Chair Norton called the meeting to order at 12:15 pm with 19 members present. Fred Schwimmer gave the “thought of the day” which was an airplane pilot’s announcement to the passengers on “flight 2021” that they should remain in their seats during the flight, should be positive, grateful with no feelings of pity or anger, and at times a little prayer will help “flight 2021” be a better “flight” than was 2020.
We had one guest who has become a member of the Club. Liz Taylor introduced Sylwia Pacyk who is the Branch Manager of the new Wintrust Bank on Willow in Northfield. She has been with the Bank for four years, lives in Mundelein, and reported that the new Northfield branch is twice the size of the old location next to Stormy’s with 5 employees, a vaulted ceiling (no second floor) and a coin counting machine.
Bob Sanfilippo is celebrating a birthday and Chuck Norton has been a member of the Club for 23 years.
Announcements: Rich described a new “shoes for kids” program that the Club will be participating in—each Club will be expected to raise enough money to buy 1500 pairs of shoes for needy kids in the area. A question was raised about availability of Covid vaccine on the North Shore with the response being that things seem to be disorganized and vaccine appointments hard to obtain. Someone mentioned that the Winnetka Chamber of Commerce and Fire Department may be sources of information.
Happy Bucks: Robert Mardirossian contributed for having married a female Marine who was well trained in snow shoveling techniques!
Dig N Grin: Tom Evans gave a number of unintended results of the Covid restrictions including—it’s now the young kids who are yelling at their parents to stay home-- and Covid has done a couple of things that housewives have not been able to do, i.e. keep their husbands from continually watching football games and giving them more time to do chores around the house!!
Election of Officers and Directors: Those members present unanimously voted in favor of the following slates: Bill Leske/Greg Nelson for Co-Presidents as of 7/1/21; Rich Lalley for Treasurer/Secretary as of 7/1/21; Rick Boerjesson, Laura Cunningham, Heidi Sibert and Barb Tubekis for two-year terms on the Board of Directors effective 7/1/21—6/30/23. Under our Bylaws, Chuck Norton will continue to be a member of the Board as immediate Past President; and David Birkenstein, Eric Birkenstein, David Grant, Robert Mardirossian and John Thomas will continue as Board members for year 2021-2022.
Group discussions among members: Since we did not schedule a speaker for the meeting, those in attendance divided into two groups for the purpose of discussing possible speakers and topics for future meetings. The reports included the following suggestions for new speakers:
- Speaker from U. of Chicago on financial status of Illinois, Cook County and Chicago (possibly Mike Belshie).
- Speaker from Hoffman organization on North Shore real estate conditions (Terry Dason contacts and possibly Linda Martin and Steve Hudson).
- Speaker from Chicago Architectural Foundation, Botanic Gardens, Holocaust Museum on tours and programs available to the public.
- School administrator, teacher representative and possibly student to discuss what’s currently happening in our schools (Kate Donagan at Sears was suggested speaker)
- Speaker from a performing arts programs to discuss how Covid restrictions have affected them.
- Possible speaker from John Marshall Law School on what tax law changes to expect in 2021.
- Author giving a review of his/her recently published book—e.g. Daughters of Yalta.
- Having another dinner meeting with a speaker like book review actress Barbara Rinella.
- Operation Greylord prosecutor and speaker Terry Hake.
- Lawyer reporting on how Covid has affected operations of our court systems.
- Tom Gump presentation on establishing satellite clubs as he has done in Minnesota.
- Tik Tok presentation.
Other suggestions were to update the Club’s brochure and other marketing materials (may be International Rotary funds available); try to get list of new families moving to North Shore and contacting them re Rotary; consider going to a hybrid meeting (in person/Zoom) to get more members involved in meetings, as well as using Zoom to attract speakers; and maybe share the cost of hybrid meetings with the WCH based Women’s Exchange which is also considering more hybrid meetings.
After the reports from the discussion groups, Chair Norton ended the meeting with his recitation of the Rotary’s 4 way test.