees who received a tuition voucher or tuition reimbursement during the period July 1 to August 12, 2011, may apply for one additional tuition voucher or tuition reimbursement.
• Eligible CSEA-represented NYS executive branch employees who did not receive a tuition voucher or tuition reimbursement during the period July 1 to August 12, 2011, may apply for two tuition vouchers or tuition reimbursements.

All applications must be received by March 31, 2012.

Any course taken must begin between April 1, 2011, and March 31, 2012, or the employee must be actively participating in the course sometime between these dates.

Applications will be accepted by mail (NYS & CSEA Partnership for Education and Training, Corporate Plaza East - Suite 502, 240 Washington Ave. Ext., Albany, NY 12203) or by fax at (518) 486-1989 or (518) 473-0056.

Educational Advisement Services are available to CSEA-represented NYS employees by calling (518) 486-7814 or (800) 253-4332.

For further information, please contact the Partnership for Education and Training at (800) 253-4332 or learning@nyscseapartnership.org.

Mills Entertainment is pleased to present comedian John Pinette live on stage at the Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall on Saturday, February 18, 2012. Tickets go on sale today at the Rockwell Hall and Student Union box offices. Charge by phone at ext. 3005 or order online. Tickets are $35.75 each.

Describing his own stand-up, Pinette said, “I talk about my life; it is the funniest thing I can think of.” His current comedy special “Still Hungry” debuted on Comedy Central on July 29 and was released on DVD on August 2. The food-obsessed storytelling Pinette delivers smart, original Bill Cosby–influenced observations on everyday life. “Still Hungry” is a follow-up to his successful “I’m Starvin’!” and “Show Me the Buffet” CDs and DVDs.