Last October approximately 20 club members participated in a visioning session facilitated by district leadership. We worked through a series of questions designed to elicit our shared vision for our club's future. This Thursday's Club Assembly will provide a recap of the results of that vision session, as well as an opportunity for an interactive conversation about where we want our club to go in the future.

This internally focused meeting is perhaps not appropriate for guests, just for us. We look forward to hearing from you!

34 out of 58 attended; 56.62%

Thought for the Day – Eric volunteered “snow thanks”, for the lack of the predicted snowmageddon

Guest:   Debbie Gillard, guest of membership recruiting machine David Birkenstein

Patti – Please bring donations to support veterans to the meeting next week.

Barb – Rotarians raised $619 for Kids Against Hunger last week at the meeting and at Little Ricky’s

Gina – Selling raffle tickets for KAH - $20 each, or 6 for $100

Mark – Seeks 400 items from all KAH sponsors for the WYO to place in goody bags to be given away

Dirk – Seeks donations to the Northern Illinois Rotary/NEIU Social Work Scholarship Challenge – the first $10,000 will be matched dollar for dollar Click here for a one-page flyer with more details

Rich – The 111^th anniversary of Rotary International

Bernie – (remarks unintentionally omitted)

Wes – (lack of) snow thanks

Robert – 3^rd anniversary  

Rodger volunteered a joke

                Murray was invited by Dirk, as both are associated with Northeastern Illinois University. Murray gave a good presentation despite being heavily medicated due to complications from a hip transplant last week. Murray has spent years studying the relationships between diet, exercise and chronic disease. His newly published book investigates the biological basis of prevention of chronic disease, mainly heart disease and diabetes. Chronic disease in the USA comprised 70% of the deaths, and 75% of the health care costs in the USA from 2010 to 2012.

                The reason boils down to the fact that Americans eat too many calories and exercise too little. Since the 1960’s, our sedentary lifestyles and eating habits have caused us as a group to become more overweight and obese than past generations. Minimum exercise recommendations by major health organizations are woefully inadequate. Gaining weight, and not sugar or calorie intake alone, causes diabetes. Lack of exercise cause inflammation and heart disease. Exercise is a learned habit. We should all increase activity levels throughout the day to prevent chronic disease.

                Current adult exercise recommendations from the CDC are here: www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/older_adults/index.htm