Meeting Recap August 11

There were 27 out of 57 members present. There were no guests present. However, Gustavo Caicedo from the Chicago Northwest Rotary Club distributed a letter sent to other Rotary Clubs describing its international project with the Rotary Club in Guadalajara to provide healthcare infrastructure in three communities in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. The clinics will receive donations of used hospital equipment from U.S. hospitals and his Club will pay for its transportation to Mexico. They expect to have  a million dollars worth of equipment donated. Other donations will be matched by a global grant.

   Thought for the Day: Eric Birkenstein suggested that the politicians involved in the current Presidential campaign more closely follow the principles set forth in Rotary’s Four-Way Test!

   Announcements: The group was reminded of the “Build a Backpack day 2016” where volunteers meet to assemble  3000 backpacks containing school supplies for Chicago students returning to school this fall. The event is August 13^th, 1-4 pm at 70 Arts Circle Drive in Evanston. College and high school students are especially encouraged to participate and the WYO has several volunteers attending; Mark Kotz reminded members that there is a recently published Rotary directory of all Clubs and to contact him for copies; Donna Goodman was rewarded for her 15 years of dedicated service to our Club by being sponsored by an anonymous donor to be a Paul Harris Fellow.

   Happy Bucks: Donna gave $20, one dollar for each year of  her service to the Club and one dollar each for the next 5 years;  Marie Kuipers donated to celebrate her husband receiving a fellowship to work for several months in New York in preparation for a job there, Austin or Chicago and that she will be accompanying him to New York.  We will miss her and hope she is able to return to Chicago.

    Dig N Grin: This was nicely handled by Terry Dason about the travails of self-assembling furniture.

    Speaker: Our Club member Rebecca Wolf, who is Director of Winnetka-Northfield Library District, gave a very entertaining and informative presentation on recent trends and programs happening at our local library. These trends included: that the library provides a wide array of  e-magazines and e-resources including Consumer Reports, Morningstar, Chicago’s Consumer Checkbook, Lynda.com and language tutorial sites such as Mango and Rosetta Stone. The library now provides access to the full digital edition of the New York Times online through the library’s website.

   Rebecca also highlighted the remodel of the Youth Department with picture books being  shelved by subject matter versus alphabetically. She invited everyone to come in and see the new department. The library has also seen a 20% increase in the book circulation in youth services.  The library’s emphasis on personal service and hands-on teaching has helped increase program attendance from  14,000 to 19,000 this last year, with just over a 20% increase in participation in the Summer Reading program.

    Rebecca ended her presentation by  providing information on the library’s One Book Two Villages program next month featuring author Roz Chast—“Can’t we talk about something more Pleasant” which covers the subject of caring for and understanding aging parents. There is a book discussion and lunch with Ms. Chast on September 16^th and an  “intimate gathering” with Ms. Chast at the WCH on September 15^th, for which Rebecca donated two tickets for auction to members.  Tom Nash was the winner with his $140 bid, which will go to the W-N Rotary Foundation.  More information regarding One Book Two Villages Events can be found on the library’s website http://www.winnetkalibrary.org