President Kathy Tate-Bradish opened the meeting by reading “Why we are Rotarians?” followed by Katherine Peterson sharing her Thought for the Day:

”It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”  Antoine de Sain-Exupery from The Little Prince.

It was a memorable meeting, with the latest in hybrid meeting tech, as our meeting room on the third floor of Rotary International had been promised to another group, leaving those of us who came to meet in person to meet in the building restaurant. So we cancelled our speaker because we could not present his audiovisuals properly and we postponed the presentation on residential solar energy to August 23.

Announcements

Bill Glader and Kelly Fidei gave this update on the Taste of Evanston, which is coming up on September 18:

Silent Auction: We will have volunteers to help guests use a QR code to access the bidding website on their phones. We will have two monitors displaying the auction items in the venue.

Tickets:  Please keep selling to neighbors, friends, family, and colleagues.

Underwriting: The list is online. A link has been sent to members. Or you can just tell Bill if you would like to underwrite something.

Promotion: Posters will be appearing around town. If you would like to put some up at a store or location with a lot of foot traffic, contact Bill, who has them. A banner will be displayed at the Evanston farmers market and another at the city park at Ridge Avenue and Main Street.

Security: We'll have four security guards, two more than last year, to bolster security.

Bill thanked Bruce Baumberger and his son, Paul, for their help in creating the spread sheet that keeps track of the tickets sold. Bill also said that the goal is to sell 500 tickets and we are now at 120+. Other opportunities are there to underwrite various events and the list will be resent by Bill.  Posters and postcards have been made by Jim McGuire.  Linda Gerber and Bill will be dropping these off at the participating restaurants. 

Kathy asked Bill if he could resend the Sponsorship /underwriting opportunities list and Bill said he will be sending those out. Joy Joyce asked if she could get postcards to mail out. Ann Searles offered to drop them off.

Golf Road Cleanup: Albert Menard mentioned that there will be a Golf Road cleanup event on August 23 at 8:30 a.m. Please meet in the TJ Maxx parking lot.

Tour of the Margarita Inn: Ann Weatherhead had sent an email with details of signing up for a tour of the Margarita Inn. There are three time slots: Monday, August 15 (5-7 p.m.); Thursday, August 18 (3-5 p.m.) and Friday, August 19 (10 a.m. -Noon). Please refer to the e-mail and RSVP. There is a limit of 10 people per slot.

New Member Orientation: Ann Searles announced that there will be a new member welcome event on Sunday, Aug. 14, between 4-6 p.m. at Myra Janus’s house at 1222 Greenwood St.

Holiday Sale: Bruce Baumberger thanked the people that have held various leadership roles over the years with the Holiday Sales event and he introduced the idea that we should consider retiring this event for the following reasons:

Even though the Holiday Sales used to be a major fundraiser event for the past many years, more recently the TOE has become that event. They are both labor intensive and they come very close to each other and puts a lot of demand on many of the same people’s time. 

Also, the revenue at the Holiday Sale is mostly from donations and not sales. Marisa mentioned that the margins are getting smaller and smaller and this year it may be worse due to inflationary costs.

There will be further discussions and brainstorming of other fundraising ideas that are less labor intensive.

The following comments came up in quick reaction to Bruce’s announcement:

John Searles used to give food items to relatives.

Harold Bauer said that the Mather buys about $500 worth of poinsettias.

Albert Menard said that Westminster Place spends more than $1,000 on florals.

Kristin Brown suggested that we transition the change gradually.

Ann Searles said that she has more than 100  customers and that they will be disappointed. (She is the #1 sales person, but said that she can finally take a vacation in October/November!!).

Jose Lopez wondered if we should consider joining up with other clubs’ fundraisers.

Joy Joyce said that the Dermatology Practice got all their florals for all their locations.

Keith Banks asked if we could build it under Amazon/ Whole Foods delivery model.

Lastly, Myra Janus raised the point about making sure any fundraising happens as soon as possible in the Rotary year so we know how much money is available to spend.

Guests and Milestones

Visiting Rotarian

Bruce Baumberger’s sister,  Barbara - from the New Rochelle, N.Y., Rotary Club.

Other Guests

Jeff Carrics

Christabel Lubinala

Club Anniversary

Marisa Naujokas – 7 Years

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