Co-President Rich Lalley opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. We opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and Tony Kambich shared a thought of the day from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Success:

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty and find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

After lunch, we continued the meeting with a Rotary Foundation Minute. Bob Baker shared historical information about the Rotary Foundation, which was initiated in 1917. All-time contributions to the fund are about $6.5 billion! Bob shared that Rotary Foundation funds go to specific programs: Polio Plus, Rotary Peace Centers, district grants, global grants, disaster response grants, and programs of scale grants (where the funding is at least $2 million). You can read more about these programs in the Rotary Foundation’s 2023 Report. Bob noted that our Club has pledged our support as part of a program of scale grant in Uganda.

Rich presented Bob with a pin as a Paul Harris Fellow +7, thanks to his steady contributions to the Rotary Foundation.

Rich shared a few Rotary announcements:

·        Our District is hosting a Rotary Friendship Exchange with Rotarians from Jaipur, India visiting and staying with members of the Barrington and Schaumburg / Hoffman Estates Clubs. Rich explained that members of these clubs will then go to India to stay with Rotarians there, and noted that our Club may want to consider such an exchange with a Rotary Club in Morocco since we have connections there through Moha.

·        Our Rotary District conference is October 5, but details are not yet available. We are working on a fall service project, possibly for the week before the District conference.

·        The 2025 Rotary International Convention is in Calgary – a rare opportunity to attend in North America. All are encouraged to attend.

Amy reminded everyone about next week’s Rock the Garden event at which her band will be performing. The event is Thursday, August 1 – the garden opens at 5pm and her band will start playing around 6pm. This is a free event – no ticket required! The Community House will have a cash bar and snacks available for purchase – and the Soul & Smoke food truck will be onsite with their delicious barbecue. It’s a great opportunity for laid back social time with other Rotarians.

Happy Bucks were shared by Bob Baker, Fred Schwimmer, Moha Bouacha, and David Grant. Ken Drummet gave us some laughs with a joke about the Secret Service for Dig-n-Grin.

David Grant introduced our speaker, John Kilner, Emeritus Professor of Bioethics at Trinity International University. John is a Rotarian from Rotary Club of Wilmette – he joined when he retired from the university in 2019.

John shared a new resource he has been involved in creating – a free, private website to help people think about end-of-life decisions and create documents outlining their wishes. John pointed out that while using the site, no personal information is ever requested or retained. He noted that end-of-life decisions are closely tied to individual beliefs and values. The website helps you to define your wishes by connecting your beliefs and values with your current medical situation (or a possible future medical situation), and then helps you to create a document that outlines your wishes to share with family members and your medical team. It can be used for a current decision or an advance directive.

John then walked us through the website, which offers the user a series of questions and choices, and in some cases also offers unbiased education and food for thought related to those choices, if the user is interested in learning more about their options. At the conclusion of the process, the website creates a document that you can either print or download so you can complete it with your personal information (outside of the website).

Everyone is encouraged to check out this fantastic, free resource: MedicalDecisions.info

The meeting concluded with the usual recitation of the Four-Way Test.