Co-Chairs Patti and Barb presided at the meeting. Guests were the 3 speakers and Mary Bak, from the Sunrise Club in Glenview who will soon be our District Governor. There were 10 Club members present and 6 on Zoom.

BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES: Birthdays were celebrated by Chuck Norton, Lee Padgitt and Marie (sans singing) and anniversaries celebrated by Amy (3 years), David Grant (25 years), Mike Shelton (10 years), Safiyyah Hassan and Kyle Berg (each 1 year).

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Bob Baker filled in with a review of Rotary’s Code of Conduct which is recited during the induction of new members—conduct mentioned is acting with integrity, fairness, mentoring young people and improving the quality of life for others.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: A Rotary fact sheet was passed out at the meeting which was prepared to be used for contacting non-active Club members and possible contributors to Rotary. It contains lots of good information about our Club and should be read by all members. As a result of its mailing we have already received donations from John/Judy Stone, Julie Shelton and Sally Gotaas.

Amy announced a special program at the WCH on Dec. 16th at 1:30 in the Garden Room at WCH which features Leslie Goddard speaking on the subject of “remembering Marshall Field’s at Christmas time”—there is a $25 charge for the event. Amy also invited members to attend an acappella choir program at the St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston in which she is an active participant.

(PLEASE NOTE): It was announced that there is no Club meeting on December 29, and on December 22 members are invited to an informal Club gathering at noon at the Little Honeycomb restaurant in Winnetka (formerly Little Ricky’s). This will not be an official Club meeting.

HAPPY BUCKS: Barb reported on a very successful and surprising ending to her recent Mohs surgery; and Rich reported on several pieces of good publicity for Rotary such as Operation Warm being mentioned on the local evening news; and a recent podcast on Rotary accomplishments.

DIG N GRIN: Bob Sanfilippo gave us some Santa jokes such as—naming a poor Santa “Saint Nickeless” and someone who doesn’t believe in Santa “a rebel without a Claus”!

SPEAKERS FROM NEAR TECHNOLOGY, INC. (herein NT)—a personalized tech coaching service--- FERRONA LIE, MARGARET MCCALL AND ANDREW Mueller. This tech company has been developing business over the last year or so with special emphasis on helping seniors who have not become proficient with computers, I-phones, etc. It is estimated that over 10,000 people retire every day and many of them have not become proficient with technology in their workplace and/or they don’t bother to study technology after retirement which means they may be missing out on important communications with many friends/ family members and not enjoying the many benefits of being computer savvy. There are not many tech companies providing this service effectively. NT has developed much of its business through group homes of seniors, such as retirement homes. NT trains former teachers and social workers to work with and advise seniors whenever they have tech problems. NT also assists seniors who may have identity theft/scam problems or to help them update/upgrade their equipment which should be done far more often than is usually the case. This can be done for as little as $20 a month charge, or in some cases the retirement home or apartment complex pays most of this charge.

After a lively Q and A period, the meeting was adjourned with the recitation of the Rotary 4-way Test.