Recap of July 19

Posted by Keith Reed
Former President Tom Nash presided at the meeting.  There were 30 members present and several guests including Deb Guy (guest of Liz Taylor from Women’s Exchange), Elisha Gray (guest of David Birkenstein and retired banker), Mark Schusteff from WCH, Lyle Staab (candidate for Rotary District Governor in the medical manufacturing business), and Melissa Mills (Administrator with Rotary’s Environmental Sustainability Action Group). During their introduction, Lyle mentioned the importance of Rotary’s InterAct and RYLA programs and that Rotary is looking to be of service to more kids. Melissa explained the six projects her Group is developing and publicizing, including the “trees that feed” initiative and controlling the plastic pollution of our oceans.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Peter Skalski, ArLynn Presser and Tom Evans all celebrated birthdays for which they were serenaded by the Rotary’s “glee club”.  Jean Wright announced that her real estate firm, Hudson, has just been purchased by Compass, which will have around 4000 brokers, and its Winnetka office will be on Spruce Street. Tom Nash announced his new position at Wintrust Bank.
HAPPY BUCKS:  Ned Misner donated  for being selected to be our speaker in August on his  visit with several charities in Ecuador. Rich Lalley donated for the 13th Rotary Club (Number One from downtown Chicago) joining  our group of a dozen Clubs funding the “trees that feed” project.  Fred Schwimmer  donated due to his watching a special awards TV program  honoring Jake Wood, Jim Kelly (former NFL quarterback) and the 300 women who were victimized by Larry Nasser at Michigan State. Tony gave in honor of Michael Janiski being selected to be a Rotary exchange student to Poland and remembering that her mother, Kristen Janiski, was a Rotary exchange student to Japan when she was in high school.  Barb Tubekis was happy because her five week assignment teaching 60 2nd to 7th graders in the local “Adventures in Learning” was completed and her summer now begins! Robert Mardirossian was happy that his colleague at the Family Service Center was our featured speaker today. One of our outstanding luncheon assistants, Jill Joyce,  made a donation in honor of her outstanding daughter who has been in the high school and college rowing programs at New Trier and Wisconsin, and has recently been selected to go to Poland to be on one of the four teams competing for the USA World Rowing Championship. Wes Baumann donated because of  New Trier making the decision when he was Principal there to start a student rowing program.  Two of our guests,  Melissa Mills and Deb Guy, donated because they were happy to have been invited to attend just a great luncheon meeting.
Dig and Grin:  was handled by Rich Lalley with a story about roosters winning the “No Bell” and “Pulletizer” Peace prizes!!
SPEAKER RENEE Z. DOMINGUEZ, PHD and EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE FAMILY SERVICE CENTER SERVING WILMETTE, GLENVIEW, NORTHBROOK AND KENILWORTH:  Renee is a licensed clinical Psychologist who was educated at the University of Houston, Baylor College of Medicine and La Rabida Childrens’ Hospital.  She oversees clinical operations, provides supervision to staff, collaborates with community partners, and provides therapy to children, adolescents, adults, and families.  Some of the points she made about the child raising techniques of many parents in today’s culture were as follows: Parents are usually well intended, but need to avoid doing what the child should be doing, such as tasks around the home and at school—this tends to interfere with the child developing  “life skills” necessary to make it on their own; parents need to forget about their own ego and not try to relive their childhoods; parents are sometimes too driven to make sure their child doesn’t fail which prevents the child from learning how to be their own advocate; children have to learn  how to manage their negative feelings; parents should avoid categorizing their children as good or bad in life’s activities, such as good in sports or bad  in math.  Studies show that a child achieving success as they grow into adulthood is 35% ability and 65% effort.  In other words, parents should apply the “growth mindset” versus the “fixed mindset”.  The brain is like a muscle that can get better with practice.  Intelligence  can be developed through work and discipline.
   One area that parents should work on in raising kids is becoming more comfortable with social media and other aspects of our digital age.   70% of our kids’ social communication is now done digitally and most of the time this starts when the kids are too young.  Today, childrens’ empathy development is 40% less than it was 20 years ago.  It’s a lot easier for kids today to communicate hurtful things to others on social media.  Children are avoiding life’s discomforting aspects by resorting to their digital devices. This interferes with their skill building, resulting in more depression and anxiety.  It is very easy for the average kid to view the world and  their friends as being far happier than they are.