Meeting Recap July 30
There were 31 members present at the meeting on July 30. There were no guests. Winnetka Chief of Police, Pat Kreis, was present representing the Village of Winnetka, which is now a corporate member of Rotary. Brooke Peppey gave the Thought for the Day.
ANNOUCEMENTS: Heidi Sibert said that two tickets to the Chicago White Sox-- Rotary night baseball game on August 4th became available and she was auctioning them off with the proceeds to go to Rotary. Although the face value of the tickets was only $22, a spirited auction resulted in our guest speaker, Georgia Koch, “winning” them for only $70. She said her son was a big Sox fan and that she has always appreciated all of Rotary’s charitable work, especially its program to eradicate polio.
John Thomas announced that the One Winnetka project to build a large apartment building East of the tracks in Winnetka is in the process of completing the public comment portion of the project and those who wanted to share their views and information should do so soon. He said that a decision on the project has not been made.
It was announced that Morine ___ recently left the employment of the North Shore Senior Center to take a position at Rotary’s International headquarters in Evanston. We will attempt to get her active in the W-N Club.
HAPPY BUCKS: Fred Schwimmer started off with a donation of $54, one dollar for every year of marriage to his “trophy wife” of 54 years. (He didn’t mention her name, but we assume he was referring to Ellie, although she doesn’t seem to be old enough to be married that long!) Ned Meisner contributed because his son was featured in the Wall Street Journal recently as being an understudy in a current Broadway show. Rich Lalley contributed in celebration of Nigeria being polio-free for one year and if this continues for 3 years, the country will be considered “polio free”. That means that the only two major countries now having a problem with polio are Pakistan and Afghanistan. Patti Van Cleave contributed in honor of her parents’ 60th wedding anniversary. David Birkenstein contributed in celebrating the New York Times’ announcement that the obesity problem in this Country is diminishing. Luvie Owens honored her cousins from New Zealand who have been house guests in her home. They have been marveling at the number of squirrels we have in this Country, since they have none in New Zealand. (Someone asked if New Zealand dogs have an obesity problem without having any squirrels to chase!)
Lee Padgitt handled Dig and Grin starting off with his best line about the guy who invented the door knocker for which he won the “Nobel” Peace Prize!
GUEST SPEAKER GEORGIA KOCH: Georgia is the Community Outreach Coordinator for Career Vision, a not for profit in Glen Ellyn, and the service and consulting arm of the Ball Foundation, a not-for-profit career and aptitude research organization founded in 1975. Basically she discussed the difference aptitude testing makes in choosing colleges or careers and the information available from Career Vision. Aptitude testing has been around since World War I, but has been used mostly by employers to screen and test new hires. In recent years this testing has been expanded significantly, especially in the area of advising people on their career paths. The two major goals of CV are to assist parents and students, as well as adult career changers, in making the best college major and career choices and to promote wise and effective career planning, maximizing return on educational investment and career fulfillment. Students, especially, need to “plan now and save later”: 65% of today’s college students are undeclared majors; 30% leave college after their freshman year; only 32% graduate by the end of 6 years; the annual cost of college today ranges anywhere between $20,000 and $100,000; and the average college grad today owes over $30,000 in unpaid student loans. Career planning is important because a degree is no longer a magic ticket to a job and the hiring process has changed at great deal. Few companies take or read resumes anymore—resumes are sent to the company websites and computers screen them. Colleges now offer so many majors (sometimes as many as 150) that a student has to ask “what am I going to use my education for” and “is it really worth the investment?” Many times CV will recommend against attending college.
Career Vision has professional consultants who work with each individual student; each student completes a minimum of 12 aptitude tests, and interests and values surveys; each student meets individually with a CV consultant who integrates resulting information to create a list of career recommendations and explains results during a feedback session. Students do information interviews and job shadowing of people in jobs that the student is considering and they are encouraged to ask those incumbents such question as how did they got into this career; what do they like and dislike about the job; what kind of education or training did they need; etc.
Career Vision does not test students on what they learned in school like most of the standard achievement tests. In addition to students (starting at age 16), CV tests adults who are thinking about changing careers. The cost of the CV test runs from $550 to $850 per individual.
In answer to questions, Georgia said that high school guidance counselors do a pretty fair job in helping students get into the colleges of their choice, but they have to work with too many students to do any aptitude assessment. The CV tests can be taken anywhere and are followed up by individual meetings with CV consultants either in person or via computer. Scholarships and installment payment plans are available based on need. Further information about CV is available at 630-469-6270 or on its website at www.careervision.org.