Co-Chair Barb T called the meeting to order around 12:40. There were 18 members present, plus 7 on Zoom, and we had one guest, Peter Hansen.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: The Glencoe Community Garden harvesting project is Oct. 6th at noon with a box lunch to be served—the harvesting will take about one hour; the New Trier Township food pantry still needs more essential items like nonperishable food items and hygiene supplies—contributions can be made at any of our regular meetings for the next couple of weeks and donations can be dropped off at the WCH every other day of the week.
DIG N GRIN: Connie gave several riddles involving parents and school children coming home after their first day back from summer vacation.
HAPPY BUCKS: Robert was so happy that the WCH parking lot was full of Rotarians who attended today’s meeting; Rich thanked Robert for letting him win the Cubs tickets at our recent benefit and for Moha donating some Opus One wine to the Operation Warm Benefit which is coming up Oct. 14th at the Valley Lo Club in Glenview; David Birkenstein endorsed the eating and entertainment activities at Fred’s Garage every Wednesday night from 7:00 to 9:30 pm and what the Village has done to draw people to its downtown merchants and restaurants.
PROGRAM FOR THE DAY: Co-Chair Patti first encouraged members to continue bringing their pop tabs from cans and chips from bread to the WCH. Then she introduced Amy Skalinder, our membership Chair who, along with a small group of members, created a survey that was sent to members a couple of months ago. Amy reviewed a video showing the results of such survey which is available through David Grant. Her general conclusions were: 28 out of our 40 regular members took the survey; that the members thought that the time, type of meetings and the logistics of same were generally very good with the only negative comment being about our lunches; 64% of our members have been attending our recent meetings in person with the rest using Zoom; about 70% were generally satisfied with Rotary and was a “good use of their money”; 70% think our speaker program is very important; and most members agree that recruitment of new members and retention of current members continue to be very important.
GROUP SUGGESTIONS: At this time the members were divided into 4 groups and their reports at the end of the meeting were:
- Terry Dason’s group—our speakers are generally good but more of our members need to help recruit them; our corporate members should be urged to speak at one of our monthly meetings at least once a year and they should send a representative to our meetings at least once a month; and we should all try to go to the Winnetka Farmers’ Market as often as possible to showcase Rotarians involvement in the community.
- Robert’s group-- reported that we should consider having more different kinds of meetings (e.g. more sociable events like a “fireside meeting in the winter”, attending or sponsoring an event at a Northwestern football game, involving our “significant others” more in our Rotary activities, and having joint meetings with other Rotary Clubs.
- The Zoom Group-- they suggested creating a community activity that would benefit and get the attention of its residents—the example given was helping residents dispose of old electronic equipment.
- Bob Baker’s group—we should go after corporations (especially small businesses in the community) for new members; we should study why our local Chambers of Commerce are so successful in getting members; we have a good brochure about Rotary that we should use more; and we should initiate programs/activities locally that our new/young residents can observe and appreciate the importance of Rotary in the community.
Patti thanked Amy for all the work she and her committee did on the survey project and recommended that Rotary get more involved with the WCH’s “Thirsty Thursday” gatherings as a way of promoting Rotary, the next one being September 8. The members also thanked Amy and our officers for their work on the survey and suggested that we have more “Club Assembly” type of meetings in the future. A recording of the Club Assembly can be viewed: https://youtu.be/KHygk_taqag
The meeting was adjourned with the reciting of the Rotary 4 way test.