There were 18 members present. Our one guest was Beth Padgitt, wife of member Lee. Patti urged all members to attend the ABC’s of Rotary Conference, which will involve 3 Rotary districts and has a limited amount of seating. She will email all members the details of this meeting.
Our speaker was Emily Compton-Dzak from the Winnetka-Northfield Library. She presented interesting information on the Best Books of 2016 and a preview of her recommended books for 2017 (her list is below). She also had a display of popular books available for check-out from the Library and “goodie bags” for members with information about the Library’s upcoming events. Our community is lucky to have such a resource available and that it is staffed and managed by such capable people as Emily and our own member Rebecca Wolf.
Please find a substitute if you are unable to fulfill your assignment; Just call or e-mail a fellow member and ask him/her to sub. Tom Evans - tom.evans527@gmail.com- who chairs the service committee, will confirm assignments. Sgt. at arms helps set up and store our stuff, please come 15 minutes early and be prepared to stay a few minutes after the meeting; Greeter greets and announces names of visiting Rotarians and guests; Thought of the Day can be spontaneous or read from a script; Dig 'n Grin can make us laugh or think seriously.
Mahja will explain the medical cannabis pilot program in Illinois, including basic cannabis facts and science, as well as an in-depth look at the law and the application process. Mahja Sulemanjee Bortocek, MBA/MPH, is Director of Community Outreach at Greenhouse Group www.greenhouseil.com
Jon will talk about a book called Strangers In Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning On the American Right: A Journey To the Heart of Our Political Divide by Arlie Russell Hochschild. His interpretation of politics and the book are summarized: "As the bitterness of the campaign and election revealed, there is a great disaffection in the country. The sense of alienation is palpable; the anger profound. In a book that has proved prescient, Arlie Hochschild spent five years in the conservative bayou region of Louisiana. It is an area whose populace suffers from environmental degradation, poverty, and a host of health concerns. As a liberal sociologist teaching at Berkeley, she realized that too many Americans didn't know or understand the disaffection fueling the anger of many on the conservative right. The result is a revealing look at an America to little seen and too often ignored. Ironically the research and writing were largely completed before the current election cycle. Yet it illuminates and explains much of what the pundits and pollsters missed."
Jon graduated from the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison with a BA in English and Classics and a Masters in Water Resource Management that lead to a career in environmental management that included stints at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, The Council of State Governments, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. With the break up of the Soviet Union, he was tapped to lead the US assistance program for the three Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia). He was then assigned to the American Embassy in Denmark as the regional environmental Attache with responsibility for the three Baltic States as well as Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland. After retiring, he went to work at The Book Stall as a part-time bookseller. Today, he is full-time manager of the store.
Bill Durkin, Founder of One Positive Place, is an inspirational speaker, author, and coach. For over 30 years, Bill has been teaching leaders how to help their teams thrive and families flourish. His unique and positive approach has produced results for over 40,000 leaders throughout the United States, Canada, England, South America, Spain and Africa. Bill has been president of two non-profit boards and Chairman of the Corporate Network for the Association of Corporate Growth in Chicago. He also served 4 years as an alderman in Darien, Illinois.
Bill attended Loyola University on a basketball scholarship and graduated with a degree in marketing. He lives with his wife and two boys in Darien, Illinois.
His Rotary talk will focus on Resolving Conflict The Positive Way. It’s based on his new book coming out in 2017. Regardless of whether you’re involved with business battles or family feuds, your life as a leader is filled with conflict. It’s not a question of if but rather when you’ll have to deal with your next disagreement. The only uncertainty regarding conflicts is whether your relationships and results tend to get stronger or weaker after you collide with a co-worker, client, family member, or friend. The quality of our relationships and results will not get better by eliminating conflict from our lives…improving how we handle them will.
Tim Padgett has delivered dynamic, engaging presentations on marketing to organizations including the Society for Marketing Professional Services and the Culture Leadership Summit. He is the Founder and CEO of Pepper Group, a Chicago B2B marketing agency that is an Inc. 5000 company, one of the 2015 Best Places to Work in Illinois, a four-time Chicago’s 101 Best and Brightest Companies To Work For® winner and a BtoB magazine Top Agency. Tim also co-founded Teer1, a mobile-first platform for employee volunteering, is a member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, and is the host of PepTalk on AdvisorTV.
