There were 31 members present and 3 guests: Pat Groenewold from the Schaumburg-Hoffman Estates Club; Mike Shelton’s son, Steven; and Brian Schiller was the representative from the Winnetka Community House.
Birthdays celebrated were David Birkenstein and John Thomas. Sam Badger was congratulated on his 5th year in the Club.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: On September 13th, we will have our annual Club Assembly meeting in lieu of a speaker that day. Sign up sheets were available for volunteers to sign up for the September 15th Winnetka Farm Market duty. Instead of collecting money at the local train stations on Rotary’s World Wide Polio Day, we will be participating in the International Rotary’s World Polio Day Competition which will be giving a $500 prize to a Rotary Club for the “best project” and for the “most innovative project” which improves the quality of water and/or level of awareness of need to improve water quality in our communities. Entries from the Clubs must be received by 12/1/2018 and the winners will be notified by 2/1/2019. Barb Tubekis’ event Make a Difference Day” is scheduled for October 27, 2018. A Rotary Club survey will be coming out to members by the end of this month. The New Trier Swing Choir will be appearing again at our meeting on 12/13/2018, thanks to Wes Baumann. August is “membership month” in Rotary and we should be bringing potential members to lunch during the month and 1000 Paul Harris points will be awarded members who are able to sponsor new members during the month. New member Rick Borjesson announced that he will be presenting a program at the Winnetka Community House on September 10th at 1:00 pm on “improving your posture for Life”. Rick is originally from Sweden and has recently opened his Chiropractic office in Winnetka. Dr. Rick has helped thousands of patients of all ages, including Olympic and NHL players, to achieve better health through his core concept of “eat well, move well, think positive and sleep well” for a balanced lifestyle.
HAPPY BUCKS: ArLynn Presser donated for our Club having someone from the “Gifts for Adoptions” charity give a recent presentation and then inviting ArLynn to serve on its Board; Lee Padgett gave due to a membership decision the Club made a few years ago; Greg Nelson gave to celebrate his son and daughter in law, Bill and Jennifer Nelson, finishing two years of missionary service at a hospital in Liberia where Bill did accounting and finance work and Jennifer supervised and trained others in the hospital’s emergency room—plus they helped build a home for widows and abused women and worked on children outreach programs; Tony gave in honor of our guest Pat Groenenwold who was administrative assistant to our International President and went to Africa with Tony on a Rotary project; Ned Meisner gave for the honor of enjoying the company of Tony and Wes Baumann on a recent visit to Naples, Florida; Rich gave for the privilege of hearing Aretha Franklin sing in person and for the musical talents she shared with the entire world during her lifetime; Robert Mardirossian gave to thank Wes Baumann for getting the N.T. Swing Choir to return to entertain at our December meeting; Barb Tubekis gave for her being able to celebrate a recent wedding anniversary twice this month since she was married to her husband on two different days in two different churches.
“dig and grin” Rich Lalley asked: what did a buffalo say to his son leaving home for his first day of school--Bison!
SPEAKER JERRY EVANS, DTM: Jerry is the head of the Awards Company in Schaumburg after having a 25 year career in sales and marketing. He is an advocate for effective pubic speaking and has been very active in several Toastmasters programs. He was selected as the Distinguished Toastmaster of the Year in 2011, which is the highest level achievable in these programs. He was accompanied by his colleague, Michelle Wang, another business consultant.
Jerry covered his 3 keys to improve our communication ability: ACT, which stands for “Attitude determines altitude”—(we all do public speaking but about 75% don’t like to do it); “Commitment” to be “present” during your communication (it’s more than just trying to communicate, either you ”do or do not” communicate effectively); and “Training” (you have to step out of your comfort zone and continue to improve your communication skills).
Jerry explained the joint project between Rotary and the Toastmasters Club. The theme is “Be The Inspiration”. It is an effort to encourage all members of both groups to work for change of “self, community, and world”. Both organizations have been around for a long time (114 and 94 years, respectively, for Rotary and Toastmasters) and represent all kinds of people all over the world. Jerry will be visiting Rotary Clubs to publicize this partnership and the purpose thereof. He said that everyone can improve their communication skills by 1) assessing your communication skills; 2) crafting your message to inform and move your listeners; 3) delivering the message the best way possible and be sure to supplement power point presentations, which by themselves are often ineffective; and 4) keep honing your communication skills.